Chapter 36 - The Road Trip [https://cdn.midjourney.com/e5b13f47-7975-4aa3-bde8-3b7e2cd8d8c0/0_3.png]

The air crackled with tension as the three women sat down around the table. Cats in carriers made commentary from their viewpoints like hecklers. Kennedy wished she was in something more sturdy than a tatty nightgown and some worn slippers. Armor would be nice.

Nana sat with her hands clasped in front of her. “Show her the pictures, Kendie.”

Her Mother snapped. “I don’t want to see those. Knowing she changed is enough.” Stubborn as always, her mother drew a handgun out of her purse and placed it on the table. “Just to be safe.”

“You will remove that from my house right now.”

“I will not, and soon enough, you will be grateful for that. That baby she is carrying could flip her shape at any moment. When she sleeps, she will have no control at all. You are lucky to be in one piece. She risked your life coming here. Kennedy has to accept the consequences for foolishly choosing to stop taking suppression medicine.”

Keeping half an eye on the oiled gun, most likely Mr. Bob’s, Kennedy pulled up the pictures like her grandma had instructed.

“About that…” A queen in her castle, Nana lifted her chin. “I made an awful choice and there have been consequences. Mary Lynn, I looked up those herbs you had me order, and I found some information about them being toxic. So I quit sending you what you told me to order. I ordered a similar mix without the toxic berries.” She looked embarrassed. “I was worried it would damage her liver, and… It was significantly cheaper.”

A look of horror settled on her mother’s face. “For how long?” She reached out and gripped Kennedy’s hand. Her anger was visibly shifting directions.

“Two months, a bit more.”

Jaw working, her mother stood up. “This IS your fault. You stupid, stubborn, old woman.”

Shoulders squared, Nana didn’t flinch. “I might be all of those things.” The older woman looked proud and determined. “I am going to write that girl.” She looked at Kennedy. “What was her name? The girl who took you in?”

“Sandy.” Kennedy looked from one woman to the other. They were squaring off like lipstick-adorned badgers.

“Our family owes her a couch. I want to cover the damage that happened to the girl’s place. And you need to get tough and look at the pictures. There is no hiding from this. We three women have a pretty complicated problem to solve.”

When Kennedy pushed the phone toward her Mom, she reluctantly accepted it and began scrolling through the images. Face softening, she smiled. “You have pretty ears.”

“Mary Lynn, it’s time for you to explain what our choices actually are, and this time, we are going to listen. Just what the hell is going on?”

Swallowing a surprised sound, Kennedy’s gaze swiveled. She had never heard her Nana cuss. By lunchtime, they had a plan.

*

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Sharing a back seat with three stacked cat carriers, Kennedy stared with amazement at her mother and grandmother peacefully discussing the travel route ahead of them. Calling Sandy had been the hardest part of the morning, but both her Mom and her Nana had sat with her. Surprisingly, their presence had given her strength. Her Nana had promised Sandy that she would put a check in the mail to cover repairs with added cash for her trouble. Kennedy had apologized and listened quietly while Sandy yelled and told her she was irresponsible. There was no arguing about that.

As they backed out of the driveway, past Nan’s mailbox, she saw the jaunty little flag. A letter and a check would arrive at Sandy’s house in a few days. Her mom had refused to kennel the cats, so they were her very loud seat companions. The older women had taken command of the ship, and Kennedy was relieved. They had rolled her into the car like she was one more cat. Her Grandma was in the driver’s seat, gripping the steering wheel with determination. There was no time to waste.

Wincing with discomfort, her Mom turned in her seat and said, “I managed to get you an emergency appointment with a Shepard doctor. You need to end this quickly, while the pregnancy is early. We have to get to the mountains and settle this situation before something awful happens.”

“Worse than eating a couch?”

Her mother glared at her. “I half expected to find bits and pieces of your Nana on the front lawn. Why do you think I rushed here?”

“I would never.”

“Your birth mom believed that too, and parts of her lover are buried in the woods without a marker.”

Lips pressed shut, Kennedy placed her hand on her belly. She wouldn’t have done that, not ever. If she had time to think, she could figure this out. Kennedy hadn’t had time to wrap her head around the idea that she was pregnant. Or that she was a bear. The thought of ending everything before she understood her options didn’t seem like the right choice. “I need to think, Mom. And I need to talk to Terry.”

A vein in her Mother’s forehead pulsed. “Is that the hill boy’s name?”

“He isn’t a boy. He is a grown man and a veterinarian.”

“How many more were there?” Her mom’s question startled her.

Her Nana drifted toward the road’s shoulder. “Mary Lynn, that’s not a fair question. What kind of girl do you think she is? She was there a week.” Nana corrected her trajectory with a little jerk of the wheel as her tires bumped across the ridged asphalt that was on the other side of the yellow line.

Kennedy answered, “Three.”

When Nana made a startled noise in her throat, her mother came to Kennedy’s rescue. “She was in heat. You won’t understand. It’s a people thing.”

Nana snorted. “I’m people.”

Her mother corrected her. “Not where I come from. Kendie, how many gave you rings?”

Kennedy thought of the two sweet grass rings in her wallet. “Two.”

“All by your choosing?”

“Yes, Mam.”

Her Mother nodded. “When I was a girl, there were stories of wild ones who would just go down on all fours in the middle of town and take all comers.”

Recoiling, Nana said, “That’s disgusting.”

“Their ways are their own. They aren’t good Christian people like us.” Her mother sighed. “Kendie, I wanted to save you from all that trouble. Did you take your smoothies like I told you? Not that it matters, because of Nana’s stupidity, but did you?”

“I missed two days when we were traveling and I was bleeding.”

Concerned, Nana turned her gaze away from the road. “Why were you bleeding?”

“Eyes on the road, Nan.” Kennedy didn’t know where to begin. “It’s hard to explain.”

With a dip of her chin, her mother asked, “Did you ever split skin before the pregnancy?”

“Yes.”

Unable to accept the answer, her Mom shook her head. “No. Our side has been clean for generations. We take the medicine until we reach the change in menopause, even through our pregnancies.” Her Mom said it like she was proud of never taking on a heart shape. “I never changed, not since my first spark of life. My mother raised me right. It’s been that way since we immigrated here from across the sea. The mountain folk are the ones that forget why we came here. They don’t remember all the trouble and fighting. Almost everybody died. My pa was faithful. I should have told you more, but I pretended we weren’t living among the sheep. I wanted to be a sheep, like your sweet daddy.”

Kennedy couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Why didn’t you have children? Besides me?”

Her Mother looked toward Nan. “I fell in love with a boy who wasn’t of the people. You can’t breed a goose and a ferret.”