Reaction by Lesley Choyce Read Free Book Online Page A

going to do that.”
    â€œI’ve been thinking about how you are controlling my life, and I don’t think it’s fair.”
    â€œYou are too young to know what fair is,” he snapped. “And you don’t know what’s right for you.”
    â€œI need a chance to figure that out.”
    â€œAnd how are you going to do that?”
    Ashley was being more assertive around her parents than I’d seen her before, but she was also looking flustered. “I think Zach and I just need to go away together for a while.”
    This was not at all what I was expecting her to say.
    Her father seethed silently as her mother said, “We don’t want you to do that. We want you here.”
    I knew what Ashley was thinking. I’d thought about it before. We’d talked about it. It had always been an option. Running away. But it was all wrong.
    â€œNo, Ashley,” I said in a soft voice. “We’re not going to run away together. We’re not going to do that. I’ve already done the rehearsals on that. It’s not the way to go.”
    â€œThen what is the way to go?” her father demanded.
    I looked at Ashley and thought of all the conversations she and I had about the pregnancy and the baby. I knew what we needed. We needed more time.
    â€œLook,” I said, “I think everyone needs to back off and let us have a chance to think it through.” I looked her father right in the eye. “You don’t have to like me, but you might just have to get used to having me around. I’d like to be here for Ashley, unless she tells me she doesn’t want me around. I’d also like to be there for the baby, even though I’m not at all sure if I’d be any good at helping out with that.”
    â€œHave you thought any more about giving the baby up for adoption when it’s born?” Ashley’s mom asked.
    â€œWe’ve talked about it as a possibility,” Ashley said.
    â€œI don’t think it’s what I want,” I said. “But I haven’t ruled it out. I just know that there are no easy answers here.”
    Mr. Walker looked at me differently now. The hostility had faded. It’s almost like he was looking at me as me for the first time, not as the boy who had gotten his daughter pregnant. “Well, you sure got that part right,” he said.
    And that’s where we left it. I gave Ashley a hug and walked home. I was still baffled as to what would come next. I didn’t know how we were going to sort out the difficulties or make the right decision. All I knew was that we had, for now, taken some control. There would be problems ahead and difficult decisions. And I knew I would never be fully prepared for what lay ahead. But we had taken our lives back for now. There would be a child, and we’d have to figure out what would be best for that child.
    Maybe Ashley and I could see it through and stay together. It wouldn’t be easy. Nothing would be easy from here on. But I knew one thing for sure. I’d be there for her right up to the time the baby was born and beyond. We’d see this through together.

Lesley Choyce teaches part-time at Dalhousie University, runs Pottersfield Press and has published over seventy books for adults and kids. He surfs year-round in the North Atlantic and has been a newspaper boy and lead guitarist. Lesley lives at Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia.

O rca S o undings
    The following is an excerpt from
another exciting Orca Soundings novel,
Comeback by Vicki Grant.

    978-1-55469-310-8 $9.95 pb
978-1-55469-311-5 $16.95 lib
    RIA IS RICH, SLIM, PRETTY, POPULAR.
    If you only knew her at school, you’d think she led a charmed life. But her situation has suddenly changed. Her parents’ seemingly perfect marriage has broken up, and before she’s had a chance to absorb the blow, her father disappears in a plane crash. What’s worse, rumors begin to surface that he may not be