Page 28 of The Light Year

barbie

. . .

"Happy birthday!"

Thanksgiving is over, the leftovers stored, and the women--Barbie, Carrie, Jo, Frankie, and Jude--are sitting around a corner banquette table in a Stardust Beach diner on Saturday afternoon, forks poised to cut into the chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that Jo convinced the diner owner to let her bring into their establishment, which specializes in pie.

"Oh, thank you," Barbie says, ducking her head but smiling. Her birthday has always brought out a touch of shyness in her, and this occasion is no different, putting her at the center of attention as her friends grin and watch her take a piece of cake. "I can't believe I'm thirty."

Their waitress, a woman in her 60s wearing a starched, knee-length pink dress with a white apron, leans one hip against the booth as she tops off their coffees.

"Thirty? Honey," the waitress says with a voice thickened by years of cigarette smoke, "you're still a baby. Just wait until you're fifty." She finishes pouring more coffee in Jo's cup and then winks at the table before walking away.

"I wish I was turning thirty again," Jo says wistfully. "The closer I get to forty, the scarier it all is."

"Try being pregnant for the first time in your mid-thirties," Frankie says, with both hands on the sides of her belly. She rubs circles on her stomach, looking exhausted.

"Oh, Frankie," Jo says with a sympathetic laugh. She puts one arm around her best friend's shoulders as Jude slices a piece of cake for each of them. They've all finished eating sandwiches and bowls of the soup of the day, and the waitress has swept through, clearing empty plates and bowls and leaving a handful of fresh forks and napkins.

"You're going to be a great mom," Barbie assures Frankie as she takes a big slice of cake and picks up a clean fork. "I think you'll love it—as soon as you start sleeping again."

Frankie holds up one hand and closes her eyes. "Jo has already given me the most horrifying pep talk I've ever gotten, so no one needs to tell me the gory details here over cake."

Jude, Carrie, Barbie, and Jo all look at one another knowingly. "Everything is going to be wonderful," Carrie says soothingly. She cuts an extra big slice of cake for Frankie and passes it to her. "But go ahead and have as much dessert as you want now while you've got an excuse to eat for two."

The laughter and talking carries on for another half hour as Barbie tells the group about the first birthday she and Todd had ever spent together, when he'd taken her ice skating and told her he wanted to marry her someday, and the way she'd known instantly that any guy who could show up at her house and face her father head-on was the right man for her.

"We all met our husbands in such different ways," Frankie says, looking around at the other women as she licks frosting off her fork. She truly looks like a glowing, rounded version of herself, and Barbie looks at her admiringly, remembering that feeling of just eating happily and knowing you can worry aboutit later, after the baby is born. "Jude, did you know right away when you saw Vance?"

Jude smiles. "We met in a bar in Hollywood, and I thought he was handsome right away, but I think he knew before I did." Jude turns to Jo. "How about you, Jo?"

"Oh, definitely. Bill came into the dentist's office where I worked and I turned into a giggling mess. I had a huge crush on him. I mean, a man in uniform, you know?"

The other women nod and smile knowingly.

"How about you, Carrie?" Barbie asks her closest friend at the table. For all they know about one another, she knows very little about how Carrie and Jay met.

Carrie is about to put her fork into her mouth and she pauses, looking around the table. "He was dating my sister," she says, a devilish grin spreading across her face.

"Noooo!" the women shout in unison. Their collective horror and laughter gets the attention of everyone else in the diner as Frankie slaps the table and cackles.

"Oh," Frankie says, the laughter on her face and in her voice dying quickly. "Oh, no." She drops her fork with a clatter and puts her hands to her stomach.

"Frank?" Jo says with concern, pushing away her own plate and scooting closer to Frankie on the banquette. "You okay?"

Frankie takes Jo's hand in hers and bends forward, her face in a grimace of pain. "No," she says in a strained voice. "I don't think I'm okay at all."

The women spring into action, and Carrie waves at their waitress. "We need the check, please," she says urgently, keeping an eye on Jo as she rubs Frankie's back.

Barbie slides out of the booth along with Jude, and Barbie rushes for the payphone, digging in her handbag for a dime. "I'll call Ed," she says, reaching for the phonebook that's connectedto the phone. She flips through the white pages, looking for Ed Maxwell as her finger traces down the newsprint.

Jude stands in the middle of the diner, and for a moment, it's as if the women are putting on a play with the other customers as their audience. Everyone has stopped drinking coffee and eating pie, and even the cooks behind the divider between the kitchen and the dining area have stopped flipping burgers and chopping onions. The beating heart of the restaurant becomes Frankie's pain, and her anguish fills the air as Jo helps her out of the booth.

"We're driving to the hospital," Jo says with authority.

"I'm calling Ed!" Barbie shouts from the payphone, waiting as the ringing on the other end of the line goes on and on.

And then, in an instant, the bill gets paid, Jo has Frankie in her car, Jude and Carrie have boxed up the leftover cake, and Barbie hears Ed's voice on the line.

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