Jonah stumbled to his feet for a hug. “I colored about a hundred pages,” he told her.
“Good for you! How was he?” she asked Liam.
“He was fine. Though I don’t hold out high hopes for an artistic career.”
“Dad!”
“What?”
She cut her eyes toward Jonah, who was busy cramming his crayons back in their box.
“Well, I fail to see what the problem is,” Liam told her. “No one’s talented at everything.”
“Honestly,” Louise said, and she dropped into the rocking chair.
Not a word about her doctor’s appointment. Should Liam ask? No, that might be seen as intrusive. Instead he said, “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Louise said, “No, thanks,” which may or may not have been significant. (Were pregnant women allowed to drink coffee this month?) She patted her skirt, and Jonah climbed onto her lap and wrapped his arms around her. “What else did you do?” she asked him.
“I ate raisins.”
“That’s nice.” She looked over his head at Liam. “Your wound seems a lot better. I very nearly can’t see it.”
“Yes, it’s pretty well healed,” he said. Involuntarily, he glanced down at his injured palm. It still had a curdled texture, but the skin was a normal color again.
Louise said, “And I assume you’ve gotten over that little obsession about your memory.”
“I wasn’t obsessed!” Liam said.
“You most certainly were. For a while there, everyone thought you’d gone nuts.”
“I just wanted to know what had happened, that’s all. You would too, if you woke up in a hospital without an inkling why you were there.”
She made a little shivering motion with her shoulders and said, “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Fine with me,” Liam said. “How’s Dougall?”
“He’s all right.”
“Plumbing business going okay?”
“Oh, yes.”
Liam liked Dougall well enough-there was nothing not to like-but it was hard to invent any more conversation about him. He was a genial, oversized man with a pathological interest in the workings of inanimate objects, and Liam had never understood why Louise had selected him for a husband. Sometimes he thought that she’d been born with a mental checklist of milestones that she’d sworn to get out of the way as soon as possible. Grow up, finish school, marry the first boy she dated, start a family… She had been in such a hurry, and for what? Here she sat, an intelligent young woman, with no more on her mind than organizing her church’s next bake sale.
Ah, well. Life was a matter of opinion, according to Marcus Aurelius.
“You haven’t asked about my doctor’s appointment,” Louise was saying. “Don’t you care why I went?”
Liam said, “Certainly I care.”
“You haven’t shown the slightest bit of interest.”
Oh, it was so tiring sometimes, this business of engaging with other human beings! Liam said, as delicately as possible, “I trust it was nothing life-threatening.”
“I’m pregnant again.”
“Congratulations.”
“Aren’t you happy for us?”
“Yes, I’m happy.”
“You don’t act it.”
Liam sat up straighter and gripped his knees. “I’m extremely happy,” he said. “I think it will be very nice for Jonah to have a sibling.” He glanced at Jonah, who was squatting on the floor to repack his knapsack. “Does he know?” he asked Louise.
Louise said, “Of course he knows. Don’t you, Jonah.”
“Huh?”
“You know about your new baby brother or sister, don’t you?”
Jonah said, “Mmhmm,” and zipped his knapsack shut. Louise raised her eyebrows meaningfully at Liam.
“When’s your due date?” Liam asked her.
“Early February.”
“February!”
People announced these things so far ahead nowadays, it made pregnancies seem to last a couple of years or more.
“If you come up with any good names for girls, let us know,” Louise told him. She rose and helped Jonah slip into his knapsack straps. “We’re having trouble agreeing on one. A boy is no problem; but any girl’s name I like, Dougall thinks it’s too froufrou.”
“What would it be for a boy?” Liam asked her.
“Madigan, we’ve decided.”
“Ah.”
He heaved himself to his feet and followed her toward the door. It was absurd to feel hurt. Madigan had been a very good stepfather. (A very good father, Barbara would have amended if she’d been there.) He’d spared Liam the burden of child support, for one thing; the man had been loaded. Liam said, “Nothing biblical this time?”
“We’re thinking Jacob for a middle name.”
“That’s nice.”
This reminded him; he said, “Louise, what’s the meaning of the Joseph story?”
“Which Joseph story?”
“The coat of many colors, the slavery in Egypt-what are people supposed to learn from it?”
“They’re not supposed to learn anything,” Louise said. “It’s an event that really happened. It’s not made up; it’s not designed for any calculated purpose.”
“Oh,” he said.
Best not to pursue that.
“Why’d you ask?” she said.
“Just curious.” He opened the door for her and then followed her and Jonah into the foyer. “I saw it in Jonah’s coloring book and I was wondering.”
“You know,” Louise said, “you’re always welcome to come to church with us on a Sunday.”
“Oh, thanks, but-”
“We could pick you up and take you there. We’d be happy to! I’d really love to share my faith with you.”
“Thanks anyhow,” Liam said. “I guess religion’s just not in my nature, sorry to say.”
He refrained from telling her that even talking about religion made him wince with embarrassment. Even hearing about it embarrassed him-hearing those toe-curling terms that believers employed, like share, in fact, and my faith.
But she said, “Oh, Dad, it’s in every person’s nature! We are every one of us born in sin, and till we let Jesus into our hearts we’re condemned throughout eternity.”
Well, there was no way he could let that pass. He said, “Are you telling me that some little child in Africa is condemned because he’s never been to Sunday school? Or some perfectly good Moslem herding camels in Tunisia?”
“You cannot be called good until you accept Christ as your personal savior,” she said, and her voice echoed off the cinderblocks with a bell-like, clanging tone.
Liam’s jaw dropped. “Well,” he said, “I guess…”
Words failed him for a moment.
“I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree,” he said finally.
Words must have failed Louise too, because she just gazed at him for a moment with an expression he couldn’t read. Then she turned away and opened the outer door.
Eunice stood on the sidewalk, poised to enter. She took a step backward.
“Oh. Eunice,” Liam said.
“Have I come at a bad time?”
“No, no…”
Louise gave him a questioning look. Liam said, “Eunice, this is my daughter, Louise, and my grandson, Jonah.” He told Louise, “Eunice is-Why, you’ve seen her before. You saw her in Dr. Morrow’s waiting room.”
“I did?” Louise said.
Eunice said, “She did?”
Oops, a slip. Though not too hard to cover up, as it happened. Liam told Eunice, “I realized that only later. I knew you seemed familiar.”
Eunice continued to look puzzled, but she held out her hand to Louise and said, “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you,” Louise said, shaking her hand. “So, do you two have plans for the day?”
“Eunice is just helping me with my résumé,” Liam told her.
“Oh,” Louise said. “Well, good. You’re going to look for a real job! Or at least… I mean, surely the zayda job doesn’t require a résumé, does it?”