Ann Martin - Mary Anne And Too Many Babies

"You know what I think?" I spoke up after a break in the conversation. "I suppose if I absolutely had to, I could raise a child of my own. But I wouldn't want to. I'm too young."

"Also, your dad isn't ready to be a grandfather," said Stacey.

"No, I'm serious, Stace. I'm not kidding around. Do you think you could be a parent right now? I mean, if you'd just given birth?"

Stacey frowned. "No. I really don't. How would I support a baby? Anyway, I don't want to be a parent. Not yet."

"You're right," I agreed. "I could only raise a baby if I lived at home and Dawn and Dad and Sharon helped me. I couldn't do it by myself."

"I do want to have kids someday, though," said Dawn.

"Definitely!" agreed the rest of us.

"But maybe when I'm older," she went on.

"When I'm twenty-five. Maybe even thirty. You know, now lots of women are having their first baby when they're forty. Or older. I'm not in any hurry."

"Me, neither," I said, "but I don't want to wait until I'm forty. Twenty-five sounds like a good age."

"I'm going to have eight children, like my mom did," commented Mal.

"It's a good thing you won't have them all at once," replied Stacey. "You might want to quit after one or two."

"Maybe. Anyway, I don't have to decide now."

"And in two years you'll take Modern Living," said Kristy, "and you can do a trial run with just one egg-baby."

"I hope my first baby is a girl," said Jessie dreamily. "I will name her Mary Rose. I've always wanted a daughter named Mary Rose."

The phone rang again then, and our meeting became busy with BSC stuff. No one mentioned the eggs again.

When Dawn and I reached home that evening, we received a call from Sharon, saying she and Dad would be about half an hour late and asking us to start dinner. So we did. As we took things out of the fridge and set them on the kitchen table, Dawn said, "Mary Anne,

do you think you'll ever be able to eat eggs again?"

I shook my head. "Not for a long, long time."

"I know what you mean."

My sister and I began chopping vegetables for a salad. "I sure am glad," I said, slicing a carrot, "that we didn't say anything more to our parents about having a baby."

"Whew, I'll say," agreed Dawn.

"Can you imagine if we had convinced them and your mom had gotten pregnant right away and then we had finished Modern Living and had changed our minds?"

"We would have been a little late."

"Yeah, just a little."

"Is being a little late like being a little pregnant?" Dawn asked.

I laughed. "I guess so. Either you are or you aren't."

Dad and Sharon entered the kitchen just in time to hear that last part of our conversation.

"Who's having a baby?" asked Dad suspiciously.

"No one, thank goodness," I answered. "No one we know of."

"How's dinner coming, girls?" asked Sharon.

"It's ready," I said.

"Let's eat," said Dawn.

"Let's eat in the dining room," added Sharon.

"Ooh, special occasion?" I asked.

Sharon shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not."

We sat at the dining room table and passed around the salad and this Chinese vegetable dish Sharon makes and brown bread and these vegetable patties that are supposed to look like hamburgers but don't.

When our plates were full, Sharon looked at Dawn, then at me, and smiled. "Girls," she said, "Richard and I have been thinking about your wish for a baby. You haven't mentioned it for awhile, but we know that doesn't mean you aren't still thinkmg about it."

I know my face turned pale then. I felt faint. Across the table from me, Dawn's eyes widened to the size of basketballs, and her hands began to shake. Oh, no. Why couldn't parents just forget things once in awhile? Why did they have to remember everything?

"Urn," I said.

"Urn," said Dawn.

"See, the thing is, Dawn and I talked about it and we realized we shouldn't have ..." My voice trailed off.

"Don't worry," said Sharon. "It's okay. Richard and I have discussed everything and

we decided if you really want something to care for, you may get another pet. Tigger might like some company."

I let out the breath I was holding. Oh, a pet. 1 managed a grin at Dawn, who grinned back. "Do you want a pet?" I asked her.

"Do you?" Dawn countered.

"Not really. Tigger's enough."

"That's how I feel. ... But thanks, Mom. Thanks, Richard."

"Yeah, thanks," I said.

Dad looked surprised. "We thought you'd jump at the chance to get another pet."

"We might have, if it weren't for Modern Living," I replied.

"Modern Living?"

"Yeah. Dad," I said, "you have no idea how hard it is to be a parent."

About the Author

ANN M. MARTIN did a lot of baby-sitting when she was growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. She is a former editor of books for children, and was graduated from Smith College.

Ms. Martin lives in New York City with her cats, Mouse and Rosie. She likes ice cream and I Love Lucy, and she hates to cook.

Ann Martin's Apple Paperbacks include Yours Turly, Shirley; Ten Kids, No Pets; With You and Without You; Bummer Summer; and all the other books in the Baby-sitters Club series.