The Gift

“Well, don't,” his father said, opening a beer, and taking a sip. The very idea of Tommy getting married at sixteen unnerved him.

“Don't do anything you'll regret later, Tommy,” his mother said, trying to sound calmer than she felt. But after all she'd heard, her hands were shaking. “You're both very young. You'll ruin your lives if you make a mistake. She's already made one mistake, don't compound it with another.”

“That's what Maribeth says. That's why she wants to give the baby up. She says keeping it would be just one more mistake that everyone would pay for.

I think she's wrong, I think she'll be sorry one day that she gave it up, but she thinks it deserves a better life than she can give it.”

“She's probably right,” his mother said sadly, unable to believe that there was anything sadder in life than giving up a baby, except maybe losing one, especially a child you'd loved. But giving up a baby you'd carried for nine months sounded like a nightmare. “There are lots of wonderful people out there, anxious to adopt …people who can't have children of their own, and would be very good to a baby.”

“I know.” He looked suddenly very tired. It was one-thirty in the morning, and they had been sitting in the kitchen for an hour and a half, discussing Maribeth's problem. “I just think it sounds so sad. And what will she have?”

“A future. Maybe that's more important,” his mother said wisely. “She won't have a life, if she's dragging a baby around at sixteen, with no family to help her. And neither will you, if you marry her. That's not a life for two kids who haven't even finished high school.”

“Just meet her, Mom. Talk to her. I want you to get to know her, and maybe you can give her some stuff from school. She's already gone way past me and I don't know what to give her.”

“All right.” His parents looked worried as they exchanged a glance, but they both nodded agreement. “Bring her home next week. I'll cook dinner.” She made it sound like a major sacrifice. She hated cooking anymore, but she did it when she had to, and now she felt guiltier than ever about it, if it had driven her son to eating in restaurants, like an orphan. She tried to say something to him about that as they turned off the lights and walked down the hall. “I'm sorry I … I'm sorry I haven't been there very much for you' she said, as tears filled her eyes, and she stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “I love you … I guess I've been kind of lost myself for the past ten months.”

“Don't worry about it, Mom,” he said gently, “I'm fine.” And he was now, thanks to Maribeth. She had helped him even more than he had helped her. They had brought each other a great deal of comfort.

Tommy went to his room, and in their own room Liz looked at John and sat down heavily on their bed, looking shattered.

“I can't believe what I just heard. You know, he'd marry the girl, if we let him.”

“He'd be a damn fool if he did,” John said angrily. “She's probably a little slut if she got herself pregnant at sixteen, and she's selling him a bill of goods about wanting an education, and college.”

“I don't know what to think,” Liz said, as she looked up at him, “except that I think we've all gone pretty crazy in the past year. You've been drinking, I've been gone, lost somewhere in my own head, trying to forget what happened. Tommy's been eating in restaurants and having an affair with a pregnant girl he wants to marry. I'd say we're a fair-sized mess, wouldn't you?” she asked, looking stunned by everything she'd just heard, and feeling very guilty.

“Maybe that's what happens to people when the bottom falls out of their lives,” he said, sitting down on the bed next to her. It was the closest they'd been in a long time, and for the first time in a long time, Liz realized she didn't feel angry, just worried. “I thought I was going to die when …” John said softly, unable to finish his own sentence.

“So did I … I think I did,” she admitted. “I feel like I've been in a coma for the past year. I'm not even sure what happened.”

He put an arm around her then, and held her for a long time, and that night when they went to bed, he didn't say anything to her, or she to him, he just held her.

Chapter Seven

Tommy picked Maribeth up on her day off, and she had put on her best dress to go to his house and meet his parents. He had come to pick her up after football practice, and he was late, and he seemed more than a little nervous.

“You look really nice,” he said, looking at her, and then he bent down and kissed her. “Thank you, Maribeth.” He knew she really wanted to make an effort to meet his parents. She knew it was important to him, and she didn't want to embarrass him. it was bad enough that she was almost seven months pregnant. No one else in the world would have taken her to meet anyone, let alone their parents, except Tommy.