Chapter 35 - Reinforcements [https://cdn.midjourney.com/3e6236a6-6800-4ebe-b3f3-38942ef6a637/0_0.png]

Nana slipped into the spare bedroom Kennedy was resting in, with a sleeve of crackers and a cup of hot tea. When she sat down on the edge of the bed, Kennedy rolled away from her. She didn’t want to talk. What she wanted to do was go back in time, and undo the giant cracks in her universe.

“Kendie, this isn’t the end of the world.” Nana rested her hand on Kennedy’s hip. “You aren’t the first unmarried girl to become pregnant.”

Kennedy groaned and buried her face in her pillow. “Nan, you don’t understand.”

“I’m not that old, kiddo. Even dinosaurs remember how they got pregnant. You aren’t the first to make a mistake and forget a pill.”

“I didn’t forget. People in the mountains say the pill is useless.”

Nana opened the crackers and popped one into her mouth. “Men will say anything. Did some fool convince you to stop taking your birth control?” She turned the open sleeve toward Kennedy and tapped her shoulder with it.

Kennedy took a square, feeling more like a little kid than a grown-up. “Can I show you something crazy, Nan?” She’d loaded the hidden camera footage onto her phone and wasted the morning looking at shots of herself in the apartment. Scrolling back to the beginning, she cued up the pictures of herself eating the couch and turned her phone toward Nan.

Squinting a little, her grandma leaned closer. “How did a bear get into someone’s apartment?”

“Sandy’s apartment.”

“Did you leave the back door open?”

“No, Nan.” Kennedy took a deep steadying breath. “That’s me.”

Nana laughed. “Kendie, that’s not funny.” Kennedy stared at her until Nana put on her glasses and reached for her granddaughter’s phone. She held it close to her nose and pressed play. The light from the video illuminated her face. “Oh, my God.”

“It is me.”

Mouth agape, Nana flipped back and forth through the images, until she got to the ones where Kennedy was in a girl shape again. “That’s impossible.”

Nestled on the bed, Kennedy nibbled on a cracker. The salt tasted good. “I’m learning that lots of things I thought were impossible are possible. I guess I can throw my birth control out the window.”

“Is this a joke? I don’t think this is funny. Your Mom, in her own crazy way, was serious about her fears. I don’t think you should make fun of them.”

“This isn’t a joke, Nan.”

*

After going through the pictures again, one after another, Nana shook her head. “She does kind of look like you.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Brows lifted, Kennedy sat up so she could see the image her grandma was looking at.

“The eyes I think. Look at this one where the bear turns toward the camera and smirks. You’ve always had cute ears.”

Kennedy took the phone back. Nan was kinda right. When her phone rang, she almost dropped it. Tightening her face in discomfort, she sent her friend straight to voice mail. It’d be nice if Sandy would take a pause.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?”

“No. Definitely not.”

“Is it your gentleman? Did you have a fight?”

“No, Nan… It’s Sandy. That’s her apartment, and that was her couch.”

“Oh, dear. You don’t think this is my fault, do you?”

“How on earth could any of this be your fault, Nan?”

“Your Mom stopped getting the right tea...” Nan’s eyes widened with slow horror. “I did this. I’m going to call her. She needs to know that the herbs you were taking weren’t the right ones. I’ll tell her you didn’t stop taking them on purpose.”

“You can’t, Nan.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. She is your mother. I don’t like her much, but she loves you. Like she loved your dad.”

Nan patted her leg, completely ignoring Kennedy’s pleas to not call her mother. The old woman got up and headed down the hall with her phone ringing on speaker. Kennedy pulled the covers up over her head. Why did she have to be related to such stubborn women? She sank deeper into the comfy bed and scrolled the pictures back to the beginning in the dark shelter of the down comforter.

*

The next morning, bare feet cold on the tile, Kennedy shoveled dry cereal into her mouth. Nan had gone on an errand and left a brief note in front of the coffee pot. The notepaper had a fluffy kitten on the top left corner. When Kennedy heard the side door rattle, she called out, “Did you get milk?”

Her mother’s grim face appeared in the kitchen doorway and Kennedy almost dropped her bowl.

“Your grandmother told me what happened.” Kennedy’s Mom placed a cat carrier on the linoleum and pivoted, headed back the way she’d come, limping. Kennedy followed her in her slippers, bowl abandoned on the table.

“Mom, why are you here?” Kennedy paused at the threshold as her Mother gingerly managed the two steps down to the walk, then followed her.

Inside her Mother’s beat-up little Honda, the two other cats complained.

Grumbling, her mom said, “She should have trusted me. That woman has never…”

“Give me that.” Kennedy reached to claim the carriers one at a time as her Mother lifted them out of her car. The damage from the accident kept her from having reliable balance. “I’ll get these. Go inside.” Kennedy wasn’t going to be responsible for her mother falling. Leaving her mom’s battered suitcase resting on the passenger’s side of the car, she hauled the cats toward the house. She would come back for the luggage. The beat-up sedan had somehow survived the trip. “Mom, you gotta admit all of this sounds crazy.”

She shook her head. “The entire world is ignorant.”

“I think that is a little unfair.”

Imperious, her mother limped back toward the house. At least she didn’t seem to be furious at her anymore. Kennedy brought the cats in and then went to fetch the rest.

Her Nan pulled into the driveway and parked right next to her Mother’s car. She got out and looked with disdain at her daughter-in-law’s dinged-up vehicle. “She’s already here? That was fast.”

“You could have told me she was coming.”

Nana, purse securely tucked under her arm, sailed past Kennedy and headed up the walkway. “Not if I wanted you to stay.”

Kennedy jerked her Mom’s suitcase out of the car, kicked the door shut, and followed her retreating Nana. “Did you tell her about the bear or the pregnancy?”

“Both, girl. This isn’t the time to leave things out.” She opened the front door and held it for her granddaughter.

Kennedy rolled her Mom’s suitcase through the living room. “Has she ever visited you at this house before?”

The sound of the cats echoed inside the kitchen and Nana wrinkled her nose with distaste. “Twice, both times, your dad had to bribe her. We had two thanksgivings when you were small.”

“I take it things didn’t go well.” Kennedy had always wondered why her family didn’t go to their Grandparents on the holidays like other families did. People did that even when they hated each other.

Nana shut the door behind her with a resolute click. “It’s a miracle the house is still standing. But here we are. Let’s go talk to her. I have some apologies to make.”