Page 43 of Pumpkin
“Then why would you manipulate JJ’s name like that? I’m assuming ‘Jacqueline’ is some twist on jack-o’-lantern? You’re the only person who calls her ‘pumpkin’, Calliope.Talk.”
Calliope looked to her mom, but Solstice’s eyes were hard as she stared down at her daughter. Marmot put a hand on her knee, which Dosia knew from experience was his way of showing support evenwhen he was disappointed in you. The gesture was almost worse than shouting would have been.
“From the moment you told me that you were pregnant, I saw…pumpkins. They were everywhere. Sometimes I would look at you and I would swear you had a little pumpkin growing inside you. I couldn’t get it out of my head. When I suggested ‘Jacqueline’ as JJ’s middle name, they started to lessen. Like the pumpkin was transferring from you to her. It happened again when she was born and I called her a pumpkin.”
“And ‘JJ’? Did you know about his son?”
Calliope shook her head. “That one, I swear, was just a coincidence. I just liked it. ‘Juniper’ is such a pretty name, but we were both picked on for our names growing up and I didn’t want that for her. Not until she was old enough to choose her name.”
Dosia had to agree there. Growing up was hard enough when you didn’t have names like ‘Theodosia’, ‘Ambrose’, or ‘Calliope’. Hell, even her mom had changed her name to ‘Stella’ when she’d moved to California to be with Calvin Woods, and she’d been an adult then.
“And telling me to come back?”
“That was all exactly as I told you! There was no vision there. Just my dream and a feeling like the bookstore was no longer mine. I swear, I never lied about that!” Calliope’s eyes were wide and honest. Dosia believed her.
“Fine. Then tell me about last night. What was with Bartleythe Banker?”
“Every time I saw him at the bank to discuss my loan, I would see him escorting you into that restaurant. Even before you came back, I saw it. At first, I really did think he was meant for you. That it was a sign, but the longer you were here…” Her voice trailed off. She looked down at her hands clasped between her knees, the demure attitude making her seem so young. “The day you arrived, you had a pumpkin in you.”
Dosia’s eyebrows went up. “I’m not pregnant.” She wasverysure of that.
Calliope shook her head. “Not in your belly this time. It’s in your heart.”
Dosia looked down at her chest as if she could see what Calliope was describing, but of course, she couldn’t. The pumpkin was in her heart? What the hell did that mean?
“When I mentioned going on a date, the pumpkin grew. It was like it was pulsing, and I knew I was on the right track.”
“So you were guessing?” Dosia didn’t keep the disbelief from her voice.
Calliope opened her mouth, closed it, and then turned her face away.
Grandpa Marmot shook her leg. “You owe her an explanation, baby.”
Calliope’s chin trembled. “I never guess,” she finally said. “But sometimes I mean to say ‘left’ and ‘right’ comes out of my mouth.” She quickly wiped her eyes. “Sometimes I don’t realize what I’ve done, the domino effect it will have, until later.”
Dosia knew that already. Calliope didn’t have as much control as she wished she did, and it had always been a source of discontent with her. Like someone or something was controlling her actions.
But in this case, that was utter bullshit. “You knew what you were doing when you brought JJ to the bookstore.Itold you to bring her home and you brought her to the bookstore. And wearing that fucking shirt of all things! You knew what you were doing and you did it behind my back, Calliope! It wasmy choiceto tell JJ’s father about her. Not yours.”
“It was better this way,” Calliope muttered.
“For who?” Dosia shouted. Grandma Solstice quickly shushed her, her eyes looking up towards the ceiling where JJ was asleep on the second floor. Dosia took a deep breath to try to calm herself. “You can manipulate me all you want, Calliope. Maneuver my life like it’s a fucking chessboard, but don’t youevermanipulate my daughter again. She is off-limits. What you did today is reckless, and now, JJ’s father might be suing for custody!”
Grandma Solstice and Grandpa Marmot looked understandablyhorrified and shocked at the words. But Calliope shook her head. “He won’t! I swear!”
“You think I can take that risk?” Dosia demanded. “You think I am going to sit back, relax with a mimosa, with even thepossibilitylooming over my head? JJ is my entire world and I will do whatever I have to to protect her.”
“And you think I won’t?!” Calliope stood for the first time, shaking off her father’s hand on her knee. “I love JJ! I would never do anything to hurt her!”
“Then what do you call today? Youknewhe was there. You had to have!”
Calliope nodded. “I did. When I left, I knew. I saw two futures in that moment, Dosia. Two paths.” She held up her right pointer and middle fingers. “I saw your plan. To get to know Pumpkin, to learn about him and gain his trustbeforeyou told him about JJ. And believe me when I tell you, you would have regretted that decision. He was so in love with you by then that he couldn’t forgive the betrayal. He stayed with you, for SJ’s and JJ’s sakes, but the love he had for you, the trust? It was tainted. The two of you never recovered.” She shrugged, “So I went with the second path. The one that would cause you pain now but save your future, your happiness, with him.”
Dosia stared at her, unable to comprehend her aunt’s words. “That was not your choice. If you had two visions about my life, you should have told me about both and letmechoose.”
Calliope, though, shook her head. “I couldn’t.”
“Yes, you could have!” Dosia insisted. “You could have but you have to have this mystic way about you, trusting your visions over your own family.My lifeis not some game!”
