Chapter 24: A New Agreement

My water broke in March, at two in the morning, while I was eating cereal at the counter in Willem's kitchen.

Willem didn't say anything about waiting.

He said, "Coat," and found it, and found mine.

Bridget rode in the back seat with a thermos and gave directions he hadn't asked for.

My daughter was born at dawn, loud and furious, with a full head of light brown hair.

Willem stood by my head the whole time.

When they laid her on my chest, he put his hand on her back, and it was shaking.

"Hello," he said to her, in a voice I had never heard him use. "I'm Willem. I brought a banana."

"She can't eat that," I said, crying.

"It's for you."

Poppy came the next morning with her grandmother, off the first flight from Nashville.

She climbed onto the hospital bed in her yellow boots and sat against the pillows with her arms out.

A nurse laid the baby across them.

Poppy held very still.

"She's so small," she whispered. "Can I teach her applesauce?"

"Not yet, bug. She only drinks milk."

"Then I'll teach her the other things first."

Two days later, Rupert came to the hospital.

He wore his work jacket, and he carried an envelope.

I met him in the cafeteria with my aunt sitting at the next table, because those were the terms.

He put the envelope on the table.

It held his first month, a few days early, in cash, with the pay stub folded around it.

"It's what the court sets," he said. "I earned every dollar on the dock."

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