Two from the Heart(11)

“Right, which would have sucked anyway,” I said, laughing. “Those are funny anecdotes—but they’re not a best story.”

Karen looked out over her pretty lawn and shook her head. “No, I guess not,” she said. “The answer’s easy, though. Sophie’s my best story.”

I could hear the love and awe in her voice. But Sophie wasn’t a story; she was a person. “Sorry—narratively unsatisfying,” I said, nudging Karen playfully.

“I could tell you about giving birth. That’s a story.”

“Well…”

“Yeah, you probably don’t want to hear it. It’s rather gruesome. All right, let me think.” She frowned lightly. “But Anne, you already know all my stories. You’re in them.”

“Tell me a secret, then,” I said.

Karen looked down at her hands for a moment, and then she looked up at me. “All right,” she said. She took a deep breath. “Do you remember that beautiful velvet dress you had in college?”

“That slate-blue one?” I asked. “I loved that dress. But then one day it just vanished. I always wondered what happened to it.”

Karen bit her lip, then spoke. “I’m about to tell you,” she said.





Chapter 12


I FELT a jolt of surprise. “Oh. Okay.”

“You’d gone home to see your dad for his birthday. There was a dance that weekend, and I didn’t have anything to wear, so I went into your closet and there it was. I knew it was the prettiest thing you owned. I knew you’d bought it with your own money and that you wouldn’t really want me to borrow it. But I also knew that if I asked, you would have said yes. So I took it. And I wore it to the dance.” She glanced over at me and seemed to wince a little. “But the problem was I got drunk. Really drunk. And halfway through the dance, I threw up all over it.”

“My beautiful dress,” I half whispered.

She nodded. “I took it to cleaners all over town, but it was utterly ruined. So for a while it lived in a paper bag under my bed. And then one day I threw it in a Dumpster behind the dining hall.”

“And you never said a thing!” I said, shocked. I was kind of mad, too. What a stupid, mean secret to keep! But then a memory flickered in my mind. It was dim at first, and then it grew bright and clear. “Wait a second,” I said. “That was the spring of the magic money, wasn’t it?”

All that spring I’d kept finding cash—five dollars here, ten there—in the pockets of my jeans or crumpled at the bottom of my messy backpack. Once a twenty appeared in my makeup bag. When I told Karen about these exciting discoveries, she’d brushed them off. “You’ve never been able to keep track of anything, Anne,” she’d pointed out. “Why on earth would your money be any different?”

But now I finally understood. “You were hiding all that money in my stuff!” I said.

“I was trying to pay you back,” Karen admitted.

“I can’t believe it,” I said. “Is that why you took that second work study job?

She nodded again. “I swear, I’ve felt bad about it for fifteen years.”

I leaned forward and put my hand on her knee. The flare of anger I’d felt had vanished. “Honey,” I said. “When my mother was dying, you moved into my house. You slept on the floor of my bedroom for most of our senior year in high school because I couldn’t bear to be alone. My whole life I’ve been able to count on you.” I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes. “You’ve always been there. You can throw up on every single thing I own, and I’ll still love you forever.”

Now I thought Karen looked like she might cry, too. “That’s good,” she said quietly. “Because actually I might throw up.” She smiled. “You see, I’m pregnant. And it’s twins. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

I just about fell out of my chair. But when I’d recovered from the surprise, I hugged her tightly. “Oh my God, I’m so happy for you.”

“Me, too,” she said. “I think,” she added. Then she got up and motioned me to follow. “Perfect timing—I hear the school bus.”

Out front, we watched a dozen kids dash off the bus, and then one small blond girl came running toward us. She practically leaped into Karen’s arms, and as she clung to her mother, her words came out in a rush. “Mommy I read all of Are You My Mother? today out loud and I’m starving and can I have a playdate with Clara because she got a guinea pig and will we have dessert tonight or is it a night I only get fruit and how many days is it until my birthday?”

Karen laughed and kissed her on both cheeks, then gently set her down. “Before I tackle those questions, let me introduce you to my oldest, bestest friend, Anne.”

I knelt down and gazed into the bright green eyes of Karen’s best story. “I’ve wanted to meet you for years,” I said, smiling at her. She was tiny and perfect and beautiful, with dirty knees and a smudge of spaghetti sauce on her face. “Would it be okay if I gave you just a little hug?”

She nodded, and so I took her into my arms. She giggled, wriggly as a fish, and I marveled at the loveliness of her small body. It’s true what they say, I thought. Life really is a miracle.