Facets by Barbara Delinsky Read Free Book Online

only sixteen could know so much, he explained that Marcy had seen life at its most bare, without any of the frills and cushions Pam had.
    Even without that bid for compassion, Pam would have liked Marcy. For one thing, Marcy was from Timiny Cove, and though her home there wasn’t much more than a broken-down tarpaper shack, Pam adored anything to do with the Cove. For another, Marcy was shy, unassuming, and undemanding, which made giving her little gifts and taking her places a treat for Pam. Although Marcy was in the St. George home to work as a maid, she was like a big sister to Pam. Marcy was the one to whom Pam could pour out her heart when she felt so inclined, the one Pam could count on to help understand John’s mutterings.
    “What does he mean by that?” she asked. She and Marcy were sitting at the edge of the frog pond on the Boston Common. They’d just come from grocery shopping on Charles Street and were eating the chocolate-covereds that Pam had bought from a nearby vendor. “‘A five-month baby.’ He’s said it before. What does it mean?”
    Marcy was a while in answering, which was part of her charm, in Pam’s eyes. She had the same slow way about her that most of the Mainers did, silently mulling over her answer before offering it up. “Has your mama talked to you about that?”
    “She doesn’t talk about babies at all, except to say that she won’t have another one. Does that mean she
can’t
have another one?”
    Marcy took a slow lick of her cone. “Could be. Could be it means she doesn’t want another one b’cause she knows she’d never get another one so good as you.”
    “I’m not so good, not all the time. So what’s a five-month baby?”
    Marcy leaned against the cement rim of the pond and watched the people who passed. “Has your mama told you about making babies?”
    “No. But I know.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Melissa and I talk about it. She has a book that we’ve read.” Pam scooted close to Marcy and lowered her voice. “And another one about periods. Janice Brooks just got hers. We thought we ought to know what it was.”
    “Janice Brooks is twelve. You’re just ten.”
    “That doesn’t mean anything. The book said that a girl can sometimes get it when she’s ten or eleven.”
    “Not much. She can be sixteen, too. You may have to wait.”
    “Do you get one?”
    Marcy thought about it, then nodded.
    “So you could have a baby now if you wanted to?”
    Again Marcy nodded.
    “And it would take nine months to grow. But the book didn’t say anything about five-month babies. John looks disgusted when he calls me one. So what does it mean?”
    “You better ask your mama.”
    “I don’t think she’ll answer.”
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t know. I just don’t think she will. She’ll probably laugh at me. She doesn’t think John’s so awful. So I’m asking you, Marcy. Come on. You’re my best friend, and you
know
about things. What’s a five-month baby?”
    Marcy took another lick of her cone before turning her slender body toward Pam. “A five-month baby is a baby born only five months after the parents get married.”
    It didn’t take long for the meaning of that to register on Pam. She was good at math. “Then John is saying,” she began slowly, “that my parents made me before they got married?”
    “Could be.”
    “That they got married because they were going to have me?”
    “Th’ important thing,” Marcy said, “is that they were married when you were born.”
    “Did they have to get married because of me?”
    “No.”
    The conviction behind the word was some reassurance to Pam, but still she had to ask, “How do you know?”
    “B’cause they love you. And they love each other. People who love like that get married whether there’s a baby or not.” When Pam continued to look skeptical, she added, “You know they love you.”
    “Sometimes I think they don’t love each other. Daddy spends so much time in Maine.”
    “That’s