Free Anytime Darlin' by Julia Rachel Barrett

girl, Janice told her everything. Bitsy sighed.
    “Well, you know what you have to do, don’t you?”
    “What?” choked out Janice. “Jake’s not going to marry me, and I refuse to discuss this with Jim Peters!”
    “Of course not,” said Bitsy. “Don’t be silly. You’ll have an abortion. It’s the only thing you can do.”
    “But I don’t, I mean, I haven’t even thought…” stuttered Janice.
    “That’s always been your problem, Janice. You don’t think. You just act. I’ll call John Duarte. I’m sure he’ll be able to fit you in today or tomorrow.”
    “What if I don’t want an abortion?” Janice flared, suddenly defiant.
    “Janice,” said her mother calmly, her voice almost sugary, “be reasonable. If you have a baby now, your father will never be able to hold his head up in this town again. It would ruin him. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?” She paused. “His little darling? Pregnant? Out of wedlock? That would just about break his heart. Think of someone besides yourself for once. You’ve already disappointed him so deeply. How can you even think of doing it again?”
    Janice felt hot tears on her cheeks, tears of shame and embarrassment, the same tears she’d shed as a child when she’d disappointed her parents. Starting with the disappointment of being born a girl instead of the hoped-for son and heir. All the fight went out of her.
    “I’ll tell you what,” her mother said conspiratorially. “We don’t even have to tell him. We can take care of this little problem ourselves, just us girls. Your father never has to know a thing.” She drew a finger across her lips. “Maybe we can go to the club for a late lunch after, if you’re feeling up to it,” she added.
Janice nodded.
    “Now that’s settled.” Her mother seemed to dismiss the entire situation from her mind. “How is it that Mr. McKenna brought you home?”
    Janice had wondered how her mother did it, this ability she had to ruthlessly compartmentalize everything. Whatever didn’t fit into her neat world simply vanished into the ether. Janice envied her mother’s capacity to dismiss the world’s imperfections so easily. She wished, not for the first time in her life, that her mother could dismiss Janice’s imperfections as easily as she did everything else that didn’t suit her. She shook her head to clear her thoughts.
    “What did you ask?”
    “Mr. McKenna,” repeated her mother, “why did he bring you here if you’re no longer together?”
    “Oh, he felt sorry for me, I guess.”
    “Does he know?” her mother asked.
    “No, he doesn’t know. He was just concerned because of the breakup. And we had a tough night. We both stayed late to help out a runaway.”
    “Oh?” Her mother seemed interested. Janice was surprised. Her mother never took much of an interest in her work.
    “Yes,” Janice replied, eager for the opportunity to have an actual conversation with her mother. “The paramedics brought in a teenage girl. She was in pretty bad shape. She had pneumonia and she was, well, she’d been beaten and raped.”
    “Really?” Her mother raised an eyebrow. “You don’t say. I certainly hope it wasn’t a local girl.”
    “I have no idea,” said Janice. “We didn’t get a name. Well, just a first name, but it wasn’t a name I recognized.”
    “What was it, dear?”
    Janice looked at her mother in surprise. “What was what?”
    “The name,” said her mother, “not that it matters.” She shrugged. “These runaways must be a dime a dozen.”
    “Oh. I guess it won’t hurt to tell you. It’s just a first name. She said Devlin. That’s all I know.” Janice noticed her mother stare off in the distance for a second, then blink, just once.
    “Well, dear,” said her mother, rising from her chair, “I’d better make those arrangements. Why don’t you have Cook make you a cup of tea? I sent Louise to freshen up your old room if you want to lie down.” She patted Janice’s