Jig walked into the living room from the kitchen whistling. She had the song stuck in her head and a plate of cookies in her hand. It was already late and Jig couldn't sleep. She was too worried about how Ephram and Desi's night had gone. They had both informed her of their separate worries, but now it was very late and she hadn't heard how it went from either of them. Anyway, as she was walking back to her room she found Edna sitting on the couch, lit by a dying firelight. Jig frowned, set her plate down, and walked over to Edna. Edna watched her sit down in the seat in front of her.
"Okay, what's wrong?" Jig asked her. Edna sighed. Jig was so much like her it was scary. She had her eyes and chin, and even her tone of voice was almost identical. Everyday Edna had to fight the urge to call her 'Kathy.' Edna wasn't the only one too. Irv had to control his words, and Dr. Abbott. There was a large percentage of people in Everwood who had at one point wanted to call Jig by her mother's name. And Jig didn't even know it.
"Is it Harold again?" Jig asked her. Edna shook her head and leaned back in the chair. She took another long sigh.
"Jig, how much do you know about your mother's pregnancy?" Edna asked her. Jig wrinkled her face in confused surprise.
"Just that my dad died when she was six months pregnant…" Jig told her. Edna nodded. That's about as much as she expected her to know.
"Do you know where you were born?" Edna asked her. Jig paused, confused.
"Edna I don't unde-"
"Do you know?" Edna repeated, more forcefully this time.
"LA," Jig said. Edna shook her head.
~
A discharge. An honorable discharge. On what grounds? Pregnancy. She's been out of service only a few weeks and she already missed Donny. He was her husband. Jesus, she had a husband. Double Jesus! She had a child! Kathy's stomach hadn't yet shown the signs of child baring, but her physical exam did. Wasn't this the time she was supposed to spend going around and shopping for tiny little clothes with her husband? Yea well, maybe for some women. Kathy's husband was off fighting for his life and country. Well, at least for his life. Donny could handle it though. He was the greatest soldier in the platoon. Now that she was gone, of course.
Kathy stood at the Denver airport dressed in her uniform with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Her parents really hadn't talked to her since she had joined the Army, but she knew her Aunt Edna and Uncle Harold would be pleased to help her out. Kathy had never been pregnant before. She needed a little help here. She looked down at her watch. One more minute and it'd be exactly 1500 hours. Or three o'clock. Kathy had to remember to start saying time like a normal person again. Not that Edna wouldn't understand her either way. Kathy's watch beeped as 1500 hours came. She turned casually around and found Edna and Harold marching over to her, Edna in the lead. When Edna reached her they exchanged salutes.
"Lieutenant…" Edna addressed her. Kathy smiled.
"Edna, Kathy, Kathy. I've had enough of this 'Lieutenant' to last me for awhile," Kathy informed her. Edna smiled and they hugged each other hello.
"How ya doing kid?" Edna asked her and they leaned away from each other. Kathy sighed.
"I'm pregnant," Kathy said with a sigh. Edna laughed.
"That happens to the best of us. Come on, our car's over here," Edna said leading her through the airport.
"I'll take your bag," Harold said after a few paces as he took the duffel bag from Kathy's hands. Kathy laughed slightly and hugged him.
"Oh hi Uncle Harold!" she said. He laughed.
"Hello Sweetie," he replied.
By the time their car pulled up into the Abbott's driveway it was five o'clock. Kathy was no idiot, and she knew something lay for her behind that oak door. To her lack of enthusiasm she was right. Harold, not Edna, had organized a little party for her. Growing up with her parents, Kathy would spend every summer in Everwood, so she knew everyone in town pretty well. And since she was coming back, they all had to show up. With balloons. Kathy let out an aggravated sigh as Harold carried her bag into her room. Hopefully later someone would mention to her which one was her room.
Maggie Harper led Kathy over to a very uncomfortable couch and made her sit down. Standing wasn't good for the baby. Edna sat on Kathy's other side so she could see and wait for a time to get Kathy out of there. Maggie was a nice, slightly over weight Black woman, with nicely graying black hair. Maggie's husband Irv had a slightly more familiar haircut to Kathy. He was clean bald. A lot of guys in the army were clean bald like that. Maggie asked Kathy a few questions about how she's been, where the husband was, and Maggie offered any assistance she could possibly ever offer. Kathy answered her questions and thanked her kindly. Then Kathy's cousin walked over to her. Dr. Harold Abbott Jr. had that little smirk constantly on his face. The kind where you didn't know if it was from disgust or actual pleasure. Behind him followed his wife Rose, a nice woman, and a two year old son. The boy had the curliest blonde hair Kathy had ever seen, and a Band-Aid on his elbow. He also had his thumb in his mouth. Harold Jr. was not going to sit down next to his cousin, so she stood up to greet him. Despite the long list of other things Harold Jr. might have done upon this greeting, he did what only those who knew him best would guess. He leaned forward and gave his cousin a big hug.
~
Of course Desi had a personal item she could get from Gino's! She was the mayor's daughter, she probably got special perks all over town. But this one Ephram liked. It was better than he had thought it would be. Pepperoni Chow Mein. Who knew? Oh things had gone well. His dad and Delia had loved Desi, (especially with the mention of the horse,) and Desi had loved them back. Things were going well in Ephram's World. He was happy. He was actually, in the purest sense of the word, happy. Party on dude!
~
Kathy missed being able to walk. For the past month or so now Kathy didn't walk anywhere. She waddled. So this was pregnancy. This was what women through the centuries have had to go through. The fact that the human race was still in existence was a freaking miracle. There was no way Kathy was going to do this again. This child of her's was the last. This daughter. That's where she was just coming from. Harold Jr. had just finished checking up on her so now Kathy was waddling back through town to Edna and Irv's house. Kathy didn't know much about pregnancy coming into this, but she was sure most doctors don't talk about another woman's pregnancy to their patients. Truth was Kathy liked to hear him talk about his newly developing child. Rose was pregnant too, with a girl, just like Kathy. At least Rose had the experience of one birth already behind her. Rose made it look easy.
As Kathy waddled along down the street a school bus pulled up next to her. The doors opened and she looked in to see Irv sitting there. He got up, walked off the bus, and over to her.
"Come on I'll give you a ride," he told her.
"Or Irv you're a saint," she said as he helped her onto the bus, "I'm going to name this kid after you!"
"I don't think she'd like being called Irv," he said with a chuckle getting her into the seat directly behind his.
"Ira then…" Kathy said. Irv laughed as he closed the door.
"That's better. Where are you headed?"
There was a car parked in the driveway when Kathy got home. It was a car she had never seen, and it had a US government plate. Irv helped her into the house and she thanked him for his troubles. He said with a smile that he had none. When Kathy opened the door and walked in, the two people sitting on the couch stood up. One was Edna with a sorrowful expression on her face and a tissue clenched in her hands. The other was a man in uniform. Kathy froze in her spot.
"Oh no…" she uttered.
There was nothing but dog tags to remember him by. Dog tags and a wallet sized photograph. Then there was their daughter, of course. It was Kathy's daughter now. Her's alone. No father, no husband, not even a corpse. They had a funeral for him anyway. Coffin, gravestone, everything. It was snowing in Everwood that day. Not a harsh snow, but one that fell just enough to make everything seem slower. Kathy closed her eyes and felt the warm tears cascading down her cheeks and collecting at her chin as the riflemen fired into the air. Two soldiers lifted the American flag that laid on Kathy's husband's empty coffin and folded it into a triangle. One walked over to where she stood and handed it to her. She'd rather have her husband.
"He was a fine soldier, he fought bravely," the soldier told her. Suddenly a rage filled Kathy's heart. This soldier had never met her husband. He had been told to say those things to her. He said them to every war widow.
"I know that better than you do," she told him sharply but quietly. He nodded his head with some mystifying understanding and turned his back to her to walk away. The other soldier that had folded her husband's flag held a trumpet to his mouth and played Taps as the empty coffin was lowered into the ground.
A few weeks later Kathy sat at the piano in Edna and Harold's living room. She would hit a few notes and then jot something down on the pieces of paper standing in front of her. She hadn't smiled for about a month now. She wasn't happy. She would just sit at the piano, writing this melodic tune on the piano. Edna walked over to her and leaned against the piano, both hearing and feeling every note. She gazed down at her niece sadly. Edna had seen lots of men die in her time. Some of them in her hands. But she had never met any of the wives. Edna had never met the ones left behind. Kathy was her family too. Her favorite niece. Edna leaned off of the piano and walked behind Kathy. Her eyes went to the messy sheet of paper. Written at the top was 'Juliet's Lullaby.' That surprised Edna and she looked down at Kathy.
"So you picked a name?" Edna asked her. Kathy nodded.
"A tragic love story, it seemed to fit…" Kathy replied simply. Edna agreed and sat down on the piano bench next to her. Edna sighed.
"There will be other men, Kathy," Edna told her. Kathy shook her head.
"I'll never love another man, Edna. Donny was it. He was the one. There will never be anyone else," Kathy told her. Edna's sad expression greatened. Edna wrapped her arms around Kathy's shoulders and Kathy leaned in against her, slowly beginning to cry.
"He's her father! He's her daddy! She'll never even get to see him!" Kathy cried out.
"She'll have you," Edna reassured her.
"But I don't know what I'm doing!" Kathy cried out. Edna pulled her off of her and held her face in her hands. Edna looked right into her swollen red eyes.
"You're a mother, you'll know what to do, Kathy. And she'll be your daughter. She'll be tough as nails and twice as sharp," Edna reassured her. Kathy let out a small laugh and hugged Edna again.
~
