"Okay, so what if I wrote about a female thief? I read that book you gave me and I think it'd be fun to write like that! Now I don't want her to be American, and I don't want her to be White so-"
"Wait, wait…" Ephram said raising his hand to cut Desi off. The two were sitting in Ephram's bedroom.
"What?" Desi asked him surprised she had been stopped.
"You've finished it already? I gave it to you, like, three days ago!" Ephram asked her, completely in shock. Desi smiled and nodded.
"Yea, I'm a quick reader," she told him. Ephram sighed in complete disbelief and sat back in his chair.
"It took me three months to read it!"
"Yea, well, anyway. I was thinking of naming her Kamala. It's pretty isn't it? It means 'lotus blossom,' which I think is the symbol of the Buddha of compassion. That really has nothing to do with the character's personality, though, really," Desi explained. Ephram smiled.
"You're really into this, aren't you?" Ephram asked her. Desi nodded, a wide smile taking over her lips.
"Yea. Now, I need to create the main guy though…" Desi said, her eyes lighting up at the idea of creating a new character.
"Can he be White?" Ephram asked her. Desi nodded. She jumped a little as an idea struck her.
"He can be French! Oh, the accent! I've lived with my father long enough to write a French accent. Plus I know French so he actually could speak it. His name can be Nino! That's my grandfather's name. He'll be a thief too, a rival thief. Maybe, Kamala gets framed for something and has the police on her tail causing problems for all thieves. So Kamala and Nino have to team up and get them! Oh I like this!" Desi said and started giggling to herself. Ephram laughed.
"How much of this have you written down?" Ephram asked her.
"None, actually… but, I will, soon. Now, what is that noise?" Desi asked him turning to look at one of the walls. Blaring from the other side of it was some music too loud and too muffled to be distinguished. Ephram frowned.
"That, is Cory's rage…" Ephram explained.
"Oh yea…" Desi said nodding her head, "I forgot he was staying with you this weekend. How's that going?"
"He hasn't come out…" Ephram told her. Desi raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean he hasn't-"
"I mean he went into that room yesterday afternoon and has yet to emerge. He's probably figuring that will keep him out of trouble…" Ephram told her. Desi nodded.
"Doesn't sound that bad," Desi said. Ephram leaned closer to her.
"I don't want them to leave!" Ephram confessed. Desi nodded and bit her lower lip. She remembered that. Ephram was willing to put up with Star and Cory because it would make Jig happy. If Orrie left it would put Jig and Amy in the same place. With an inaccessible boyfriend, and without Ephram to talk to. Because Desi had Ephram.
"I don't want them to leave either," Desi told him with a reassuring smile, "because I don't want to lose you."
Ephram was a little confused, in his mind not making all of the connections Desi had made, but he smiled in return anyway.
It was Nina's day to clean up the diner. Everyone had gone home, she had already swept the floors, and cleaned the counter. Now she was back sweeping up the kitchen area. The cooks always cleaned the stove and other cooking things; they had a special way of doing it that they didn't trust anyone else to do. Nina was kind of thankful for that, actually. Less work and less time for her to do. She heard the bells the signified the front door opening chime twice in quick succession. Someone probably had come in, seen the place closed, and left. But Nina went to investigate. Sitting on the newly cleaned counter, was a baby carrier. Nina raised an eyebrow and walked around to get a look at it. Sitting silently in the baby carrier, was, not completely unexpected, a baby. Tied to the carrier handle with a pink ribbon, was a note that read:
"For Nina."
Nina took a step back from the carrier and over to the door. She opened it and took a few steps outside, looking for the runaway messenger. She found no one, and the sidewalks had been cleared so there were no footprints. Nina walked back into the diner and over to the baby. The small, abandoned child was asleep. Nina's first thoughts were of Sara. But this baby looked at least four months old; twice as old as the baby Nina had given birth to. Nina walked over to the phone and called her babysitter. She told the girl she'd be later than expected. Then she called the police.
"Well, she's seems to be in perfect shape. No cuts or signs of abuse. She seems well fed and happy. Good reflexes, good eyes. Ears, nose, and throat look fine. Plus, Nina, she's cute as Hell," Dr. Brown said leaning away from the now awake baby in the carrier. Nina nodded in agreement, but her face still showed concern exclusively. The sheriff walked over to her, a pad and pencil in her hands.
"Okay Nina, did you get a good look at the person who dropped the kid off?" the large woman asked her. Nina shook her head.
"Like I said before, Bertha, I didn't seem them at all. I heard someone coming in and going out, then I came out here, and there was the baby," Nina said. The sheriff nodded.
"Any ideas who the baby could belong to?" Bertha asked. Nina shook her head.
"No idea."
"How about you Dr. Brown?" Bertha asked, turning to him. Dr. Brown shook his head as well.
"All of my pregnant patients are still pregnant. But you should check with Dr. Abbott," he suggested. The sheriff nodded.
"Well, I guess she's spending the night down at the station," she said reaching form the carrier's handle. Nina stopped her.
"No, wait, that's no place for a baby, I'll take her home with me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yea, it'll be fine. I still have all of Sam's baby stuff."
"Well, okay then. But if you have any problems…"
"I'll call, don't worry," Nina reassured her with a smile. Bertha nodded.
"Okay then. We'll call you if we find something," the sheriff said and walked off. Nina turned back to the baby who was giving her a toothless grin.
"Come on, I'll give you gals a ride home," Dr. Brown offered. Nina thanked him, picked up the baby carrier, and followed Dr. Brown out of the diner.
Sunday successfully rolled around and Star returned home. She had actually been home for several hours before Orrie ended up calling the Brown's house to tell them Cory could come home, unless, of course, they liked him so much and wanted to keep him. Cory was back in the walls of his own house within ten minutes. Star's ex-patient had been found guilty, which hadn't surprised her. The man had been convinced he was Lizzie Borden in a past life. Star was pleased (as well as surprised), however, to find her youngest son not only in one shape, but without the strong bitterness she had expected from spending an entire weekend with a different set of rules. He seemed; actually, as good as she had left him. That was unexpected. Star thought there was no way her baby brother could handle the unruly child, but he seems to have, and did it well. Extraordinary, utterly extraordinary.
Things were once again quiet in the Brown household, now that the incredibly angered teen had left. Even Ephram's music played quieter than it had before. Actually, with Cory now out of his care, Dr. Brown was frequently heard thanking his son for not being that bad. Ephram only grinned, nodded, and replied with a 'you're welcome' every time. The Feeny house, however, was even quieter. The baby still lived there with no signs of ever leaving. She laughed and smiled and made normal baby sounds, but she never seemed sad or uncomfortable. She never cried. Sam would ask his mother if he had been as rare to cry as a baby, Nina would start to laugh, pat his head, and bring the baby her bottle. The police had no luck in finding any parent for the child. No fingerprints on the carrier, no fingerprint matches from the baby, no bits of anything on the clothes or blankets to find out who the child was or whom she belonged to. They even checked the handwriting on the note with a bunch of checks from the local bank. The baby was simply alone. After a few days an important question arose. The baby had been given specifically to Nina. Should she keep it?
The next time Carl Feeny called, Nina talked it over with him. The baby was good, she explained. She was healthy, and happy, and quiet. Sam liked her and she liked Sam. But, more importantly, Nina liked her, and she liked Nina. Plus, with a doctor living next door, raising a baby, with all of her little colds and other problems, would be easier. Carl Feeny, strongly sensing his wife's masked want of the child, accepted her proposal. Nina signed the adoption papers, which could only be made completely truly official as soon as her husband returned home to make his own mark. Convincing her husband into letting them keep the child had not been the hard part. The hard part was, what to name her. Since Sam was named after Nina's father, they named the baby girl after Carl's mother. And so, Meredith Feeny was born into the world. Nina got another baby shower out of it, actually. None of the former participants had bothered to return the items they had bought and kept them, after Nina refused them. So, she and Meredith received them all again.
It was then commonly said that this baby was given to Nina because she had given up the one she had brought to term herself. It was like a trade off. Rose Abbott even sent over her traditional snack for the new mother. The entire town took in Meredith as if she hadn't been abandoned. It had only been a matter of days after the adoption, and it was like Meredith had always been. Even Dr. Brown every now and then felt like Meredith was the baby he delivered. It would have been astonishing to any outsider looking in how quickly the baby girl was accepted, but for anyone who had grown up in Everwood, it came as no surprise.
