Page 70 of Falling into a Second Chance

“She said her invisible friend is your lost baby,” Harper pressed, eyes glued to her face.

If there had been any blood left in her body, it was gone now, replaced by ice and cold. It took everything in her to not shake at the chill.

“Kids,” she said lamely.

“She said he was born the same day she was and that his name is Jet,” Harper said very slowly, letting each word sink in.

The shaking was uncontrollable. Her sister had to see it, but she didn’t comment. She just took Agatha’s hand in hers and held it tight. Agatha knew that Harper knew the answer was yes, but Agatha couldn’t say the words.

“I am not going to ask why you didn’t tell anyone, because you keep a lot inside. But I want you to let someone in there. You can’t do it all by yourself. I think we know now that if you hadn’t gotten pregnant with Poppy, you might have died by now. You needed to have her, and that changed everything for you. When she was gone, you didn’t go back to being out-of-control Agatha. You just stayed the Agatha we love. Maybe you and Chris were meant to be apart for a while. He had to do the football thing, fail, and then find out he was more than a football player. And you needed to find yourself with your art.”

Harper didn’t let go of her hand, but Agatha couldn’t bring herself to look up. Her words were settling in Agatha’s mind. Was she right that they were different people than they were eighteen months before or even in high school? Was it unfair of her to judge him on his actions from back then and not by who he had been when they were together now?

“And then when Poppy was conceived, neither of you were ready for that. But now you are. You two are so ready to do this together, but the past is getting in the way. He is lost without you, and you are lost without him.” Harper let their hands go and pushed her chair back, leaving her little sister alone to think.

Was her sister right? That they hadn’t been ready to be together, that they didn’t know what they wanted, much less who they wanted to be? Each of them had a road to walk down before they could meet up again and make it work.

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