going to do that.â
âIâve been thinking about how you are controlling my life, and I donât think itâs fair.â
âYou are too young to know what fair is,â he snapped. âAnd you donât know whatâs right for you.â
âI need a chance to figure that out.â
âAnd how are you going to do that?â
Ashley was being more assertive around her parents than Iâd seen her before, but she was also looking flustered. âI think Zach and I just need to go away together for a while.â
This was not at all what I was expecting her to say.
Her father seethed silently as her mother said, âWe donât want you to do that. We want you here.â
I knew what Ashley was thinking. Iâd thought about it before. Weâd talked about it. It had always been an option. Running away. But it was all wrong.
âNo, Ashley,â I said in a soft voice. âWeâre not going to run away together. Weâre not going to do that. Iâve already done the rehearsals on that. Itâs not the way to go.â
âThen what is the way to go?â 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.
âLook,â I said, âI think everyone needs to back off and let us have a chance to think it through.â I looked her father right in the eye. âYou donât have to like me, but you might just have to get used to having me around. Iâd like to be here for Ashley, unless she tells me she doesnât want me around. Iâd also like to be there for the baby, even though Iâm not at all sure if Iâd be any good at helping out with that.â
âHave you thought any more about giving the baby up for adoption when itâs born?â Ashleyâs mom asked.
âWeâve talked about it as a possibility,â Ashley said.
âI donât think itâs what I want,â I said. âBut I havenât ruled it out. I just know that there are no easy answers here.â
Mr. Walker looked at me differently now. The hostility had faded. Itâs almost like he was looking at me as me for the first time, not as the boy who had gotten his daughter pregnant. âWell, you sure got that part right,â he said.
And thatâs where we left it. I gave Ashley a hug and walked home. I was still baffled as to what would come next. I didnât 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 weâd have to figure out what would be best for that child.
Maybe Ashley and I could see it through and stay together. It wouldnât be easy. Nothing would be easy from here on. But I knew one thing for sure. Iâd be there for her right up to the time the baby was born and beyond. Weâd 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, youâd think she led a charmed life. But her situation has suddenly changed. Her parentsâ seemingly perfect marriage has broken up, and before sheâs had a chance to absorb the blow, her father disappears in a plane crash. Whatâs worse, rumors begin to surface that he may not be