Page 39 of Run with Me

“Oh, don’t worry about that little misunderstanding. We’re both hormonal, so it’s only to be expected. Now tell me everything there is to know about that little baby in there.” She took my hand and gently pulled me down to the couch. Mary appeared as comfortable here as in her ownhome.

“I’m not far along. About three months now, I think.”

“You haven’t been to a doctor? Oh, my goodness, child!” she said to me as if again, I were an actual child. “We can’t have that. I’m going to call a doctor first thing in the morning.”

“I don’t have any documents. None.”

“It doesn’t matter. Our doctors don’t ask questions when they getpaid.”

“Oh… I don’t have money either.”

“I wasn’t asking if you did, was I? Now I understand that this should be your decision, as a woman, and I respect that. But if you had the means to see a doctor, wouldyou?”

“Well, yes.”

“Good, then it’s settled. Doctor Morrison is always on call for me at noon. He’ll be here tomorrow. In the meantime, I think it’s time you remembered what it feels like to take a shower, don’tyou?”

What? How did that happen? I was beginning to see what Jack meant. Mary was definitely a woman who had a mind of her own. She was blunt, but in a nice way — maybe a better way to describe her would be to say that she was brutally honest.

“I’m not a bad mother.” I gently touched my stomach and lowered my gaze. “I had pre-natal pills, but I ranout.”

“You’re a fierce mother because only a strong woman would suffer the way you did to keep her baby safe. You don’t have to worry about your safety anymore. Jack and Xavier are the best. No one will find you. And don’t worry about pills. I brought extra. We’re going to take care of you. We’re going to take care of both of you.” Mary’s voice was soft and reassuring. It kind of surprised me. She was beginning to remind me of a good friend, not a raging bull. I was beginning to likeher.

“I also brought a few pairs of clothes. They’re a little older, but you’re smaller than me and I haven’t fit in them in months. I wasn’t able to carry a lot, but tomorrow I’ll have someone send over a few other things I think you mayneed.”

This couldn’t be true. Yesterday I’d been ready to give up on life in a dark alley, and today I was being offered… everything.

“How long are you planning on helpingme?”

“For as long as it takes to ensure that you and the baby are safe. Whomever you’re running away from must be a bad person. I’m on your side, honey, and as long as I’m on your side, no one’s going to touchyou.”

I believed her. Actually, I believed her even more than I believed Jack or Xavier.

She didn’t ask me any further questions about my past or about the baby I was carrying. One could naturally assume that I was carrying a bastard child, but I wasn’t. I just hadn’t had the courage to tell the father, whom I loved as much as I loved our baby, that I was pregnant. When I ran away, all I could think about was her safety. I would never let Ben take away another baby ofmine.

“Thank you, Mary. I didn’t think I’d meet someone who cared somuch.”

“Of course we care. Now, it’s time you made yourself feel at home. Xavier usually keeps his fridge stuffed to bursting, so you should be good, but if you need anything in the meantime, this is our phone number.”

“Ahm, Mary?”

“Yes?”

“How do you use one of those?” I pointed to the square box on Xavier’s kitchenwall.

“Where did you comefrom?”

For a moment, as she shook her head, I thought she was asking seriously, then realized that it was rhetorical.

Once Mary showed me how to use the phone, it wasn’t as difficult as I’d imagined. I might have seen it done once, in a movie on the town’s first television set at the Bistro, before the Cortez family arrived, but I wasn’t paying close attention when the beer that was being served to the drunken men had a fifty-fifty chance of being knocked over my head. That was the moment I promised myself that if I ever had children, I’d do anything in my life to protect them, and for the first time since I’d found out I was pregnant, I felt like I was on the right track. It was either that or I had walked into a perfectly set trap. I hoped it was the former.

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