Maternity Leave (9781466871533) by Julie Halpern Read Free Book Online Page B

What you have to tell me surely can’t be as bad as that.”
    â€œWhat if it is?” I stalled.
    â€œJesus Christ, Annie, just tell me you’re pregnant and get it over with!” Nora demanded.
    â€œWhat? How did you know?” I was both mortified and relieved that she figured it out.
    â€œWhat else would you be babbling about for twenty minutes? You never do anything wrong, so I figured this is the one thing you thought would upset me. Plus, Mom already told me.”
    â€œShe knows? How?”
    â€œYou went shopping together last week, and she caught you flipping through a maternity rack on the way to the bathroom.”
    â€œDamn her.”
    â€œAlmost motivation to kill her, huh?”
    â€œHa ha. So are you mad?”
    â€œHow can I be mad? You wanted to be pregnant, and you’re pregnant. Now, if you were all, ‘Shit! I’m pregnant, and I don’t know what to do with this horrid thing growing inside me,’ then I’d probably be mad. But I’m happy one of us can be having a baby. Then when I get my baby business figured out, we’ll have some cousins.”
    â€œPhew,” I sighed.
    â€œI’m really happy for you, Annie. Just…” She paused. “Don’t go around telling everyone just yet. Not until you’re really in the clear. I know how awful it feels to tell people you’re pregnant and then to have to tell them you’re not pregnant anymore, without actually having a baby.”
    â€œOkay. I won’t. But I’m going to tell Mom, seeing as she already knows.”
    â€œShe started knitting you a blanket,” Nora divulged.
    â€œYou’re kidding. I thought she was all Jewish superstitious, don’t buy anything for the baby until the doctor slaps it on its ass.”
    â€œIt’ll take her longer than nine months to knit it. And doctors don’t really slap babies on the ass. At least I read that they don’t in one of my baby books.”
    I swallowed at the thought of Nora and her stack of baby books, worn from rereading over a period of years. “You’re going to call me soon with the same news, Nora. I know it. It’s going to happen. Kissing cousins and everything.”
    â€œCan they just be hugging cousins?”
    â€œFor sure.” I laughed. “I wish I could hug you right now,” I said.
    â€œYou can hug me tonight at Rosh Hashanah dinner. Are you bringing your famous yum-yum cake?”
    â€œI made two of them, so there will be leftovers.”
    â€œThat’s my sis.”
    Nora and I hung up, and a wave of relief washed over me. Zach and I agreed to tell our families once we made it to twelve weeks and the midwife gave us the all-clear. I did confirm with my mom that I was pregnant, and she subtly spent the rest of the night pushing extra turkey on me. “Protein is good for you.” She smiled, winking.
    I had hoped Nora would soon be able to make a similar announcement, but as yet she and Eddie are still trying. If ever I pray for anything, it will be that Nora gets her chance to be a mom, too.
    Afternoon
    I speak with Louise for a few minutes in between the doctors prodding her postpartum belly at the hospital. Sam rests on my lap.
    â€œI’m totally flashing back to the big squeeze two weeks ago,” I tell her.
    â€œThe big squeeze?”
    â€œThat’s what I call the pushing out of the baby.”
    â€œOh. I guess you could call mine the big pluck.” Louise refers to her C-section.
    â€œLike a fine violin,” I assure her. “How’s it going?”
    â€œOkay, I guess. I’m a little out of it. She’s cute, I think. She looks like every other baby, really. For all I know, they gave me the wrong one.”
    I laugh. “Does everyone keep telling you you did a good job? Every doctor that visited me in the hospital said something like ‘I heard you did great.’ Was that just for me? Like, I was so