Chapter 61

Sarah added a rainproof jacket to her weekend bag. Andy dropped her at Helen’s on his way to work.

“Have a wonderful time.” Andy kissed her behind her ear. “Tell Scott I’m going to try to catch the game too, if he wants a change of venue. It might be hard for him to watch with the babies right there.”

“That’s sweet, I’ll tell him,” she said.

Everything seemed normal when Scott first opened the door, but when she told him Andy’s invitation, he slammed the door shut behind her, turned on his heel, and walked away.

Helen came out of the bedroom carrying a small suitcase. “I’m not sure what to do,” Helen whispered. “Susie called and she’ll come today, but her boyfriend’s parents are making a last-minute trip and she’s never met them. She can’t come tomorrow. So Scott’s on his own for the Super Bowl.”

“Oh, Scott, that’s too bad,” Sarah called out to him. To Helen, she said, “I could stay, I could watch them.”

“No, I offered to stay too. We had a huge fight, of course. You and I are going. Happy birthday.”

They looked in on the twins, who were both asleep. Helen leaned over and gave each a kiss. She shut the bedroom door softly.

Scott stood in the living room with a large bouquet of red roses tied with a ribbon. He thrust them at Helen, muttering, “Happy birthday.”

Helen buried her nose in the flowers and breathed deeply. She lifted her face with a smile, but Scott had already turned away. “Thank you,” she said. “They’re beautiful.”

“Yeah,” he said, slumping onto the couch.

Helen leaned down to kiss him. He barely looked up.

Some birthday, Sarah thought. Poor Helen. Poor Scott.

Sarah was thankful that the family resort did seem magical to Helen, far away and like a whole other world. By the next morning, Helen’s tense face and strained voice were gone. She seemed her normal self, smiling and relaxed.

They lingered over breakfast, sitting at a table by the window. The room was almost empty. The sun warmed their arms as they drank their coffee.

Sarah caught Marco the chef staring at them. Glaring, really. She’d seen him watching them when they arrived the day before, too, watching so intently that he hadn’t noticed George calling out to him. She turned back to Helen, who stirred sugar into another cup of coffee. Sarah started to point him out but couldn’t bear to break Helen’s mood.

“I can’t believe I had to give up coffee for so long while I was pregnant.” Helen sipped loudly. “Boy, it tastes good in the morning.”

Sarah turned her face to the sun and inhaled deeply. Helen had brought her bouquet of roses, and the flowers sat on the table between them. Sarah felt so peaceful sitting there with the sunshine and the beautiful rose scent. “You didn’t like coffee when I first knew you.”

“You’re right. Scott used to tease me because I had to put so much cream and sugar in to be able to drink it. Now I can drink it black if I need to. That’s what internship did to me. And those foggy mornings.”

Sarah was sorry Helen mentioned Scott because her expression changed briefly, then her smile was back.

“Today’s the day. Super Bowl Sunday. I wonder how he’s doing,” Helen said. “No way to call him from here to check in. I hope he got to relax yesterday at least. Get out of the apartment.” Helen took another sip of coffee. “Actually, I definitely hope he got out of the apartment. Susie’s pretty cute, full of energy, bubbly, not like me these days. I was a little worried about them there together all day both days. I was happy to hear she has a boyfriend. Scott and I aren’t even sleeping in the same bed. Most nights he’s with the babies and I’m on the couch.”

“Oh?”

“I know, it’s awful. I wasn’t getting any sleep, and I actually made a mistake at the hospital. Wrote for too much potassium. Thank goodness the nurse caught it and asked me about it. But, of course, Scott can’t stand it, me on the couch. He doesn’t understand about the hospital, how hard it is.”

“No one can really understand.” Sarah remembered a mistake she made the year before. A single mistake could haunt you forever.

“It’s one of the things we fought about yesterday. He accused me of staying later than I need to at the hospital just to avoid coming home.”

“What a thing to say.”

“I know. But sometimes I actually do. I sit in the residents’ room and read up on a patient because I know if I went home, I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

“That’s different,” said Sarah. “You’re still working. Reading about patients is working.”

“And he said I was selfish and that I thought my career was more important than his.”

“Oh, Helen.”

“Maybe I do.” Helen’s voice was soft. “And he said some other things.” She looked out the window. She bit her lip.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. He’s just frustrated.”

“I know. But there’s a kernel of truth in everything he says. He’s making such a sacrifice. He didn’t even want children yet. Not until we were settled in our first jobs. We had a plan. He’s probably not going to finish his PhD. And there I’ll be with my doctor career and he won’t have anything, and this will be our life forever.”

Sarah leaned forward and took Helen’s hand.

“I thought about taking a year off or even dropping out, but Scott says I have to finish and finish on time because I have so much debt from medical school. We could never pay it back if I’m not a doctor. I’m even paying some now. We need my income.”

This was true for so many residents, and Sarah was grateful her inheritance had been enough to cover her own education.

“And if Scott does somehow miraculously finish, what’s he going to do with a PhD in Japanese history? He wants to be a college professor, but it’s such a hard road. No harder than medicine, he says. I don’t know…And that’s assuming he finishes.”

Sarah couldn’t contain herself. She hadn’t wanted to say anything until it was certain, but Helen looked miserable. Frances Noonan had spoken to her before she left and told her the Fog Ladies’ tentative plan. She told Helen about the Fog Ladies’ offer to babysit the twins.

Helen looked at her in disbelief. “This would be a miracle. It would solve everything.”

Sarah doubted that but she didn’t say so. Childcare would certainly help, though.

“Why would they do this?” Helen asked.

“They like projects,” Sarah said. “Your babies could be their project.”

Helen sat back and drank her coffee, silent and smiling. Sarah hoped the Fog Ladies would come through. She had never known them not to.

They walked slowly back to the room. There was no one around, though they could hear children laughing near the garden. Helen’s head was down, and Sarah didn’t know what she was doing until she let out a shout.

“Here it is! I knew I could find it!” Helen knelt and pulled a small blue cap from under a bush. Aidan’s hospital cap. She held it close to her chest and repeated her phrase. “This place is magic.”

It was cold outside, but their room was warm because of the sun. Sarah yawned and let her body relax.

Helen looked wide awake, wired. She must have had more coffee than Sarah realized. “I can’t wait to tell Scott about the Fog Ladies. I’m so excited I could run all the way home. I think I’ll go down and see if Karl the sea lion is still with the group or if they ate him.”

“I might take a nap,” Sarah said.

Helen laughed. “When I first met you, you couldn’t sleep during the day.”

“That’s what internship did to me,” Sarah said. “Now I never pass up an opportunity to doze.”