Free Live Free and Love by Emily Stone Page B

right?”
     
    “I’m perfectly fine. They told me I had a condition that won’t go away for, I don’t know, nine months.”
     
    There was a pause on the other line.
     
    “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
     
    “Well that depends on what it is you think I’m saying,” she said.
     
    “You’re… pregnant? Like, seriously, you’re pregnant?”
     
    “Yes, eleven weeks. I guess it happened the first time we uh…”
     
    Kristina took the phone away from her ear. Danny was talking so loudly that he could be heard from across the living room.
     
    Janine looked at her and smiled. “Well, at least he’s happy.”
     
    Kristina laughed and put her ear back to the phone. It took a while before she could understand anything that Danny said, but she was eventually able to tell him the due date.
     
    “Where are you? Did they send you back overseas?”
     
    Danny told her about going to military police school. “I’m in Missouri, at Fort Leonard Wood. I’ll be finished here before your due date, but I would love to see you before that day comes.”
     
    “I’m just happy that you’re happy. All I’ve wanted to do since I’ve found out was tell you. I want to be a family, Danny. I know it’s going to be tough, but I’m up for it if you are.”
     
    “I love you, Tina. I want the same things. There are things we need to work out, and not over the phone. I want to see you, talk through some things.”
     
    “Of course, I understand that. As soon as you’re able to leave or have visitors or however that works out, I’ll be there.”
     
    “Tina, one more thing before I go.”
     
    “What’s that, Danny?”
     
    “Call your parents. I’m pretty sure they would want to know they’re having a grandchild.”
     
    “I… I don’t know about that, Danny. You know how they are. It will just end in an argument.”
     
    “Tina, listen to me. I fight every day not to drink. It’s a constant thought in my head, a constant struggle. Something is going on with your dad. Talk to him, without the yelling and fighting. Find out what happened to him to make him this way. Just think about it, okay?”
     
    Kristina hesitated. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
     
    Danny hung up the phone after telling her he loved her and would call tomorrow to check on her.
     
    “What did he say?” Janine said.
     
    “He wants me to call my parents, to tell them about the baby.”
     
    “What’s the story about your parents? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
     
    Kristina got more comfortable in her chair. “No,” she said, “I was going to tell you eventually, anyway. It’s a long story. You might want to pour another cup of wine.”
     
    Kristina launched into the story of her childhood, all the pain she had felt growing up in that house her mother had dared to call a home.
     
    She told her all about the times she had to pick her father up from lying in his own vomit, the hurt she felt at how her mother just turned a blind eye to it all.
     
    Kristina told Janine how she felt like they robbed her of a normal childhood, that she had to deal with things no child should have to deal with.
     
    “I just don’t know if I can let enough anger out of my heart to ask them what happened,” she said finally, wiping tears from her face.
     
    Janine had come to sit next to her at some point during the story.
     
    “I think you owe it to yourself, Kris. You need closure, and holding that much anger in your heart isn’t good for anybody.
     
    “I agree with Danny on this one. Call your parents. Hell, you have the time off, fly out there and see them, give them the chance to explain. You might see the whole situation in another light.”
     
    “I just don’t know,” Kristina said, raising her head to look at Janine.
     
    “Do you remember how you felt when Danny didn’t let you explain about your article?”
     
    “Yeah, but that was different,” Kristina said.
     
    “Was it? Maybe all your dad