Page 40 of The Launch

Frankie sighs. “They got a whole slew of female engineers who just started. I heard they like to go to the Black Hole after work with our boys. What do we think about that?”

“We do not like it,” Barbie says defensively. “We do not like it at all. And Todd hasn’t even mentioned it.”

Jo feels trouble brewing, so she tactfully changes the subject. “Tuna or egg salad?” she asks, holding one of each sandwich in the air for the children to choose from. They all make their picks, and then she hands bottles of soda around to the women as they take a sandwich or politely pass.

“Dieting,” Barbie says with a sad smile. “I need to lose some baby weight, otherwise I’d love an egg salad.”

“Oh, honey. You don’t need to lose a pound,” Carrie says. She’s dressed in an oversized dress made of lightweight fabric, and she’s hiked it up to her thighs so that her legs are basking in the sun. She adjusts the wide-brimmed hat on her head as she watches the children playing together. “You’re all stunning. In fact,we all are. We need to stop letting men and society tell us that we aren’t good enough.”

“Forget about the rest of the world. Before I even leave the house, my mirror tells me I’m not good enough,” Frankie says drily.

Carrie reaches over and swats Frankie’s bare leg with a rolled-up magazine. “Stop it! And you all mark my words: we might eat celery sticks and starve ourselves now to fit in, but someday there will be a lot of pushback to this. People will understand how hard it is to be a woman, and they won’t expect us to give birth and then immediately have a tiny waist again.”

Barbie switches Huck to the other breast as she shoots a disbelieving look in Carrie’s direction. “I don’t think so,” she says with a sad look. “My mom has been on me since I was ten to stay skinny. She told me no man would want a fat woman, and I’ve never seen anything to say otherwise.”

Jo frowns at this, but she sees both sides of the coin on this issue. She wants her girls to grow up in a world where they don’t look at every bite of food and wonder whether it will go directly to their hips (and if it does, who cares!), but she also knows that there are zero messages coming from society at large that don’t have to do with being slim, pretty, and feminine. It’s a tug-of-war in her own heart; she’s already absorbed all the messages herself. Without even thinking about it, Jo can substitute coffee for breakfast, or skip dessert even when it looks mouthwateringly delicious.

Jimmy and Marcus come running back from the water’s edge with handfuls of wet, sandy shells that they dump right onto Jo’s blanket. She’s growing accustomed to the sensation of sand infiltrating every corner of her life, so rather than complain about the mess, she just smiles at them. “Found some treasures, boys?”

Jimmy puts his hands on his narrow hips and stares at the pile of shells. “Maybe. Gotta see what else is out there.” The boysrun off again, dashing for the waves that break right there on the white sand beaches.

“Any word on Jude?” Carrie asks Jo with a concerned look as she pops the lid off her bottle of Tab. She turns the soda around and reads the name on it. “And what is this?”

“A new Coca-Cola soda without sugar. Better for your diet,” Barbie says, sipping her own bottle of Tab.

Carrie rolls her eyes at the word “diet” and goes on. “Anyway, do we know how she is?”

Jo shoots a pointed look in the direction of where the little girls are playing together and drops her voice. “Vance was by this morning and said he needed to head back to the hospital, and I told him I’d keep the girls with me. They haven’t said a word about it, so I’m not sure if they even know what’s going on.”

“Strange,” Barbie says. She’s rocking back and forth with Huck dozing in her arms. As she sits there, four-year-old Heath brings a shovelful of sand over and pours it on her toes. Barbie wiggles her feet and smiles at her oldest son. “I wonder what’s going on. Maybe one of us should drop by the hospital this afternoon with a snack for Vance?”

“Or maybe Jo can use her hospital connections to call and find out how she is,” Frankie suggests as she pulls a pack of cigarettes from her purse. She looks at everyone else and then tosses the unopened pack back into her bag. “Sometimes I think I should just quit smoking altogether.” She grimaces.

“Or maybe do it less,” Carrie offers helpfully. “I know it’s a habit, but you could replace it with something else.”

“Like eating more and getting chubby?” Frankie shoots her a look.

Carrie groans. “You could stand to eat a few cupcakes, girl.”

“Don’t worry,” Barbie teases, still rocking back and forth as she sits. “As soon as she starts popping out babies, she’ll thicken right up!”

The women laugh, but Jo catches a glimpse of Frankie’s face. There is a flicker of something there. They haven’t discussed the fact that Frankie and Ed don’t have children yet, but Jo senses that there are things lurking beneath the surface when it comes to that particular topic, and she doesn’t want to see Frankie get put on the spot right there during a lovely picnic on the beach.

“Maybe I should run by there,” Jo says as a way to change the subject. “The hospital, I mean. I could take Vance some sandwiches and just check in.”

“Sure,” Carrie says. “You can drop all the kids off with me and I’ll watch them while you go over. You’re the one who is closest to this situation anyway.”

“Drop them all off?” Jo asks in surprise. “Jude’s girls and all three of mine? You want to have seven kids running around your house?”

Carrie smiles as she scans the group, counting heads. “Yeah, sure. My two are easy, so what’s five more? Besides, my mom raised seven of us while my dad was away during the war. I think I can manage it for an afternoon.”

Jo admires her pluck, but isn’t sure she’d be as easygoing about seven kids running around her house on a blazing hot afternoon. “Okay,” she says. “I’ll do it and be quick about it.”

In the end, they don’t need to do any sort of musical chairs with the kids, as Jo gets back to the house with the station wagon full of hot and sandy children to find Vance waiting in her driveway.

“Hey,” he says, lifting a hand. “I just got here. Jude gets to go home this evening, so I thought I’d run the girls back to our place for a quick bath and a change of clothes,” he says, laughing as his twins race over to him and wrap themselves around his waist. “And then all three of us will go and pick Mama up.”

“Where is Mama?” Hope asks her father.

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