Chapter Nine
The restaurant was crowded for a Tuesday. Mari looked through the window and could see Jennifer at a table near the back. An older gentleman opened the door for her and she slipped into the cool restaurant. The day had been harried, and Mari was thankful for the respite from the heat. The air in her car had gone out this morning, just one in a long line of things that had gone wrong today. So she dropped her car off at the repair shop and had to wait for the rental company to drop off a car for her. By the time she got to work she was disheveled and out of sorts.
The rest of the day had not faired much better. Murphy’s Law was alive and well. Everything that could go wrong did. The cells she planned to work with today were contaminated and she had to start a new vial out of the freezer which put her behind in her current experiment. A delivery of media was lost and she spent what was left of the morning tracking it down. When the computer system went down, Mari gave up and called Jennifer to see if she wanted to get together for an early dinner, or in her case, a late lunch.
Mari stopped to speak to the hostess, a girl from church, before she pushed her way through the crowd to join her friend.
“Wow,” Mari panted. “I didn’t think I was going to make it through. What is with all the people here today?”
“Just one of those days, I guess,” Jennifer answered. Dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt, she looked much younger than her fifty-six years. She lay her menu down in front of her. “I ordered a diet Coke for you,” she commented as Mari slid into her chair.
“Marla the Hun didn’t get to you yet?” Mari questioned, picking up and scanning her own menu.
“I called and asked permission. She said one, and one only. After that it’s water.” They placed their dinner orders, then sat back.
“So, have you and Joe made any progress?” Jennifer asked.
“Not really,” Mari answered. “He had a meeting with Mark a couple days ago. I thought it was supposed to be helping him. Now he seems angrier than ever.”
Jennifer took a sip of her coffee. Yes, from what Mark had told her last night, Joe was indeed angry. But Mark believed the anger stemmed more from Joe’s past, a past Mari obviously had no knowledge of. From the little Mark was able to tell her, Joe had a lot to deal with.
Mari shook her head. “I got home from work a little late yesterday. I had a problem with the incubator late yesterday afternoon. When I came through the door, Joe was standing there, glaring at me. He didn’t say a word, just glared, then he stormed upstairs. I haven’t seen him since then.” She took a sip of soda. “I don’t know how much longer I can deal with this. I never know from one minute to the next what he’s going to do. Just the other night we went out to dinner. It was really good, you know? Kind of strained, but we talked a little. Then wham, the anger is back full force.”
Concern made Jennifer’s eyes dark. “Do you have any idea what set it off?”
“No. I know Mark can’t share the details of a counseling session with you, but I have to wonder if it wasn’t something that happened there.”
“You’re right. Mark would never disclose what was said in a session. Just as I would never tell him anything that was said to me in confidence. Is there any way you could just ask Joe?”
Mari shook her head. “I don’t think he really wants to talk about anything with me, Jen. If he did, he wouldn’t be avoiding me.”
The waitress brought their food. Jennifer prayed for the meal and the two began eating. Watching Mari as she ate, Jennifer noticed the changes happening to her young friend. Her pregnancy, while not totally obvious, was becoming noticeable if a person looked closely. Mari was wearing a loose empire waist shirt that hid the small bump of her stomach. The color was a cheery red polka dot and gave some color to Mari’s pale cheeks.
“How have you been feeling,” she asked.
“Not too bad. The morning sickness is mostly gone as long as I watch what I eat.” Mari took a sip of her soda before pushing away her plate. “I’m having some trouble sleeping, but I think that has more to do with Joe than with the baby.”
“How long to do you think you’ll be able to keep this secret?”
Running a hand over her stomach Mari looked up and smiled sadly. “Not too much longer. I’m small for being so far along, which has helped hide it. These are the only pants I have that I can actually wear. Marla and I are going out tomorrow to look for some maternity clothes. We’re going out to Twelve Oaks.”
“Why out there?” Jennifer wanted to know.
“I don’t want to see anyone I might know.” Tears pooled in her hazel eyes as she reached down to rub her stomach. “I want this baby, Jen. I prayed for so long to have a baby. But I want Joe, too. Is that too much to ask?”
Jennifer reached across the table and took Mari’s hand in hers. “No, Mari, it is not too much to ask. Just keep asking. God will answer.”
“But what if the answer is no?” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I love him so much, Jen. I want to share this with him. I want to grow old with him. If he leaves me, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“You’ll be sad. You might even be angry. But you will survive.” Jennifer leaned back in her chair and smiled. “You’re a survivor. Your parents taught you to be that way. Remember that run in you had with Maddie Kamar?”
“You had to bring that up, didn’t you? I thought I’d die of embarrassment when they made me apologize to her for tripping her on the playground in third grade.” When Jen laughed, Mari had to defend herself. “Hey, she was going to ask Bobby Todd to be her boyfriend. I was not about to let that happen.”
“Had a thing for Bobby yourself, did you?”
“Well, yeah. If he started going steady with Madeline I was going to lose my football buddy.”
“Whatever happened to Bobby, anyway?”
“He moved to Florida
“I have to think his parents had something to do with that.”
“Yeah, Bobby did say it was stupid. But he works for Disney now, so you have to wonder if he was just trying to let me down easy.”
Jennifer grinned. “It was not so easy for the rest of us. You stomped around for weeks after he left.”
“I didn’t have any one to play football with.”
“It’s a good thing you started playing soccer that year. I’m not sure the rest of us could have survived more of your football deprivation.”
Mari swirled the straw around in her glass, watching as the melting ice swirled. “What do you think will happen now, Jen?”
“I really don’t know, Mari,” the woman answered honestly. “It depends on Joe and in a small way, it depends on you. If he decides to stay but still can’t accept the baby as his, what will you do?”
“I haven’t thought about it. The baby is his.”
“You know that and God knows that, but Joe doesn’t know that,” Jennifer reminded her. “And Joe is not the only one who doesn’t know it. Remember Mari, almost everyone you know knows that you and Joe couldn’t have children. How are you going to deal with the rumors and insinuations that are bound to be flying around once it’s noticeable you’re pregnant?” When Mari did not answer Jennifer continued. “That’s just a taste of what Joe is going through, what he is facing.”
“I never thought about all that.” She looked at Jennifer, hazel eyes haunted. “What am I going to do?”
Jennifer came over and sat next to her friend, gathering her in a hug. “We’ll help, Mari. Glen and Gretchen, Greg and Marla, Mark and me. We will all be here for you. But you have a heavenly Father who won’t leave you. No matter what happens between you and Joe, God will be there. You just have to trust.”
“It’s so easy to say that, Jen. But doing it is another matter. I know He’s here. I know He cares. It’s just not so easy to put all that I know into practice. For a while there I hated Him for taking Mom and Dad away. How could He say he loved me and take away the people I loved the most? It still hurts that they aren’t here. But I can’t deny that He is who He says He is. There’s just too much evidence for Him.”
“You don’t have to have all the answers, Mari. You may never have all the answers you’re looking for until He comes back. You just have to trust that He has a plan and do your best to follow it.”
“And I’m so good at following,” Mari smiled wanly.
“That’s why he gave you us,” Jennifer grinned. “Now give me a real smile and I’ll order something chocolate for dessert for us to split.”
“I have to split it with you?”
“Yes, you do.”
Mari pouted playfully. “I suppose I can do that. If you insist.”
Jennifer called their waitress over and ordered triple chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. “If we’re going to get chocolate it should be worth it.”
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