Chapter 6: The Girl With the Baby

The girl with the baby did not come to class on Wednesday.

By ten o'clock her chair was still empty, and the rest of us stopped pretending not to look at it.

"She's out," the man in work boots said. "I could see it coming. She's been checking the clock since Monday."

"Her sitter quit," said the girl by the window. "Her aunt took a night shift. She can't pay anyone."

"Then why didn't she say?"

"Because she's tired of asking people for things."

I knew that feeling very well.

I took my coat and went out to the quad.

She was sitting on a bench by the fountain with the baby on her knee and her backpack beside her.

She looked up and wiped her face fast.

"Don't," she said. "I'm not good at this part."

"What part?"

"The part where I say I can't do it."

"You said it already."

I sat on the other end of the bench.

The baby looked at me with enormous eyes and a wet chin.

"Do you want to pass the exam?" I asked.

"Of course I do. I want to be a dental hygienist. I'd like to put my kid through school one day without crying about it."

"Then the baby comes to class."

"The instructor said no children."

"The instructor left."

She laughed, once, and was surprised by it.

"I can't bring a baby into a classroom."

"Why not? You bring her to the library. We'll set up in the back. Somebody holds her during the quizzes."

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