The River--Chapter 5

Twenty-odd years ago and I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had just finished eating turkey and ham and stuffing and two kinds of potatoes at my house. My mamma and daddy grilled me about the baby's daddy. I told them what I always told them, "We're getting married." Daddy wanted to know why they never met him, then he called him a "deadbeat dirtbag" and threw the empty Fuki Plum wine bottle hard towards the plastic kitchen wastecan.

I looked toMamma and told her that I don't know why he was so angry, I was getting married: it was set in song. She looked at me like I was crazy, and I decided that this was as good a time as any to let JJ and his family know about my condition and our impending marriage. I figured the family would be there, I'd tell 'em, we'd all have pie and things would be fine.

I asked Daddy for the keys to the La Baron. He didn't want to hand them over since I was pregnant, said it was two lives he'd have to worry about, then. Daddy thought I drove kind of reckless back then; I don't know why since I never had an accident. Anyway, I thought the walk would do me good; it was a couple of miles, not more.

When I got to JJ's seems my condition wasn't so much a surprise to them. I knocked on the door and had a big smile on my face. Their house was a nice home: real stone, like an old farmhouse from the 1700's and a big backyard that was probably part of a field at some time. I thought how nice that would be for a little kid growing up here. My parents lived in a half of a house on Main Street with a tiny backyard filled with old cars and lawn mowers. I could never play in the backyard because Mamma always said I could step on something sharp and  rusty and die of tetnus before Daddy got home from work.

JJ's mom opened the door with a kind smile on her face. When she saw me the kind smile turned to pitty. She put an arm around me immediately like I'd been living with wolves all my life and just stumbled into civilization.

"Oh, my dear. I'm so sorry to hear about your condition. All my Princess House friends were talking about you the other day. I was going to bake a cake."

My eyes brightened, "do you have some pie?" I prefered pumpkin, but wasn't going to appear too picky. I briefly wondered why the Princess House ladies were talking about me.

"We certainly have pie, my dear. It's Thanksgiving afterall. Do you prefer apple, pecan or pumpkin?" It looked as though she pittied me worse, now, like my own family won't give me pie for Thanksgiving.

"Pumpkin, please." JJ's mom led me through a maze of skinny, low archways towards the back of the house where a big plank table was laid out with paper cloths and food enough for about a hundred farmhands. There were about twelve or  fifteen people there, not including the toddler in the highchair. The kid seemed to old for a highchair, but he seemed at an in-between sort of age; too big for a highchair, too little for a regular chair, too unstable for a stack of phone books. I saw JJ right away and smiled. The blood seemed to drain right out of his face.

JJ's mom went to cut the pumpkin pie, and I smiled big at JJ.

"JJ, I swore you didn't even know, yet. I was just coming to tell ya, but your mamma says you got all her Princess House friends talking about it."

JJ stood up, wide eyes hollow, like that first trip to the river. If I'd have spit on him he would have fallen over.

JJ's dad came over to me and asked after my daddy, telling me he must be heartbroken, my being the only girl and all. Then JJ's mom came over and hushed him, sitting me down with a big piece of pie. Everyone else just stared at me, even the kid in the highchair. 

JJ's mom introduced me, "Everyone, this is Maddy; Maddy, this is everyone." Then she started naming everyone one by one, Aunt Jean, Cousin Bobby. Turns out the kid in the highchair is hers. JJ's brother is just a baby.

When JJ finally spoke, it was just to say that he never told his parents a thing about me. He said he didn't even know how they knew me.

JJ's mamma, she said to  call her Mellie, told me then that she knew my mamma and daddy from PTA years ago, and that once or twice JJ's dad went fly fishing with my daddy. At that moment, I knew that JJ knew that I was knocked up before I came over, but that he  never told his mamma and daddy that the baby was his. So I did.

Years later, JJ would say that what I did next was malicious, but I didn't see it that way. Like I said, my life is mapped out and for JJ's nineteeth birthday he was supposed to get a union card and a wedding coat. I think he already got the union card, so a coat was all he needed.

You see, as I was sitting there eating pie, happy as a clam with everyone staring at me, I just said that me and JJ had to get married.

"Well, I just came to say that JJ is the baby's daddy and that I'm sure he'll be a good one. I expect that we should get married after Christmas since the holidays are so crazy. The school said their going to give me some special home education for the last semester so I can get a diploma. JJ, when do you turn nineteen?

If the whole darn family wasn't staring at me enough already, they stared harder and stepped closer. They didn't look like an angry mob; more like zombies looking for a place to fall.

JJ just said "January fifteenth."

I  replied in a real friendly tone (trying to get the crazy out of this situation) "We should do the wedding-thing before then I think. What do you think about the seventh?"

No one seemed to respond to my calmness so I figured they all needed to talk a bit. I told JJ to give me a call or stop by since my Daddy's all riled up about meeting him and Mamma's all anxious to make an appointment with the JP. I got up, put my pie plate in the sink and turned to leave. Mellie stopped me and asked if I want some decaf. I said no, and asked if I ought not call her "Mamma" now. She didn't really respond, so I just said, "thanks, Mellie."

Walking home, I felt right on track.