Vada Faith (5 page)

My voice had grown louder with frustration. “I’m tired of standing on my feet performing hair miracles on the women of Shady Creek, West Virginia. Surrogacy will give me a chance to make someone happy and it will last beyond a weekly hair style and it will make me happy in the bargain.”

“Well, you already make me happy and that’s lasted. You take a few days off now, honey. You just go in and tell Joy Ruth you need a vacation. Maybe we’ll get a sitter and go to the mountains fishing.”

“I do not want to go to the mountains fishing!”

Whoopee, I thought, and girded up for another round. “This isn’t about time off. It’s about going nowhere. I’m at a dead end. I’m tied to this old house that’s been in your family since the ice age.”

“Not the ice age.” He puffed up. “The Victorian era and you know I love this old house. Grandma Belle was born right in that upstairs bedroom.” I cringed when he pointed to the bedroom above our heads.

“I know but the house is falling down around us. It needs a new roof and the list goes on. We’ll never be able to afford all the repairs. Something new would be better. No wonder your mother let your grandma pawn this place off on you. Painting the porch furniture won’t help.”

He looked pained when I spoke of the furniture he’d painted for the back porch.

I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. However I was growing desperate. I knew the old house meant the world to him. I wanted something better for my family and I wanted it while I could enjoy it.

“Do you know what Grandma Belle would say?” He asked, looking hurt.

“I know,” I sighed. “She’d say to bloom where we are planted.”

“Yep.” He grinned. “She left that sign by the back door to remind us.”

“I know,” I said, thinking to myself whoop-de-do and then I tried another approach because I realized that attacking the house would not win him over. “You said not long ago, the girls were too tied to me. I know that now. I need to do more for me. Get out and away from them some. This is just what I’ll be doing. You know I love you and the girls. I just see a chance here to do something special to help someone else. You help people all the time. You never ask my permission. Why can’t I help someone? It will help us too. We’ll have the down payment we need for that house out in Crystal Springs.”

“I don’t want a new house out in Crystal Springs.” He stared at me as if he’d never seen me before. “Sure, I help people but I don’t use my body to do it. I don’t want any part of money you make on yours.” He came back to the table with his coffee and straddled the chair again.

“Make money on my own body?” I was horrified. “Is that what you think? I would never do that.” I looked hard at him and then softened my tone. “I’m giving Roy and Dottie the gift of a baby. You’ll see what kind people they are when you meet them. How deserving they are of a baby.”

“I don’t care how kind they are,” he said, “or how deserving. Or anything else about them. Why does it have to be you who gives them this baby?”

“It doesn’t have to be me. Don’t you see? They picked me. They picked me, John Wasper, out of a whole group of women. I am the one they want to have their baby. Look at it as me giving their baby a home for nine months. For that they pay me well. It’s sort of like rent. Then we get a new house out in Crystal Springs and we move on with our lives.”

“We move on to what kind of life? What would be next? Rent out your body today. Sell it tomorrow? For what? I don’t want you to do this. NO! I don’t want you to have a baby for someone else. It’s not right. It’s, I can’t even say what it is. It’s too weird.”

“Here,” I said handing him the brochure the couple had given me on surrogacy. “This will explain everything.” I knew it wouldn’t. It didn’t even come close. It gave only the sketchiest of details and while I’d gone into the library in town and read several thick volumes on surrogacy, I wanted to hide many of the facts from my husband. This pamphlet presented everything in a pleasant light and would give my husband the fairy tale version of surrogacy.

I kept telling myself it was all he could handle. I knew better. It was all I wanted him to handle. “I will be giving the gift of life, John Wasper. Just remember that.”

“I don’t want you giving the gift of life,” he snapped but he looked over the pink and blue brochure that tied everything up in lace and bows.

“Hey,” I said, “let’s forget about the downside and celebrate the good of it.” I refilled our coffee cups. “Let’s drink to me being on the cutting edge of science.” I lifted my cup to his, “At least here in the town of Shady Creek. Let’s drink to this new way of building a family. It’s unconventional.” I looked at him, seductively, “Haven’t I always been unconventional?”

He looked unconvinced. He took a long sip of coffee.

“John Wasper Waddell,” I said, smiling at him mischievously, “you said I was unconventional on our wedding night. Have you forgotten already?” I went around the table still in my silk pajamas and sat down on his lap.

“I haven’t forgotten,” he said, slowly, taking me in his arms. “You’re right about one thing, honey. You’ve always been unconventional.”

He looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of his and nuzzled his head into me. As we kissed I knew he would go along with anything I asked, at least for the moment.

Joy Ruth came with me to the clinic near Charleston when I had my tube surgery. John Wasper had to take a load of building supplies to Tennessee. He would be busy, naturally. It was for the best. He loved driving the big rigs and now he was finally getting some time on the road.

“I don’t like that doctor,” my sister whispered, as he left the room, closing the door behind him. He’d come in personally to take my vital signs which I thought was kind.

She sat at my bedside asking too many questions and making me nervous. Since arriving at the clinic, I’d been inundated with people wanting to wait on me. Wanting to fetch me juice. Wanting to plump my pillow. I wondered if the royal treatment had anything to do with the Kilgores or the fact I was to be a surrogate mother for them. I turned toward my sister.

“The doctor isn’t for you to like or dislike, Joy Ruth. Get off your high horse. Roy said he’s the best around. So that’s that. Besides, I’m not paying for this. I can’t be too choosy.”

“I guess you can be choosy. It was you who just had this procedure,” she said. “It’s your tubes he wants to use. I would think you’d have everything to say about the doctor who’s going to be involved in this.”

“There isn’t one thing wrong with that doctor. Now stop it.”

“His ears are huge.”

“Do I care about his ears? He’s a specialist and I have other things on my mind. Go take a walk.”

Just then the phone rang.

“It’s your husband.” Joy Ruth handed me the phone. “I’ll be outside if you need me.” Did I detect a hint of jealousy in her voice?

“Hi, honey,” John Wasper said, sounding very distant. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’d be better if my sister wasn’t so hard to get along with. Where are you?”

“Outside Memphis, at a truck stop. Hey, don’t let her get to you. Hear? I’m unloading the truck in the morning. Then I’ll be home. Tell me,” he said, “was it what you expected?”

“It wasn’t bad,” I struggled to sit up. The hospital bed was making my elbows raw. “The doctor went through my belly button like he told us he would. I feel good.”

“When will you be released?”

“In the morning.” I was feeling better just thinking about going home. They were being cautious having me spend the night.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow, honey. We need to talk when I get home.”

I pretended not to hear what he said. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Vada Faith.”

I’d just put the phone down when it rang again. I picked it up thinking it was my husband again.

“Vada Faith!” Mr. Kilgore’s voice boomed into my ear. “Honey, how’re you doing?”

“Mr. Kilgore.” I was surprised to hear from him. He was still in Mississippi tying up some loose ends with his business.

“I’m okay, thanks.”

“I just spoke to Dr. Fine. He said the surgery was a success and he thinks you’re doing just great. He said your tubes are in good shape. We can think about pregnancy when you heal. How do you feel about that? Too soon to talk about it?”

“Well,” I said, “I guess I’m a little nervous and scared, maybe. I’m just happy this part is over.”

“You have made me so happy, dear girl. Dottie too. We can’t wait to get the business moved up there. Another week and it will be shut down here. I’ll be moving every last gasket to Charleston. We’re happy to settle in Shady Creek. We’ll watch over you, honey, and share every moment of this experience. How do you feel about that?”

“I’m excited I guess. I’ve never done anything like this before. I still can’t believe I might be a surrogate mother for your baby.”

“Well, angel, we’re as excited as two new pups, too. We’ve never done this before and we plan to be as close as you’ll let us be, Vada Faith and, of course, as close as your husband will allow. How’s he feeling about all this?”

“He’s okay with it,” I said, lying a little. “Not as happy about it as I am but that’s okay. He wants me to be happy. That’s all that matters to him.”

“What about your family? Have you told them yet?”

“No. I will. Later on. When the time comes.” I didn’t tell him but I wasn’t looking forward to telling anyone else, not after my sister’s reaction, and John Wasper was still dragging his feet. Not saying no. Just not saying yes either.

“Dottie says hello. Wait a minute, Sugar.”

I could hear muffled sounds in the background.

“Hey, Dottie wants to know if you got the flowers we sent?”

“Yes, thank you both so much.” I looked across at the yellow roses in a vase on the table.

“You’re welcome, dear. We’ll talk tomorrow. Be a good girl and heal quickly. We love you.”

I held the phone for a minute after he hung up. I didn’t want the magical spell broken. He made me feel so special. Elevated to a higher plane or something. Like I was about to do this awesome thing no other female had ever done. It was silly. I knew that. It didn’t make the way I was feeling any less real and wonderful.

“You okay?” Joy Ruth stuck her head in the door. So much for the magic spell.

“Sure.”

“Good,” she said, opening the door wide to mama, who clicked across the floor in gold spike heels.

“Mommy,” my two little girls squealed from behind Grandma Helena’s purple mini skirt. Mama shook out her long hair and her gold hoop ear rings dangled and sparkled in the sunlight. She looked far younger than her forty-seven years.

“Well, look at my darlings,” I said, ignoring my mother and gathering them close. “Aren’t you looking pretty today.” Their blonde curls had been pulled up in purple bows and they both wore purple shorts with white shirts. Purple socks. White tennis shoes.

They were dressed just the way mama used to dress us. Before she left. I’d gathered that much from some old photographs she’d left behind though I couldn’t really remember much. I’d been too young.

“What are you doing here, Mama, and why are the girls dressed in those ridiculous purple outfits?”

“They’re not ridiculous, Vada Faith.” She shook her head at me and smiled. “They’re Health Tex.”

“Couldn’t you have put one of them in yellow?”

“We’re purple grapes, mommy. Gramma Helena said we could all be grapes today.” The girls examined every corner of the room before settling on the window seat that looked down on the traffic below.

“Wow,” Charity Mae said, pointing down to the street. “It’s Gramma’s car down there. See.” They shrieked and pressed their faces to the window.

I frowned at mama. She always took the girls shopping. They never complained because they loved her. Besides she included a trip to McDonald’s play area in their outings and topped it off with a stop at the local Dairy Queen for a sugar high.

“I want to know what this minor surgery is all about, Vada Faith? Joy Ruth was vague when she dropped the girls off. Did you have a biopsy or something? Is this serious, honey?”

“Joy Ruth,” I said, through gritted teeth, “would you take the girls down to the waiting room, please? I want to talk to Mama. Alone.” I shot my sister a dirty look. She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone where I was.

She wore an innocent look, but she blushed a dark pink. I’d told her to say I had taken the day off and was with friends. I told her to say anything. Just not that I was at a medical clinic having a procedure so I could be a surrogate mother.

“Let’s go, troops,” she said, and the girls fell in line behind her and the three of them marched single file through the doorway. They would follow her to the moon and back if she asked them to.

The room grew silent with their departure.

“I had my tube surgery reversed. That’s what this is about. No biopsy. No serious surgery. I’m healthy as a horse. You know that.”

“You had your tube surgery reversed? Do you want another child? I thought you had your hands full.”

“Do we have to go into this now, please? Can’t you be satisfied that I had the surgery? Do you have to know all the details? Anyway,” I said, fingering the crisp white sheet on the hospital bed, “it’s personal.”

“What could be personal about it? You want a baby? I don’t care. You might as well tell me.” She sat down in the chair by my bed. “I won’t say I told you so, sweetie. Though I knew it was a mistake when you did it. You were too young to have your tubes tied. I said as much to Delbert, if you’ll remember. Your daddy was here for you when those precious little girls were born. We both were.” She picked fuzz off the blanket at the foot of my bed.

I wanted to tell her it was the only time they were both anywhere for me. However, I didn’t want an argument. The woman who used to hate my father now took his side in every disagreement.

“I said to your daddy, what if,” she folded her hands in her lap, “what if John Wasper dies? She might remarry and want more kids. Then what? Thank God, you’ve come to your senses. Women should be able to bear children readily. I’m glad you did this, honey.” She smiled and her whole face lit up.