Diane Chamberlain - Summer's Child

“It was really… foolish.” She had started to say “stupid,” but caught herself in time. Tears were already brimming in Shelly’s eyes.

“This is why I worry about you, Shelly,” she said.

“This is why I don’t believe you’re mature enough to have a baby. Your judgment is not always good. I know it’s hard to hear that. I know you don’t really understand it. But there is no way you’re ready to get married and have a child.”

Shelly didn’t respond. Her eyes suddenly went blank in an expression Daria knew all too well, but hadn’t seen in a while. She rushed to her sister’s side just as her body stiffened and dropped to the floor.

Shelly began to writhe with convulsions. Daria quickly turned her onto her side, then pulled a cushion from one of the kitchen chairs and slipped it beneath Shelly’s head. As she held on to her sister, waiting for the convulsions to run their course, she wondered if the seizure could hurt the baby. If it did, if the baby suffered damage, would Shelly then agree to an abortion? Daria squeezed her eyes shut, horrified with herself for even entertaining the thought.

“Daria?”

She glanced up to see Rory standing in the doorway between the kitchen and living room.

“I think it’s almost over,” she said, looking down at Shelly, whose body no longer twitched and jerked. She shifted Shelly’s head slightly on the pillow to be sure she could breathe easily.

Rory walked across the room and knelt down by Shelly’s head. Moaning, Shelly curled herself into a fetal position and slipped her thumb into her mouth. Rory smoothed his hand over her silky blond hair, and Daria fell even more deeply in love with him. “Could the seizure hurt her baby?” Rory asked.

“It’s possible, but this one was very short,” Daria said.

“I doubt it did any damage.”

“Is this the first one she’s had all summer?”

“The first in about six months, actually,” Daria said.

“And I’m afraid I might have brought it on. I yelled at her.” She leaned over and kissed Shelly’s temple.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

Rolling onto her back, Shelly opened her eyes. She pulled her thumb from her mouth.

“Seizure…?” she asked.

“Uh-huh.” Daria nodded.

“How do you feel?”

“Did I hurt my baby?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

Shelly rolled back onto her side and closed her eyes again.

“Tired,” she said.

“You can’t sleep here on the kitchen floor,” Daria said.

“Stay awake just another minute, honey, so Rory and I can get you to the couch in the living room.”

They managed to raise Shelly to her feet, and with their help, she stumbled through the house to the sofa in the living room. She lay down, her thumb back in her mouth.

“Let’s go out on the porch,” Daria whispered to Rory.

They sat down in two of the rockers, side by side. Rory reached out to hold her hand.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She smiled at him.

“I am now,” she said.

Shelly had never felt this tired, yet she was awake. Awake enough to hear voices coming through the open window above the sofa. Her eyes were still closed, her head heavy, and it took her a few minutes to recognize the voices as those of Daria and Rory. They were speaking softly. Daria was telling Rory about what she’d done with her paycheck. It seemed like days ago that she’d given the money to that girl. It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Had she been foolish? Would Andy have been angry with her, too?

“Sometimes lately,” Daria was saying, “I think Pete might have been right about Shelly needing more supervision than she’s been getting.”

Shelly frowned, concentrating on the words coming from the porch. She needed to listen, especially if the words were about her. But she must have slipped into sleep again, because the next thing she heard was the sound of the ocean, the backdrop for Rory’s voice.

“Yeah, I’m down,” he said.

“Why?” Daria asked. “Well, last night you asked me when I was going back to California, and I put you off. I just didn’t want to think about it. But I know I have to.”

“So… when?” Daria asked, and Shelly knew she was having trouble getting the question out. “When do you go back?”

“September third,” he said.

“Less than two weeks from now. I have to get Zack back for school. I could kid myself for wasting so much of the summer without yoi when we could have been together.”

“That wouldn’t make your leaving any easier,” Dam said.

“I know.”

For a minute, neither of them said a word. Shelly heart some kids yelling out on the beach. Then Rory spoke again.

“I’m pretty sure I know how you feel, Daria, althougt I guess I need to hear it, anyway. But I can tell you that don’t want this to be the end. I have to go back—that’s where my life and job and my son are.p>

But I don’t wan that to mean we can’t still be together. “

Daria started to say something Shelly couldn’t hear, bu he stopped her and kept on talking.

“I know long-distance relationships are for the birds,” he said, “and I know our relationship is very new. But ii some ways, it’s one of the oldest and most enduring relationships I’ve had. I have to ask you this. I’m sure o your answer, but selfishly, I just have to ask it. Is then any chance… any chance at all that you would move to California? With Shelly, I mean, even though I know i would be hard for her to leave the Outer Banks.”

Shelly’s heartbeat quickened at the thought, and Ron rushed on, without waiting for Daria to answer him.

“I know there’s the baby to take into consideratici now,” he said.

“But I just don’t want to lose you nov that I found you. We could move closer to the beach ii California. Maybe that would make it easier for Shelly t( live there.”

Shelly held her breath, waiting for Daria’s answer. Wha about Andy?

Plus, there were earthquakes in California And she wouldn’t be able to breathe there. She couldn’ even breathe in Greenville.

Daria’s answer was a very long time coming.

“It’s impossible,” she said finally, and Shelly’s body literally shook with relief.

“There’s no way Shelly could ever move to California, with its earthquakes and its…. It’s just not the Outer Banks.”

“Leaving Shelly out of this for just a minute,” Rory said.

“What do you want?”

Again, it took Daria a long time to answer, and Shelly heard tears in her sister’s voice.

“I want to be with you,” Daria said.

“But I love Shelly. I love her so much, and she’s my first concern. I was the one who found her and saved her life, and I’m the one responsible for taking care of her. And now there’s going to be a baby to take care of, as well. She’s never going to give it up, and she can’t possibly be expected to take care of it herself. And…! don’t see a way of doing that … of taking care of Shelly, and being with you at the same time. It’s the same as it was with Pete.”

Shelly turned her head toward the window. What did she mean, “The same as it was with Pete”

“Only Pete didn’t want Shelly to come with you to Raleigh,” Rory said.

“I’d want Shelly with us. That’s the difference.”

“Yes, that’s one of many differences between you and Pete,” Daria said.

“But the end result is still the same:

Shelly can’t leave here, so neither can I. “

“There’s one other difference,” Rory said.

“Pete broke up with you because you wouldn’t leave. I don’t have any intention of doing that.

I’ll find a way to make this work. If I have to choose between having a long-distance relationship with you and no relationship with you, well, that’s a no-brainer. “