“Hardly,” Cassie told her. “Let’s go to my office now and discuss the finances.”
I didn’t follow them. I returned to the living room to wait. Nearly twenty minutes later, Mrs. Chapman emerged and stopped by the door of the living room.
“You’re getting close,” she said. “I’ll be by every other day about the same time. Your sister has my phone number. Do you have any questions?”
“How many babies
have you delivered?”
“Oh, too many to count,” she said. “Now, mind your sister,” she added, and left.
When Cassie returned to the living room, I told her I thought Mrs. Chapman was a phony.
“Why do you say that?”
“You call what she did an exam? I asked her how many babies she has delivered, and she gave me the dumb answer, too many to count.”
“It’s probably true.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Do you think I would risk Asa’s birth by bringing in a charlatan?”
I looked away. I didn’t want to tell her what I really thought, but I was very close to doing it.
“I don’t want to lose my baby,” she added.
“Your baby? I’m the one having the baby.”
“He will be my baby, Semantha. We’ve established that. I’m going to be a mother afterward, not you. You’ll be off being a teenager again, going to parties and dances, dating. I’ll be the one stuck in this house raising an infant.”
“You want that. You made this happen because you want that.”
She simply stared. She was wearing another one of Mother’s dresses and had once again brushed and kept her hair just like Mother had kept hers. I noticed she was wearing Mother’s jewelry, too.
“Why do you keep wearing her things? Why don’t you wear your own things?”
“You’re getting yourself upset,” she said. “What did I tell you about stress and pregnancy?”
“Well, why do you do it? And don’t tell me you don’t want to see it all go to waste or be given away. You have nice things to wear.”
“I’m not going to stand here and talk about such nonsense.” She turned to leave.
“It’s not nonsense!” I screamed. “I don’t want you wearing Mother’s things.”
There, I thought, I said it.
She turned very slowly and glared at me.“That’s a very unkind thing to say to me, Semantha. I’m doing everything to restore you in Daddy’s eyes.”
“No, you’re not. You’re making yourself look good and me look bad. I hear things.”
“I do what I have to do to get us through this.”
“Through this? You caused it. I think you’ve convinced yourself that it’s all my fault.”
“This discussion is over,” she said, and this time, she marched out. I heard her go up the stairs, and followed.
“I won’t stay in this house another minute if you don’t take off Mother’s clothes!” I screamed.