Chapter 2 Helpful Helen

DINGDONG.

Bonnie stood up reluctantly. Partly her lassitude was due to morning sickness, partly to an irrational feeling that if she opened the door, the outside world would grab her and drag her out of her refuge. But the Roves were expecting a repairmen for a plumbing problem, and since they were both out at the moment, the least Bonnie could do was answer the door and let him in.

It wasn't the repairman. It was Bonnie's art teacher from school, and the teacher looked as startled as the girl. "Bonnie? What are you doing here?"

"I had a big fight with my parents. The Roves said I could stay here until things calm down." That was half-true. Mrs. G didn't have to know what the fight was about; after all, the baby was not showing yet.

Mrs. G frowned but apparently decided not to pry. "Adam asked me for information about an arts contest in Baltimore. I brought a brochure. Do you think he'd mind if I left it in his shed?"

"No. Go ahead."

Mrs. G nodded and started to walk toward the driveway. Bonnie shut the door in relief that things hadn't gone worse. Her situation here was precarious. She had listened (from hiding) as Carl Rove spelled out his attitude to his son. If Adam had been responsible for Bonnie's condition, or even if he had set her on the path by taking away her virginity, the Roves had a duty to help Bonnie. But it seemed that Adam was just one lover out of many, and the Roves could not afford to get involved. Bonnie could stay only until she found somewhere else to go.

Nor were they being hypocritical about "affording it". Bonnie could see for herself (having grown up with similar signs in her apartment) that they didn't have much to spare. Even to give her a bed to sleep in, Adam had to move into in with his father and leave his room to her. (Her suggestion that she and Adam could share the bed was, to say the least, not popular)

BANGBANGBANG.

Somebody at the front door again, not noticing or not bothering with the doorbell. Bonnie thought she'd better answer.

Mrs. G again. She was looking agitated, though she also seemed to be trying to maintain a grownup's dignity. "May I come in?" It sounded like an order. Bonnie mutely stood aside as the other stormed in.

Mrs. G threw a book down on the nearest chair. Bonnie's copy of WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING, a book clearly useless for a middle-aged widower and teenaged boy. "Are you pregnant?"

"Y-Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"The kit said YES. And it's been two months since -- you know." She was too frazzled to remember the euphemism and didn't want to say something vulgar to the older woman.

"Having a period. Is it Adam's?"

Bonnie suddenly could not bring herself to admit the truth: that the Roves had let her in like a stray puppy. "Y-yes."

Mrs. G sank into a chair and closed her eyes as if that revelation was physically painful. After regaining her composure, she asked," Have you talked to your parents?"

Finally, something that Bonnie could be honest about. "Yeah. They wanted me to get an abortion. My mother wanted to abort ME, back when I was inside her, but somebody talked her out of it. I figured my kid deserved the same chance, and said no. That's when they threw me out."

"Both of them?"

"My dad's really just a step-dad. He hasn't wanted me around for some time."

Mrs G looked pained again, this time shocked by the goings on inside Bonnie's family. "Have you tried talking to a professional? A doctor? A social worker?"

"I don't have money for a doctor. And I've talked to social workers before; they scare me."

Mrs. G pondered for a moment. "I think I can help. My new daughter-in-law is a counselor at a church. She can either advise you about your options, or find somebody who can. Either way, I promise they won't be scary. But it'll be a couple of days before I see her. Can you hold out that long?"

"Yeah."

Mrs. G got a pencil from her purse and wrote on the back flap of WHAT TO EXPECT. "Here's my own number, in case of emergency. But please don't call unless it's an emergency. My daughter is going to, as you young people say, freak out."

"Thank you, Mrs. G."

"I'm your teacher, and you need help, so it's a duty. Good-bye."

Bonnie showed her out the door. Only when she was out the door and backing out in her car was Bonnie calm enough to think about something outside of her own situation. Why was Mrs. G's daughter going to freak out?

Then she remembered Mrs. G's full name, and the real name of Adam's former girlfriend, the one he kept calling Jane. The girl who apparently loved Adam, but whose refusal to sleep with him had tempted him to turn to Bonnie.

Helen and Joan Girardi.

(to be continued)