Page 52 of The Homecoming

“Don’t forget, I have a doctor’s appointment at three,” she called after him.

“I know,” he called back.

***

Autumn opened the back door to the warm smell of chicken and dough, which meant chicken and dumplings. She shrugged off her coat, hanging it on a peg behind the door as her mom stirred a simmering pot of goodness at the stove. Autumn inhaled the comforting aroma, closed her eyes, and let her tension fall away. “That smells wonderful,” she hummed. She hung her bag on the same hook with her coat and opened it, pulling out the sonogram photos taken that afternoon.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” her mom said not paying attention.

“I had another sonogram this afternoon.”

“What did the doctor say?”

“Everything looks good,” she said. “And this time he cooperated and opened his legs.”

“It’s a boy?” Shirley asked.

Autumn nodded, holding up the photos and running her mom through what each one captured. Shirley smiled and rubbed Autumn’s protruding belly. At least she was warming up to the idea of a baby, even if she still disapproved of the way Autumn was running her life.

The jury was still out on how Autumn felt about the baby.

She’d resigned herself to the fact that it was happening and that she had to prepare. But the joy everyone kept telling her she should be feeling hadn’t materialized, though she was still waiting for it.

Dinner went surprisingly well, but only her mom and dad were at the table. Jason had been called to eat, but hadn’t bothered to come downstairs. She showed her dad the sonogram pictures and he smiled at the news he would have a grandson.

“But a granddaughter would have been just as exciting,” he reassured her, though she hadn’t asked.

After the delicious dinner, she walked into the family room and switched on the lamp to find Jason sitting in the dark with the television off.

“Mom made chicken and dumplings,” she said. “You should get some.”

“It’s a boy.”

“You just sat in here listening to everything?”

He stood and paced the room. “A damn Madera boy,” he muttered.

She said nothing. What was there to say? It’s not like they had intentionally picked the gender. She didn’t intentionally do any of this.

“He goes behind my back and knocks you up,” he said through gritted teeth.

“And this upsets you?”

“You know it does,” he yelled. “I told him to stay away from you.”

“I participated in this just as much as he did. And you have no right to be angry about who I choose—”

“I’m not fucking angry,” he interrupted. He slammed his fist into the wall inches from her, the drywall splintering around the hole. He pulled back his hand, staring at the damaged wall before looking back at his hand as if trying to comprehend what had happened.

She should step back, flee the room, but her legs refused to move. He stumbled back, his eyes as big as those of an owl with pupils dilated and his mouth hanging open. He looked back and forth from the wall to Autumn. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’ll fix it.” He turned toward the stairs.

“You’re going to a doctor,” Autumn yelled at his back. “I don’t wanna hear any excuses.”

He stopped, nodding without looking at her before climbing the steps.

She turned, discovering her parents were in the doorway. “He’s going to a doctor. Even if we have to tie him up. Even if I have to get Weasel to handcuff him and drag him to the doctor, he’s going.”

Autumn followed him up the stairs, but he’d already closed himself off in his room. She went to hers and powered on the computer to figure out what could be wrong with her brother. Who else out there came back from war with similar problems? There had to be some reason, some explanation, something that could tell her why.

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