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I looked at the little table sitting in the exact middle of the kitchen. There were two mugs on it, one with a spoon beside it with a little circle of brown in the center. The coffee wasn't dry yet.
"We must have just missed him?" I held out my hands, offering to take Hayden back. Shondra noted my gesture but she stared down at his face for several more long seconds, as if she'd just noticed something that gave her pause. "Oh, that's right. You just missed him," she said absently. "In fact, when we heard your car pull up, he went right out the back door." Shondra glanced over at some pictures and a vase of dried flowers on top of the composite oak-colored TV cabinet, then back to the baby's face. She slowly returned Hayden to me. "He's a beautiful baby," she said soberly. Her small mouth pursed, as if she was thinking over a problem.
A little wail from the back of the house pulled at her attention like a tractor beam. "My goodness, Kelly is up. Let me go see to her." While Shondra was out of the room, I strolled over to the TV cabinet as casually as I could manage. The framed baby pictures were old enough to be from Shondra's family album, or Dylan's, and in one grouping was a baby girl about a year old, a baby girl embedded in a ruffled dress with a little bow stuck in her wispy hair, and a baby boy in a tiny suit. "Barf," I muttered, and then the face of the baby caught my eye.
"Hmmm and double hmmm," I muttered, turning away right before Shondra came back in carrying a much larger bundle than Hayden.
While we were doing the obligatory admiring of the child, I was nasty enough to be sorry this young couple already had a baby, so perfect would they be to leave Hayden with. And they were blood relations to the baby, one way or the other. Martin and I had not discussed the possibility of finding a temporary home for Hayden with Dylan and Shondra, and after the shock of the Harbors' house I would've been scared to even mention it before I'd met them. As it was, I hadn't met Dylan. After a few minutes' conversation with Shondra, I could see the steel beneath the sweetness and lack of worldliness that were undoubtedly genuine. So it was my impression that Shondra would not marry a charming ne'er-do-well like her brother, or a true rascal like her brother-in-law. But we'd have to check Dylan out, and we could hardly be sure that they'd agree to something as difficult as taking care of another baby. Martin and I exchanged glances. He'd read my mind. He asked a few questions about Dylan's job at the John Deere dealership that I knew would give him an idea about Dylan's income and hours, and he got more information out of Shondra about her brother than I would have thought possible. "Shondra, excuse me, I was just wondering," I interjected when Martin showed signs of flagging and Shondra was asking us for the third time if she could get us a drink. "Did you know your sister-in-law was pregnant?" Shondra's face flooded with guilty color. "Yes, ma'am," she blurted, as though she'd been caught in a shameful position. "She called me on the phone and told me, about a month before the baby was due."
"Did you see her while she was pregnant?"
"No, ma'am."
I felt as old as the hills because of that ma'am, and I had to nip at the inside of my mouth to keep from protesting.
"Did you know when she had the baby?"
"My brother said she had," Shondra said, fussing u
I noted that Shondra had not said that she'd seen Regina when Regina was obviously pregnant. So far, no one reliable had admitted to that. "Do you know where Regina had this baby?" I asked.
"You sure you couldn't drink some hot chocolate?" "No, thank you," Martin said quite firmly. He was getting impatient, because he was accustomed to people telling him what he needed to know, telling him promptly and in detail. I sent him one of those looks that say back off. "Did she have Hayden at the local hospital?" I asked, to get us back on the track.
"No, ma'am. Rory said she went to the midwife in Brook County."
That was what he'd told us.
"And her name is?" I smiled at Shondra as coaxingly as I can smile. "Her name is Bobbye Sunday," Shondra said, looking down at the baby fixedly. She spoke so unwillingly that I knew she was telling us the truth. "Thank you," Martin said, letting out a pent-up breath and practically jumping up from his chair. He swept the diaper bag up with one hand and held out his other hand to me. I accepted a little yank, to get me up off the couch with Hayden. We said our goodbyes and thanks in a flurry of goodwill and relief that this visit was over, and at Martin's request Shondra promised to send Dylan out to see us that afternoon when he got off work. Martin strongly suggested that Dylan bring Rory with him.
We returned to the Holiday I
"I don't know. I should've called Karl before we left town. He'd know. I've always got the cell phone if we have to use it." I waited at the bottom of the kitchen steps, Hayden a bundle of blankets in my arms, while Martin fumbled with the key. Finally the door yielded, and we stepped into the house.
"How long has it been since you were here?" I asked cautiously, looking around at the room. The kitchen had been scrubbed and repainted and the counters had new surfaces since I'd toured it so briefly years before. The overhead light was on, and there was a plate on the table. It still held food. It had been there for days. The glass beside it was half full of Coke, or one of the other dark cola drinks.
"Not since it was finished. I came to look at it once, when I had to be in Pittsburgh for business. And I got the cleaners and contractors out here to tell them what to do, though it was Karl who checked on their work for me. I haven't been in here since then, and I think that was at least a year and a half ago. I told Regina when she married Craig that the house was sitting empty and since they were going to be in Corinth for a while, they might as well use it. Barby had been hinting how hard up they were going to be." I wandered slowly through the downstairs, deciding the house was even older than ours in Georgia. The old window coverings—I remembered them as ragged blinds—had been thrown away, and Regina hadn't replaced them. The gray sky outside seemed to fill the rooms with gloom. While Martin brought in the rest of our things, I walked around with Hayden.