Page 32 of Across the Universe

“Jude! No!” Barbie says as she reaches across the table for one of Jude’s hands. “No way. She’s going to love you.”

“When is she coming?” Carrie asks, waving away Frankie’s cigarette smoke with a frown. “You know,” she says to Frankie, “someday everyone will know better than to smoke those damn things.”

Frankie rolls her eyes in response, puffs her cigarette haughtily, and looks back at Jude.

“I’ve invited her to come for Mother's Day.”

“That’s wonderful,” Jo says gently, removing her arm from Jude’s shoulders and rubbing her back gently. Jude is a thin woman with some of her mother’s Japanese features, and her body is narrow and elegant, her bone structure graceful and almost birdlike. “Let’s work together to plan some things for your family to do while your mom is here, okay?”

Jude looks at Jo gratefully amid the hubbub of the other women’s banter and discussion about their own mothers. “Thanks, Jo. I’d appreciate that.”

Jo gives Jude’s thigh a hearty slap—a light one, but still enough to shock the woman out of her funk—and smiles. “I bet we can get her a private tour of NASA or something.”

“You think so?”

“Sure. I think we can probably get something scheduled.”

Frankie is watching Jude and Jo from across the table, and when Jo looks at her, she sees something in Frankie’s eyes. They’ve been close friends for long enough now that she can sense when her friend has something to share.

“What’s wrong?” Jo asks, scanning Frankie’s face for clues.

The other women stop talking as they sense a frisson of something intriguing happening between Frankie and Jo. Frankie gives a slow shake of her head as a secretive smile spreads across her face. She looks around at the other women nervously.

“I don’t want to change the topic here away from Jude’s good news or away from us talking about our own mothers, but… I’m going to be one myself.”

“One what?” Barbie asks, her cheeks going pink with expectation.

Frankie turns her head to look at the woman sitting next to her. She laughs throatily at Barbie. “A mother. I’m pregnant.”

Finally! Jo thinks, jumping up from her spot between Jude and Carrie and racing around the picnic table. But what she says out loud is, “Oh, Frankie!” Frankie stands up and puts one leg over the picnic table at a time, then Jo folds her into a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you. Congratulations.”

Frankie lets her closest friend embrace her as the other women exclaim with joy and share their congratulations, and then she sits down again and answers all their questions.

“When will the baby be here?” Barbie asks.

“How long have you known?” Jo asks.

“Have you been to the doctor?” Carrie asks. “Have you considered seeing an acupuncturist?”

Frankie’s eyes dance from face to face as the questions come her way.

“Do you want a boy or a girl?” Jude asks, getting in on the rapid-fire questioning.

Frankie holds up both hands. “Okay, let me see if I can do all of this excitement justice. I found out a couple of weeks ago and have been waiting to make sure everything is fine before I tell everyone. I didn’t want Ed and I to call our parents only to have to call them back with bad news.”

The women fall silent; each of them has either experienced her own pregnancy-related sadness, or known a woman close to her who has.

“But I saw a doctor,” she says, turning to Carrie. “Though I have no idea what in the hell an acu—wait, a what?”

“Acupuncturist,” Carrie clarifies. “It’s a Chinese doctor who puts needles in all your pressure points. Trust me—it’s like magic. I heard about it at the health food store where I buy my wheat germ.”

Frankie is listening with an intent frown. She gives a crisp nod. “No,” she says flatly. “I’m not a pincushion. Next question.” She turns to Jude. “I want a boy or a girl. Or both. I want them all. Ed and I have waited so long for this that I’ll even be thrilled if it comes out rainbow-striped and whistling Christmas songs.”

Jo laughs as tears fill her eyes. She remembers the joy of finding out about each of her pregnancies, and it makes her so happy to imagine Frankie and Ed finding out and sharing their own good news with the world.

“And, Jo, speaking of Christmas songs, the baby should be here sometime around or right after Thanksgiving, so just in time for the holidays.”

The women launch into an excited list of names, share their own pregnancy stories, and laugh over the excitement of a new baby to pass around. Their joyful chatter filters up into the leaves and branches of the old southern magnolia overhead, and in the grass, their kids get sweaty with the exertion of play.

---