Free The Unfinished Child by Theresa Shea Page B

done it now—delivered a double blow to Elizabeth. Upper cut one—her birth mother had given her up. Kidney blow two—she’d never had her own children. “Lunch should be ready,” she said hurriedly, hoping to hide her gaffes.
    She felt lighter now; her breath came more easily. What a relief that Elizabeth had guessed. How much easier than trying to find the right words.
    She sliced thick pieces of bread from the whole loaf and set them aside on the cutting board. Bickering voices rose from downstairs and become more shrill. Mom! Marie walked over and closed the door to the basement. Let them fight their own battles, she thought.
    “How’s Ron?” she asked.
    Elizabeth pulled out one of the stools next to the island and sat down. “Well . . . funny you should ask.” Then she told Marie that she’d signed a lease on a downtown apartment that morning.
    “I’m not looking for any advice,” she added. “I have no idea if I’m doing the right thing or not. Who knows, maybe I’m even making more of a mess of things. All I know is that I just need some time on my own to figure out what I should do with the next phase of my life.”
    Marie buried her face in the refrigerator to hide her shock. Thirty years of friendship! Is this what it resulted in? Neither of them had ever made any big decisions without consulting the other first. Yet Elizabeth was leaving her husband and had signed a lease on an apartment? She blinked back tears as she mashed the tuna onto the bread before adding sliced tomatoes and lettuce.
    “And wait until you see the view! I think that’s why I took the apartment, because it looks south, over the river valley. Right now the river’s frozen, of course, but it’ll be especially lovely in the fall when the leaves are turning. And I’ll be able to walk to work. That’ll be nice. It’s only about twelve blocks.”
    “How’s Ron handling this?”
    “I haven’t told him yet.”
    “You haven’t told him?”
    Elizabeth winced. “I know. I wanted to tell him yesterday, but I just couldn’t. I don’t want to hurt him,” she added, “but I just can’t stay in that house right now.”
    “But you love that house. You’ve worked hard to fix it up. What’s changed?”
    “I worked hard to get it ready for a family. It was supposed to be a family home.”
    “Can’t you and Ron be a family?”
    “We’re a couple, not a family. There’s a huge piece missing, and sometimes I feel like that house just mocks me. It’s an old house. Who knows how many babies might have been born in it. Healthy babies. Happy babies. Stupid, isn’t it? Anyway, I’ll tell Ron. Probably tonight. Signing that lease certainly gives me the incentive.”
    Marie tried to imagine how he’d take the news. She hadn’t seen him in some time, mostly because she didn’t see as much of Elizabeth anymore either.
    “Well, I guess there’s no more putting it off,” she said.
    Elizabeth didn’t appear to register the pain in Marie’s voice; she had returned to the sliding doors and was once again staring into the backyard. Her figure was a dark skeleton in the full sunlight. “The apartment’s empty right now, so I can start moving in any time.”
    Marie called Nicole and Sophia for lunch, and they pounded up the stairs like a herd of elephants to see who could get to the table first.
    She had set the table herself, taking great care to make it look lovely. A navy blue tablecloth dotted with yellow stars and planets hung halfway to the floor. Yellow cloth napkins lay over each plate. A glass pitcher filled with iced tea sat in the centre of the table.
    “Aren’t we lucky?” Elizabeth said as she took a seat. “While the wind gusts outside, we’re inside having a summer picnic!”
    The girls grinned widely. Nicole ran off and returned to the table wearing a sun hat and sunglasses. “Remember not to go swimming for at least an hour after lunch!” She laughed.
    “And watch out for sharks!” Sophia