Bitter Sweet (56 page)
The engine killed for good. The starter whined five times without results. His truck door slammed. Maggie strode on, picturing him standing beside it with his hands on his hips.
“You goddamn stubborn woman!’ he yelled.
She raised her left hand, bent the fingers twice: and tramped on through the rain.
He stood staring after her, absolutely flabbergasted and angrier than he ever remembered being. This was the reaction he’d expected from
Nancy
, not from his sweet tempered Maggie. Damned unpredictable hussy, flipping him off like that. So she was pissed off. Well, that made two of them! He’d let her stew for a couple of weeks until she got good and lonesome for him, then maybe he’d get treated civilly!
He watched until he was certain she had no intention of turning around, then kicked the truck tyre, opened the door and pushed the damned old whore to the side of the road.
When she was listing toward the ditch, he slammed the door and studied Maggie again, so distant he couldn’t tell the colour of her clothes.
Go then, you stubborn little twit! But you’ll have to talk to me sooner or later, I’ve got a kid to support and it’s bouncing along in the rain with you! You’d better- by God - take good care of it!
Maggie stopped at the first farmhouse she came to and asked to use the telephone.
‘Daddy?’ she said, when
Roy
came on the line. “Did you drive to work?’
‘Yes, but what -’
‘Could you please come out and get me? I’m at a farm out on EE just a little east of 42 ... just a minute.’ She asked the greasy-haired adolescent girl who’d let her in, ‘What’s the name here?’
‘Jergens.’
Into the phone she inquired, ‘You know where the Jergenses live, out south of town?’
‘I know it, yeah, Harold Jergens’ place, used to belong to his folks.’
‘I’m there. Can you come and get me, please?’
‘Why, sure, honey, but what in the world -’
‘Thanks, Daddy. But hurry, I’m soaking wet.’
She hung up before he could question her further.
When they were riding back to town together they encountered a hitchhiker just a short way down
Roy
began decelerating, but Maggie ordered, ‘Drive on, Daddy.’
‘But it’s raining and -’
‘Don’t you dare stop, Daddy, because if you do, I’ll get out and walk!’
They passed the man with his thumb up and
Roy
glanced over his shoulder.
‘But that’s Eric Severson!’
‘I know it is. Let him walk.’
‘But, Maggie...’ Severson was shaking his fist at them.
‘Watch the road, Daddy, before you put us in the ditch.’
She grabbed the wheel and averted a disaster. When
Roy
faced front Maggie turned on the heater, finger combed her hair and said, ‘Prepare yourself for a shock, Daddy. This one’s going to knock your argyle socks off.’ She cast a steady glance. ‘I’m expecting Eric Severson’s baby.’
Roy
gaped at her in amazement. She reached for the wheel again to keep them on the road.
‘But... but...’ He sputtered like a one-cylinder engine and cranked around to see the road behind them, oblivious to their direction or speed.
‘Mother’s going to shit a ring around herself,’ Maggie said matter-of-factly. ‘I expect this will end our relationship for good. She’s warned me, you see.’
‘Eric Severson’s baby? You mean that Eric Severson? The one we just passed?’
‘That’s right.’
‘You mean you’re going to marry him?’
‘No, Daddy. He’s already married.’
‘Well, I know that.., but.., but...’
Roy
again did an imitation of an old Ailis-Chalmers.
‘As a matter of fact, his wife is expecting their first baby, too. But if I’ve got it figured right, mine will be born first.’
Roy
braked to a stop in the dead centre of the road and exclaimed, ‘Maggie!’ with all due astonishment.
‘Do you want me to drive, Daddy? Maybe I should. You seem a little shaken.’
She was out and around the car before
Roy
could digest her intention. She shoved him over bodily. ‘Move, Daddy..
It’s wet out here.’
He moved as if a door had slammed during his nap, scudding over into the passenger seat while Maggie put the car into gear and headed for town.
‘We had an affair, but it’s over. I have my own plans to make now and I may need your help from time to time, but I’m a strong person. You’ll see. I’ve been through Phillip’s death, and the move here, getting rid of the house in
Seattle
with all its memories, and all the hubbub of tearing apart the new house and starting the business, and I intend to make a go of it, baby or not. Do you think I can?’
‘There’s not a doubt in my mind.’
‘Mother will be upset, won’t she?’
‘There’s not a doubt in my mind.’
‘She will probably, quite literally, disown me.’
‘Probably... yes. Your mother is a hard woman.’
‘I know. That’s why I’m going to need you, Daddy.’
‘Honey, I’ll be there.’
‘I knew you’d say that.’ His shock was ebbing, in light of Maggie’s decisiveness and steel intentions.
‘Have you ever heard of the Lamaze method of giving birth, Daddy?’
‘I’ve read about it.’
She sidled him a glance. ‘Think we could do it? You and me?’
‘Me?’ His eyes grew round.
‘Think you’d like to see your very last grandchild born?’
He considered a moment before answering, ‘It’d scare the daylights out of me.’
‘The classes would teach us both not be scared.’
It was the first time she’d admitted being so, while outwardly she continued as strong and dauntless as a steel l-beam.
‘Your mother,’ he said, eyes twinkling, ‘would shit a ring around herself.’
‘Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such shocking language, Daddy.’
They both laughed, conspirators with a sudden strong bond. Reaching the edge of town, Maggie confessed, ‘I haven’t told Katy yet. I expect some trouble when I do.’
‘She’ll get used to the idea. So will I. So will your mother.
Anyway, my feeling is, you answer to no one but yourself.’
‘Exactly. And I’ve just learned that today.’ She pulled up at the top of her walk. The rain had stopped. Droplets quivered on the tips of leaves, and the air smelled like herbal tea- green, moist, earthen.
Maggie put the car in neutral and took her father’s hand.
‘Thanks for coming to get me, Daddy. I love you.’ How easily she could say it to him.
‘I love you, too, and I won’t say I’m not shocked. I think my argyles are someplace back there on EE.’
When Maggie had laughed and quieted,
Roy
looked down at their joined hands.
‘You amaze me, you know? There’s so much strength in you. So much...’ He puzzled before adding, ‘... direction. You’ve always been that way. You see what you want, what you need, and you go after it. College, Phillip, Seattle, Harding House, now this.’ He raised his eyes quickly. ‘Oh, not that you went after this, but look how you handle it, how you make decisions. I wish I could be that way. But somehow I always take the route of least resistance. I don’t like it in myself, but that’s the way it is. Your mother, she bulldozes me. I know it. She knows it. You know it. But this time, Maggie, I’m standing up to her. I want you to know that. This isn’t the end of the world, and if you want that baby, then I’ll go there to that hospital and show the world I got nothing to hang my head about, okay?’
The tears she had stubbornly dammed until now spurted into her eyes as she crooked an arm around
Roy
’s neck and pressed her cheek to his. He smelled of raw beef and smoked sausage and Old Spice after-shave, an endearing and familiar combination. ‘Oh, Daddy, I needed to hear that so badly. Katy’s going to be so upset. And Mother... I shudder to think of telling her. But I will. Not today, but soon, so you don’t have to think I’d leave that job up to you.’
He rubbed her back. ‘I’m learning something from you.
You watch. One of these days I’m going to make a move that might surprise you, too.’
She backed up and glowered at him. ‘Daddy, don’t you dare go fishing with Eric Severson! If you do, I’ll get a new Lamaze partner.’
He laughed and said, ‘Go on in the house and get into something dry before you catch a cold and cough that baby loose. ‘
Watching her go, he considered it, what he’d been considering for five years now. He’d see how Vera took the news, then he’d make up his mind.
Chapter 18
Maggie Stearn had a stubborn streak longer than the
A week went by, then two, but still she hadn’t told them.
She wore loose blouses, untucked, and beneath them kept her slacks unbuttoned.
One morning in early August, when Katy was less than a month shy of leaving for college, they awakened to the aftermath of a storm. The wind had strewn the yard with maple leaves and weeping willow branches from a neighbour’s tree. Since Todd wasn’t expected again for two days Maggie and Katy went outside to rake them up themselves.
Already at
the heat was sweltering, rising from the moist earth with tropical intensity while the breeze off the bay remained too warm to bring much relief. It brought instead the noisome odour of debris tossed onto the rocky shore by last night’s storm, and more work: they’d have to rake up the seaweed and dead fish before the mess started decaying in the sun.
Maggie leaned over to scoop a handful of willow withes against her bamboo rake and straightened a little too fast. A twingo stabbed low in her groin and dizziness momentarily enveloped her. She let the twigs fall, flattened a hand to her pelvis and waited out the vertigo with closed eyes.
When she opened them, Katy was studying her, the rake idle in her hands. For seconds neither of them moved: Maggie caught in the classic pose of weary expectancy, Katy temporarily dumbstruck.
Katy’s expression became quizzical. Finally she tipped her head and said, ‘Moth-errr...’, half questioning, half accusing.
Maggie dropped her hand from her groin while Katy continued staring. Her glance darted from Maggie’s belly to her face, then down again. When comprehension dawned she began, ‘Mother, are you... ? You aren’t...’ The idea seemed too preposterous to voice.
‘Yes, Katy,’ Maggie admitted, ‘I’m pregnant.’
Katy gaped at her mother’s stomach, aghast. Tears sprang to her eyes. ‘Oh, my God,’ she whispered after some seconds. And again, horror-stricken, ‘Oh my God... this is horrible!’ The ramifications of the situation settled upon Katy one by one, changing her face by degrees, as a flower withered by time-lapse photography. From stupefaction to displeasure to outright anger. ‘How could you allow such a thing to happen, Mother!’ she lashed out. ‘You’ll be forty one years old this month and you’re not that stupid!’
‘No, I’m not,’ Maggie replied. ‘There is an explanation.’
‘Well, I don’t want to hear it!’
‘I thought -’
‘You thought!’ Katy interrupted. ‘What you thought is altogether too obvious. You thought you could have your little illicit affair without anybody being the wiser, and instead you turn up pregnant!’
‘Yes, some five months now.’
Katy retreated as if something vile had insinuated itself in her path. Her face took on an expression of repugnance and her voice became sibilant with distaste. ‘It’s his, isn’t it? A married man’s!’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘This is disgusting, Mother!’
‘Then you might as well hear the rest of it: his wife is pregnant too.’
For a moment Katy appeared too stunned to reply.
Finally, she threw one hand in the air. ‘Oh, this is just great!
I’ve made new friends in this town, you know! What am I supposed to tell them? That my mother got knocked up by a married man, who also, by the way, happened to knock up his estranged wife at the same time?’ Her eyes narrowed with accusation. ‘Oh, yes, Mother, I know about that, too.
I’m not ignorant. I’ve asked around! I know he hasn’t been living with his wife since last winter. So what did he do, promise to divorce her and marry you?’
Stung by guilt and a sense of her own culpability, Maggie blushed.