Page 71 of Bountiful
Whoa.
With a gasp, I let go of Zara’s hand and leapt tomyfeet.
“What’s the matter?” Zara asked, sounding far away. Nicole popped off her mother’s nipple and squinted upatme.
“Nothing,” I wheezed, pacing in a circle. I’d just realized that Bess had worn cloth diapers. I remembered them now—they were held together with safety pins, and there was a plastic thing she wore over them. I remembered cupping her fat little foot as she stepped through theleghole…
I’d changed diapers before. Quite a few of them. I’d done my first one that day in the damp crib, while my mother’s dead body lay on the floor of thelivingroom.
“Dave.” Zara’s voice was low and steady, and it broke through the fog of mypanic.
“Yeah?” I forced myself to stand still for asecond.
Deep yogabreathin…
“Areyouokay?”
“Sure,” I grunted. It might even be trueeventually.
“Have you ever hadperry?”
Breathe. “Who’sPerry?
Zara’s smile was the kind you get when someone was tolerating your strangeness. “Not who. What. Perry is pearcider.”
“You can do that?” I watched her pretty face and tried tocalmdown.
“Sure. I’llshowyou.”
Zara had already tucked herself back into her dress. Now she lifted a sleepy Nicole onto her shoulder and stood. The baby wrapped one chubby arm around her neck and tucked her face onto Zara’s neck. “Let’s walk the long way so this onegetslazy.”
She pointed down a row of trees and Ifollowed.
My heart rate descended back into the normal range as we walked slowly through the orchard. Nicole was completely zonked out on Zara’s shoulder. Supporting her sleeping body looked cumbersome, and I realized I was basically letting a woman carry a heavy object while I walked beside her unaware. “Hey. You want me totakeher?”
She stopped, turning to me with amusement on herface. “Sure?”
“Unless she’ll wake up during thehandoff.”
“It’ll work. Sleep is the deepest right after you gounder.”
Well, okay then. I held out my hands, and Zara grasped her daughter and turned her. I bent my knees and hastily brought her against me, tucking her head against my shoulder withonehand.
And then I was holding my sleeping baby girl for thefirsttime.
“There you go,” Zara said, looking more amused than absolutelynecessary.
We walked on, coming to a fenced-in area where chickens pecked at the grass. Some were reddish and some had blond feathers. A single rooster walked towards us on his claw-like feet, cocking his head at me and blinking reptilian eyes. He opened his mouth and let out a loud crow ofwarning.
The baby on my shoulder didnotstir.
“I think he’s telling us to back off,” I said, as the rooster crowedagain.
“No way,” Zara scoffed, giving the rooster a casual wave. “I think he’s just showing off. ‘These are all my wives. Aren’t they pretty?’ Just like a man,really.”
Something tight inside my chest loosened up, and I laughed as the hens began to cluck. It was like a fucking storybookaroundhere.
ChapterTwenty-One
