Reaching out her hand, Rebecca stroked Lena’s round belly. “He’s quiet today.”
Lena lay her hand on top of Rebecca’s, each of them waiting. “Maybe sleeping, do you think?”
Rebecca lay her head on Lena’s shrinking lap. “Did you see the little sprouts of sweet peas coming up by the well house?” she asked.
“I did. We might have blossoms to put on your Easter bonnet,” Lena said, smiling at the image in her head of Rebecca wearing the white hat and dress she’d ordered from the Sears catalog.
“Will the baby wear a bonnet too?”
“I don’t think the baby will come before Easter.”
“That’s good, because he’d look silly in an Easter bonnet.”
“What if he’s a she?” This had puzzled her for some time, the way Rebecca refused to refer to the baby as anything other than he or him.
“Because he’s a boy!” She said with all the towering confidence of a six-year-old girl.
“Why do you think so?”
She turned her head, looking up at Lena as if she were daft. “Because Aunt Jessie said so.”
Lena laughed. “I see.”
Rebecca sat up straight and turned an earnest face to Lena. “What will the baby call you?”
Lena frowned for a second, then relaxed into a smile. “Why, I suppose, Mama?”
“Like Rowena and Tommy call Aunt Jessie.”
“Yes.” Lena’s heart made a small skip as she considered the child’s question in light of the past few months. Not once had Rebecca ever called her by any name. When the child wanted to talk or ask for something, a story or a snuggle at bedtime, she’d take Lena’s hand or tug at her skirt.
“May I call you Mama, too?” Rebecca said with that same serious expression that she always wore when she struggled to make sense of her new world.
Lena dropped her gaze, biting her lip to keep the tears in check as she struggled to compose herself. Rebecca’s small hand slipped over Lena’s. “I want to call you Mama.”
In the time it takes for a human heart to pump just once, Lena pulled Rebecca into her arms. As strong-willed as Lena thought herself to be, tears sprang to her eyes. Flowing like blessings down her cheeks, they fell onto her daughter’s tawny head. Lena murmured, “I would like that very much, Rebecca. So, very much.”
The End of the Beginning
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