Chapter Twenty-six
Jennie lost sight of Kane’s truck about a block from her place. Though she’d jumped into her car to follow him as soon as he’d taken off, she knew it would be pure dumb luck to actually catch him.
Nevertheless, having watched carefully, she knew he’d turned right, and then because his truck was nowhere in sight and because of a one-way street, he’d have been forced to take a left. Slamming her wheel when the car in front of her stopped for a freaking red light, it was game over.
Son of a bitch!The man drove like a maniac. And she thought she could handle the wheel. Taking her time to circle as many streets as she thought might give her a lead proved fruitless. Finally, she gave up and headed back home.
There she placed a message to her daughter that meant business. You either text or call, Lisa, or there’ll be trouble.
Waiting, she swore and stomped around the veranda, knowing that Baba couldn’t hear her out there. Or so she thought.
“What’s happened, Wnuczka?” The old lady appeared in her flowered, cotton robe with a babushka tied in her hair to keep in the few rollers she used every night.
Jennie heard the softness in her grandmother’s voice and knew when she was being referred to as a granddaughter, Baba meant to learn the truth.
Still… trying to cover up her earlier apprehensions, she opened her eyes wide and began the acting she could have made a career of had she any inclination. So many times over the years, she’d been forced to play this role where life was wonderful, and there were no problems at all.
Before she could say what came naturally in moments like this, her baba held up her hand. “The truth, Jennie. I want the truth.”
“I was going to tell you that, Baba.”
“No. No you were going to actress for me. But this I know. Kane is back. Lisa is gone. And you are worried… and furious. Now tell me.”
Having no idea what made her break down, Jennie slumped to the floor in front of the big chair where her grandmother had taken a seat. The gnarled, wrinkled hands reached out for her face, and before she knew what was happening, she’d dropped her head in her baba’s lap.
Feeling the finger’s gentle caress over her cheeks, brushing the wisps of hair back behind her ears, Jennie took a deep breath and began with the truth, but she was prepared to fib if the questions became too inquisitive. Her wise baba had a way of getting to the crux of a matter in moments like this.
“It’s just that great-granddaughter of yours making me worry again, Baba. She hasn’t answered my calls or texts when I gave her orders to get back to me. I don’t know where she is.”
“Aww, Wnuczka, why you fuss over girl? She’s smart, like her mama. She’s fine. It’s not so late. Probably, she finds boy and forgets time. Like you with Kane.”
Jennie wished the answer could be so simple. But she’d seen Kane’s face and her instincts had kicked in. Something terrible had happened, and she had no doubt Lisa would be in the middle of it. But that wasn’t to be shared with Baba. Not at her age when she’d already had a few smaller strokes, and Jennie couldn’t bear to be the reason for her to have another.
Mad at herself for even mentioning Lisa, she grabbed onto the mention of Kane, a subject she knew would draw her baba away from the real worry.
“Why did you mention Kane, Baba?”
“Because he’s back… and stars, too. In your eyes. I watch – many years, waiting, hoping you find man to make you happy. No find.” Her tired face nodded with utter conviction. “Only Kane. He is man for you.”
Jennie couldn’t believe her ears. “How can you say such a thing? You know what he did. How he left me. How can you still believe in him?”
“Did he know about baby? No.”
“Did he care enough about me to check if I could be pregnant? No.”
“You say, you tell him you safe that day. No get pregnant.”
Astounded at having her own words used against her, she closed her eyes and remembered twenty years earlier when they were in exactly this same position and on the same veranda.
She’d been utterly broken then, hurt beyond endurance, abandoned by the one person she’d loved with every fiber of her being. A sixteen-year-old who’d never felt this way before, as if her very life depended on hearing his voice and feeling his touch.
To have it all ripped away after a day of bliss had been the ultimate, excruciating pain. She’d thought then, things couldn’t be worse. Every day, she’d woken up with a broken heart, pleading to God to make him call with explanations as to why he’d left. That everything would be back to normal, and she wouldn’t have to go through any more days in hell all alone.
Only he hadn’t called. She’d never heard from him again. And the day she had to acknowledge her pregnancy, she’d walked around like a zombie until her baba had brought her to this very place, sat her down with her head on her knee, and with loving kindness had encouraged Jennie to share her story.
And she had. That night, she’d suffered through every possible emotion across the spectrum. When she’d talked about Kane and how they’d been so in love… to her hurt at being left like she didn’t matter. Then the fears about being pregnant and how she would possibly cope with everything that entailed.
“We take care of baby, Jennie. We love baby and do best we can. It will come right, you see. And Kane… I like him. I dunno why he go, but he has reason. We wait. He come back. So, no more tears. Happy baby needs happy mama, starting in tummy. Okay?”