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“She seems to be doing great so far. She loves her new pre-school but luckily, she’s only going for a few hours a day, since I only have part-time hours at the high school. She loves being close to my mom and Mickey, so she’s a happy little girl. I’m pretty lucky, she’s always been easy. I had an easy pregnancy and a fairly easy delivery. She was four weeks early and really tiny but she was a great baby. Now that she’s a great big four your old, she’s still pretty great.”
“Well, look at her mom…she was born with pretty great genes.”
“Shut up,” she says as she throws a Cheeto at me.
“It’s true, Em, she’s pretty damn lucky to have you for a mom.”
“Well, thanks but it hasn’t been easy. I’ve had lots of help. That old saying ‘it takes a village’ is pretty true.”
“Why didn’t you move home to be with family when you had her?”
“Well, I didn’t want to quit school. I had just started my new job working as an administrative assistant at an Occupational Therapist’s office and the people there were great. It was like an instant family and just what I needed. Not only was I twenty-one, in college and pregnant but I started that job the day after leaving San Clemente and I wasn’t exactly in the best headspace.”
If it was even half as hard on you Gracie, as it was on me, then I know exactly what kind of headspace you were in.
“When they found out I was pregnant I thought for sure they would get rid of me, but they gave me enough hours to get health benefits and still go to school. Technically, it was illegal for the drug testing company to tell them I was pregnant but they couldn’t have been better about it. It took me a little longer to finish school and I didn’t graduate in the spring like everybody else, but I did finish by the next fall.”
“Hit me,” I say as I lift my hand.
She slaps my hand and says, “Thanks. I do deserve that one, don’t I?”
A giggle bubbles out of her and I can’t help but smile as she continues to talk. The high five was all I was willing to do or say because the last thing I want is for her to stop opening up to me.
“I have to confess walking around campus all big and fat was not fun. You don’t see too many knocked up seniors walking from class to class. Let’s just say my senior year wasn’t everything I hoped and dreamed it would be. I got through it though.”
“What did you do with Ireland while you were at school?”
I’m so impressed that she finished school with everything that she was dealing with at the time. What a badass!
“Well, that was the other reason I decided to stay in California. My position at the clinic was actually available because the woman that had previously had that position was retiring. She taught me her job and then a few months later she retired. She decided that she was bored and called me up at work one day and said that once the baby was here, and I was ready to go back to work and school, that she would love to babysit for me and free of charge.”
“Whoa.”
“I know. She was a lifesaver. Her name is Charlotte and Ireland absolutely adored her. The feeling was mutual. She refused to let me pay her, so I would have to get creative and find ways to pay her back in little ways here and there. I would save up what money I could to be sure that I could slip her a gift card or some sort of money on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, President’s Day—you name it. I did whatever I could to repay her because without her I don’t know what Ireland and I would have done.”
“Sounds like all that good you’ve always done for everybody else came back around to you, just like you deserve.”
With her sandwich suspended in mid-air she asks, “What in the world are you talking about?”
“Emily, you have no idea the joy you bring to people. In just the nine days I spent with you in California I watched you bring smile after to smile to people’s faces. There is a light in you that just reaches into people and lights them right up along with you. I’ve seen it happen to young and old. There was the older gentleman on the pier who you helped with his jacket. There was little Jacob and Buzzy Bear at Icon’s, and there was the crying kid on our hike at the top of Patriots Hill. You calm people and you bring them joy, Em, that’s just what you do. You don’t even realize it, but you do.”
“How do you remember all of that from so long ago? Until you just reminded me, I didn’t remember any of those things. Well, that’s a lie, little Jacob was pretty hard to forget. Still, your mind is like a steel trap!”
“I’ve said it before; I remember everything about you, Emily. I know you only want to be friends, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten a damn thing.”
“Jonathan…”
She starts to speak but I get a call on my radio about a drunk driver not too far from where we are.
“Sorry, Em, we gotta wrap this up and go. Got a call.”
“No problem, I’m done. Is everything okay?”
“Sounds like a drunk driver not far from here.”
We toss what was left of our meal in the bin next to the exit, jump in the car, and head out towards the last location the car was spotted.
“21-0-1 en route. What was the make of the car again?” I ask into the radio.
