The Surrogate, The Sudarium Trilogy - Book one by Leonard Foglia, David Richards Read Free Book Online Page B

River,” said Jolene Whitfield, plunging right in.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Ma’am? Oh, that won’t do at all. Jolene, please. And Marshall. I hear that area is very nice. We recently moved to East Acton. Do you know East Acton?”
    “No, I don’t…Jolene.”
    “It’s lovely. Lots of trees. A little boring, though, if you want the truth. Everyone turns their lights out by ten. But it’s an easy commute for Marshall. Marshall works here in Boston. And we’ve got a beautiful garden.”
    Mrs. Greene said, “Did I tell you Mrs. Whitfield is an artist. I’ve seen her works. They’re wonderful. She sells them on Newberry Street.”
    “Oh, once in a blue moon, is all. Mostly, I just dabble in the studio at home. It keeps me occupied.”
    “She’s being modest. She has such a distinctive…vision. You can’t imagine how unusual it is!”
    Oddly enough, Hannah thought she probably could.
    Mr. Whitfield - Marshall - came from Maryland, it transpired, and was in insurance, both dead-ends as conversational topics. So they talked about the weather and the driving conditions and Mrs. Whitfield complemented Hannah on her tan cardigan and said it was a good color for her hair.
    “Well, now,” said Mrs. Greene, feeling it was time to direct the conversation to the business at hand, “I’ve explained to Hannah the service we provide here at Partners in Parenthood. And I told you both on the phone how impressed I was with Hannah.” (What, Hannah wondered, had she done to impress Mrs. Greene?) “But perhaps it might be helpful if she heard your story in your own words. Jolene?”
    “It’s very simple. We waited too long. We had other priorities. Before we knew it, it was too late.” A veil of distress swept over the woman’s face.
    “We don’t know that’s true, Jolene,” her husband said. “It might not have been any different, if we’d started at twenty.”
    “But the point is, we didn’t start at 20. There is a good chance I might have been able to have a child back then. The doctor told me so. Two doctors. But we put it off and we put it off. And by then, well, the damage was done. You know that’s true. You know we waited too long.”
    Marshall Whitfield patted his wife’s shoulder. “That’s neither here nor there now, dear. We’ve been over this a thousand times.”
    Jolene ignored her husband’s gesture. “We did. We waited longer than we should have. Marshall was working his way up in the company, doing better and better each year. And we both loved to travel. So the plan was to see the world, while we were still young and relatively free, before we started a family. We knew once we had children, they would tie us down and travel would become more difficult.”
    “They’ve been everywhere, Hannah,” interjected Mrs. Greene. “China, India, Turkey, Spain, North Africa. I’m so envious.”
    “I don’t regret the traveling one minute,” said Jolene. “We saw some extraordinary places. But there was always one more country we had to see. Wasn’t there, Marshall? For ten years, we postponed having a family. When the time came, we thought it would be so easy. Like planning our trips. Just pick the date, buy the ticket and go. ‘This year we’ll go to Ceylon. Next year, we’ll have a baby.’ That’s how we talked about it. Pretty foolishly, I guess. The year of the baby, I went off the birth control pills and … nothing! The doctor told us to be patient, give it time. Still nothing. A year later, I found out why I was not able to carry a child— fibroids in the uterus prevented the egg from attaching itself to the uterine wall. I had an operation. Then another. Once I thought I was pregnant, but I miscarried in the third month. That was seven years ago.”
    Marshall chimed in. “We’ve discussed adoption. There are so many babies that need a home. We still haven’t ruled it out.”
    “But it’s not the same,” said Jolene, over-riding him. “I feel like we’re being deprived of