Traded for Nine Boats, I Walked In Pregnant and Ran Their House novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Clean Monday
The wind on Clean Monday took the kite straight up off the hill in Astoria Park, and the whole parish cheered.
Every Greek family in Queens had come to the grass by the river with a picnic and a string.
There were kites in blue and white, kites with tails as long as a man, and a red one shaped like a boat.
Ours was a plain diamond Alex had built himself, on the kitchen table, over three nights.
I held the spool.
He stood behind me with his arms around my waist and his hands over mine, and the line sang between our fingers.
I was twenty-six weeks, and the coat would not close over me.
The baby kicked against the wool every time the string pulled.
Marigo sat in a folding chair with the aunt, in black, with a thermos of coffee and a plate of lagana bread on her knee.
She did not look up at the kite.
She watched us.
Three women from the church had stopped beside her chair.
One of them said, loud enough to carry, "A pity it is not a boy, Marigo.
"A Stavrou boy would have been something."
The wind gusted, and I felt Alex go still behind me.
I had made a rule on my first night in that house.
Nobody touches my belly in front of people unless I say.
I let go of the spool with one hand.
I took Alex's hand, the burned fingers long healed.
I laid it flat over the curve of the baby, in front of the parish, in the middle of the hill.
"Say hello," I said.
He spread his fingers.
She kicked into his palm, hard, and his whole body shook against my back.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Traded for Nine Boats, I Walked In Pregnant and Ran Their House are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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