Free Roxy's Baby by Cathy MacPhail Page A

July. That’s when my baby’s due. Then, I’ll be gone.’
    July. It seemed a lifetime away to Roxy. The whole summer to look forward to first. Then, she’d be here alone, until her own time came. August.
    â€˜You’ll have made more friends before that, Roxy.’ Anne Marie put an arm around her shoulders. ‘New girls arrive all the time.’
    But not like Anne Marie, she was sure. She could never be this friendly with the loud and common Babs, or with Agnes, with the secret past and the horsey face. She would never trust any of them, or any of the other girls for that matter. Anne Marie was different, exactly what a big sister ought to be – someone to depend on and to talk to – and if the thought popped into Roxy’s head that she had never been that kind of big sister to Jennifer, she quickly pushed it out again.
    Anyway, Roxy thought, as another troublesome notion hit her, all the new girls seemed to be foreign – Asian or East European with no understanding of English. How was she to make friends with them?
    Anne Marie squeezed closer to her on the bench. She looked all around her to check that no one was listeningbefore she whispered, ‘I’m going to ask Mrs Dyce if I can come back here to work after my baby’s born. They don’t even have to pay me. Bed and board, for me and Aidan. I’ll be able to do more cleaning and help to look after the girls. I’d be happy to stay here, Roxy. This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.’
    No wonder she loved Mrs Dyce like a mother. No wonder she had no qualms about the rules and regulations that seemed so suspicious to Roxy. No wonder she defended everything they did here. Anne Marie had never lived with this kind of security.
    â€˜I think that would be a great idea,’ Roxy said. ‘But they don’t like babies here. You said so. What would you do about Aidan?’
    â€˜I haven’t quite figured that out yet. But I’ll come up with something. Because I could never be parted from him.’
    Three weeks later and Agnes was gone. She’d gone into labour in the middle of the night and woke the whole house with her screaming.
    â€˜Is it really that bad, having a baby?’ Roxy asked Anne Marie as she stood at the door of their room watching down the corridor, listening to the sounds ofyelling and moaning coming from Agnes’s room.
    â€˜She’s the drama queen, that Agnes. Just ignore her. She’ll be fine.’ Anne Marie pulled Roxy back into the room and closed the door. Roxy had just enough time to see Mrs Dyce steer Agnes towards the delivery room, towards that door marked PRIVATE.
    â€˜And that’s the last we’ll see of Agnes,’ she said.
    â€˜Probably better that way. Anyway, Agnes is having her baby adopted.’
    Roxy climbed back into bed, kicking the covers to the bottom. It was a hot night, too hot to sleep. ‘Maybe if you have your baby adopted, Mrs Dyce would let you stay on here.’
    Mrs Dyce’s answer to Anne Marie’s request to stay on had been a reluctant ‘no’, because of little Aidan, she had said. They simply couldn’t have a baby here. But Anne Marie hadn’t quite given up yet.
    â€˜I couldn’t give up my baby, Roxy. He’s a part of me already. My soul. My little Aidan. But I’m working on Mrs Dyce. I think I could coax her into anything.’ She looked at Roxy for a long time. ‘What about you, Roxy, have you decided yet what you’re going to do?’
    Roxy had changed her mind so often. She would keep the baby. She would give it up. She didn’t knowwhat to do. If she’d been going home she would have kept the baby, even if it was just to show them she could fend for herself. But she wasn’t sure whether she would go home. After all, she’d taken care of herself pretty well up to now. She shrugged her answer to Anne Marie. The baby didn’t seem