Free A Sliver of Sun by Dianna Dorisi Winget Page A

sound.”
    “Do me and Piper Lee get to be there when you have it?”
    Mama’s eyebrows peaked. “You mean at the hospital?”
    “No, I mean in the room.”
    I stared at her in horror. It was the craziest idea I’d ever heard. Who’d want to see something as disgusting and gross as that?
    Even Mama seemed a little caught off guard by the question. “Uh, I’m not so sure you’d want to be there, honey. It’s not all nice and pretty like they show on TV.”
    “Is Daddy gonna be in there?”
    “Yep. He’ll be my labor coach.”
    “What’s a labor coach?” I asked. “Sounds like a sports team or something.”
    “It’s kind of like a support person—someone to hold your hand, maybe rub your back, help you breathe.”
    “Help you breathe?” Ginger and I both echoed.
    Mama laughed. “When you take birthing classes they teach you how to use breathing techniques to help with labor pains. Your coach helps you focus on what you learned is all.” She took the DVD out and turned the TV off. “Okay, enough of that for now. Tell me about school.”
    “Nothin’ much to tell,” I said, thankful for the change of subject. “Mrs. Holloway is making us read the classics.”
    “Classics, hmm?”
    “I have to read
To Kill a Mockingbird
. Ginger’s is different.”
    “
Huckleberry Finn,”
Ginger said, quickly. Then she stuffed a big ol’ bite of Graham cracker in her mouth.
    “Oh,” Mama said, but she was looking down at the DVD in her hands, like her mind wasn’t really on the classics.
    Ginger swallowed her mouthful a minute later and announced she was going out to jump on the trampoline. I started to follow, but then let her pass on ahead and turned back. Mama slipped the DVD into its paper case. It irked me to see how careful she handled it, like it was so important, when it was really nothing more than some dumb blurry pictures.
    “Hey, guess what?” I said.
    She glanced up with a smile. “Hmm?”
    “I figured somethin’ out today.”
    “Oh, yeah, what’d you figure?”
    “That you were already pregnant when you married Ben.”
    Mama froze—one hand in the air and her mouth in a big O. Then the very next second her cheeks turned as red as a fire truck. “Oh, Piper Lee,” she said.
    I crossed my arms. “It’s true, huh?”
    She rolled her eyes and rubbed at her cheeks like she was trying to rub some of the fire from them. “Yes, it’s … true. I just didn’t expect you to figure it out quite this soon, is all.”
    “Thought you said it was wrong for unmarried folks to have babies.”
    “I did … I mean, I do … I do think it’s wrong. But sometimes accidents happen, and we
are
married now.”
I smiled. “So this baby’s nothin’ but an accident.”
    Mama gave me a hard look. “Lots of things in life are unplanned, and some of them turn out to be pretty wonderful. Don’t you forget that, Piper Lee.”
    We glared at each other for several heartbeats before disappointment snuck in and wrapped itself around me like one of those sheets on the clothesline. I wondered why I’d thought figuring out about Mama not being married was such a big deal—it’s not like it changed anything. It sure didn’t make the baby go away. Nothing could do that. Unexpected tears filled my eyes.
    Mama sighed. She stepped over and put her arms around me. “It’s gonna be okay. This is all gonna work out fine, you’ll see.”
    I sniffled and wiped at my eyes. “Mama, don’t you ever wish things were like they used to be? When it was just you and me?”
    She looked off into the air for a minute, like she was giving careful thought how to answer. Then she shook her head. “Honey, I know that right now this might be hard for you to understand, but it’s really tough to be a single parent. It can be lonely and scary and sometimes it feels so overwhelming to be responsible for everything. But now, you and I are part of a real family again—the way it’s s’posed to be. And I don’t feel lonely or