The Right Time by Susan X Meagher Read Free Book Online Page B

mumbled. “Why didn’t she get an abortion?”
    That one stung. Hennessy had to turn away to hide the hurt she knew would show on her face. She held the water bottle up to the light, like she had to check it out. “Thanks,” she said dryly. “It’s nice to know you’re so pleased with my presence on the planet.”
    “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I don’t know how things are around here, but where I come from no one would let their fifteen-year-old daughter have a baby.”
    “I’m sure the judge was thinking she was a little immature when the state severed her parental rights,” Hennessy said. “Of course, they had a good reason. The house caught on fire when she was passed out dead drunk on the sofa.”
    “What…?” She wanted to know more. You could see the questions in her eyes. But she stopped herself from seeming too eager. “You were in the house?”
    Hennessy didn’t have a wisp of a memory of the incident, but she’d heard it recounted so many times she had some visuals. Images that made her voice shake no matter how hard she tried to play it cool. “Yeah. Her cigarette had dropped onto the floor and started a smoldering fire. Good thing the carpet was threadbare so it didn’t go up as fast as it should have. I’m here today because the firemen ran back into the house when the neighbors said there was a baby inside.”
    “Jesus, fuck! How old were you?” Now she was all-in. Her cool veneer had disappeared.
    “I think I was a month old, maybe a little less. I’m glad she didn’t breastfeed me. I can’t imagine it’s fun for infants to have a hangover.”
    “Damn, Hennessy! Where were her parents?”
    “At their house, I guess. My parents were married when I was born. They had a little place on the wrong side of the wrong side of the tracks. ’Course, that burned down. My daddy and I moved into his parents’ home. My grandparents raised me.”
    “That’s insane,” Townsend murmured. “Don’t they have some minimum age for getting married down here?”
    Goddamn it! She couldn’t go two seconds without sticking a knife into your gut. “Yes, Townsend, even down here there’s an age of consent, but it’s only fourteen when the parents sign off. My gramma wouldn’t stand for having her grandbaby be illegitimate. So they got married.” Summoning all of the compassion she could retain, Hennessy gentled her voice. “What’s your situation? You refer to your birth mother but I can’t figure out what that means.”
    She waved her hand dismissively. “I just call my mother that to jerk her around.”
    “Why?” Hennessy truly didn’t understand the motivation.
    “She gave birth to me, but that’s about all she’s done since. She delivers a couple of books a year, and I’m pretty sure each of them is more precious to her than I am.”
    “That can’t be true. I’d give an awful lot to have my mother care enough to find a camp like this for me.” She felt herself start to tear up, so she clamped down hard on her emotions. Townsend was the sort who would laugh at her softness, and she wouldn’t allow that. “Heck, I’d give a lot to have her remember my birthday.”
    Townsend looked contrite for a moment. But even a moment felt like a point on Hennessy’s score sheet. “Do you ever see her?”
    “Oh, sure. She heard I was leaving for camp and she came to see me and say goodbye. ’Course, she tried to wheedle ten bucks off me. Said it was for food, but the only food she ever buys is eighty proof.”
    “Goddamn. You must hate her.”
    Hennessy’s eyes opened wide. “I most certainly do not! She’s my mamma, and I’ll always love her. I just can’t save her from herself.”
    “How can you love someone who treats you that way? Jesus, she almost killed you!”
    “She has a disease,” Hennessy said, briefly thinking of how many times she’d had to remind herself of that fact before she’d truly accepted it. “She’s so far gone in her illness that