Page 25 of Beside the Rolling Waves
“Happiness is not my goal right now. Getting you better is.”
“Raising my babies is your goal,” Rita said, her voice stern, her eyes raised, meeting Becky’s eyes and expecting her sister to nod in agreement.
“All right. Raising your babies is my goal. But getting you healthy is my goal as well. People can have more than one goal.”
“You have two. Two babies. Two goals. You’re taking care of both of them. You know, it’s a boy and a girl.”
“Oh my goodness, I never even thought to ask. Do you have names?”
“I sure do. Marley for the little girl, and Kevin for the boy. I’m not naming him after the father.”
“I love them. They’re perfect.”
“And they might be just as close as adults as they are as children, but these two babies are going to be brother and sister. They’re not any more the same than if I would have had them years apart. Except they’re sharing my womb, and they’ll be born at the same time.”
“And they’ll do everything together,” Becky said, and then she thought… There was a boy and a girl, Rodney could have the boy, she could have a girl, and they wouldn’t even need to know that they had siblings.
“I can tell that you’re scheming. Stop it right now. You’re not getting out of this. You promised.” Rita did not sound desperate, but Becky got the impression that she actually was.
“Do Mom and Dad know about this?” Her sister would know she was referring to Luke and Kristen, the couple whohad adopted them. Currently Luke and Kristen were with Griff and Chi, the couple who had been instrumental in Rodney’s life after his parents’ horrible murder/suicide, sharing a cabin in the wilds of Alaska, a life-long bucket list item for both men.
“No. And they better not find out. If they have to come home early, after they’ve spent years saving and looking forward to this trip, because you told them about me, I will never forgive you. They’ve done way too much for us for us to even consider doing anything that would ruin this. Plus, the weather has been too bad for their weekly phone call for the last month. I haven’t talked to them since Thanksgiving. I couldn’t have told them if I wanted to.”
Becky was quiet. Luke and Kristen would be upset that they hadn’t been told, but they would understand. They’d been the absolutely best parents anyone could ask for and had supported Rita and Becky every way they could. Both Rita and Becky had been very careful to not take advantage of them, much to Luke and Kristen’s consternation. They would do everything for their adoptive daughters if they could.
“Please, Becky. You know what it was like for us before Luke and Kristen. And you know even more than I do what it was like to feel like we didn’t belong in the foster homes we were in. I want my babies to have a mom and a dad and be normal. To be raised the way babies are supposed to be raised, not shuttled back and forth without any kind of grounding whatsoever until they’re teens, like we were.”
“I told you I would do it. I meant I would. I’m not going to go back on my word. You know I wouldn’t.”
“Rodney told me that you were supposed to meet him on Wednesday at the diner in Blueberry Beach. He said you didn’t show.”
Becky’s eyes got wide, and she looked at the hand she held. It was thin and translucent. She didn’t want to talk to her sisterabout Rodney, about the pain she felt. Her sister already knew some of it, but maybe she didn’t know the depths, and right now, Rita had enough on her plate.
“My truck wouldn’t start. That’s why there is a car in your driveway. I decided that I needed a reliable vehicle, so I traded my truck and got a car.” She did not mention that she had to sell her horses in order to do that. That she looked at the price of formula and decided that she might as well just sell all four of them, because she was going to need that money and then somehow figure out how to make an income in order to continue to buy whatever the kids needed.
“Oh. I thought there was a car in the driveway, but in the excitement of seeing you and thinking about how tired I was and how much my feet hurt, I guess it just slipped my mind.” She snorted. And then laughed. “I can’t believe you got rid of that old clunker. Wow. You’re moving up in the world!”
Becky wasn’t sure that she was moving anywhere. The car wasn’t really that much of an improvement over her old truck. It just had a six-month guarantee, and if it didn’t start, the car dealer would come help her with it. For free. But Rita didn’t need to know all of that.
Although, a six-month guarantee might not be long enough. If what Rita was saying was true, it was possible that in six months, she wouldn’t have a sister.
“I just need you to get better, okay? I can’t live without you.”
“God promises to give you everything you need. If you have me, it’s because you need me. And if He takes me, it’s because you don’t.”
When did her sister get to be so wise, Becky wondered as she looked at her. Is that what happened when a person faced death and did it the right way? All of a sudden, the pieces of life fit into place, and they saw eternity through eyes that had wisdom beyond the years they’d lived?
Becky wasn’t entirely sure, but one thing she did know, she didn’t like to hear her sister talking like that.
“All right. So there are car seats. I’m going to need to buy bottles and formula and pack ’n plays or cribs or something. You have a list?” She had not researched babies. She had no idea what all they needed. But judging from Vera’s house, they needed a lot. There was a ton of stuff that Vera claimed was nonnegotiable and absolutely essential. Even when they didn’t have babies in their house, the stuff was ready so that if a foster child was available, they could get it immediately. It was a lot of stuff.
“I started one, but it’s long, and I don’t think it’s everything.” Rita waved a hand at her nightstand. “It’s in the drawer there. Along with the pen. If you want, I can go over the stuff, but… I might fall asleep.”
“No. Don’t you worry about it. We’ll go over it tomorrow while you’re waiting for surgery. Or we’ll go over it after you wake up.”
“All right,” Rita said, not mentioning that she might not wake up. A good thing because Becky was going to explode all over her if she even tried to say anything. She was not going to allow her sister to think anything but positive thoughts. She was going to survive the surgery, she was going to wake up, she was going to be around to raise her children. And that was that.
Thirteen
