Chapter 7

Liz tiptoed down from the top of the stairs. She and Shayne were in the finished basement, a large room furnished with a TV, VCR, videos and video games, an old couch and lots of comfy pillows and beanbag chairs. Shayne was playing Tetris. Liz was trying to eavesdrop and when her brother refused to mute his game, had snuck up the stairs to try to listen under the door. Her parents were just beyond it, in the kitchen, talking.

"I think Daddy's crying," she said worriedly.

"Dad's been weird since yesterday." Shayne kept his eyes on the TV screen. This sudden upset in his family's equilibrium bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

When their aunt Miranda had called that morning, looking for her wallet, Corinne had rustled the kids out of bed. "Come with me, we'll go to breakfast and then see if Dad's back," she said. "Maybe we'll swing by the station and bring him a Pespi." Therefore, both Shayne and Liz had been in the car when Corinne discovered her husband wasn't out on a tow at all. She hadn't said a word, just bitten her bottom lip, but neither of her children were stupid.

"Shay?" Liz said hesitantly. "You don't think Dad … I mean, there's no way he's … He loves Mom. Right?"

Shayne sighed and hit the 'reset' button, moving over to make room on the beanbag. "Come on, Lizzy, see if you can beat me," he said. "I'll spot you a couple thousand points."


Upstairs, Corinne listened quietly as Soda explained about Maureen. When he talked about seeing her in the lobby of the hotel, his voice broke, and Corinne went around the table to him, sitting in his lap and hugging him tightly. Sodapop was a wonderful father – when they were first married he couldn't wait to have children and she couldn't imagine how much it hurt him to discover he'd missed Maureen's upbringing entirely.

Sodapop buried his face in the crook of her neck.

"So I was right," Corinne said after a moment, kissing the top of Soda's head. "It was another woman."

Soda gave a small laugh. He had been 99 percent sure she would understand, and it would be okay, but that one percent had been sitting in the pit of his stomach all the way from Darry's. Corinne was his wife, his partner, and his best friend, and he wanted her support and guidance as he and Maureen figured out how they fit together.

"There's one more thing," he said.

"What? Are we grandparents?" Corinne pulled back to look at Soda. "Because I'm too damn young to be called Granny."

Soda's mouth fell open. "Glory. No. Well, I suppose we could be. But I don't think so. I think she'd have said. Hell's bells, I didn't ask."

"I'm sure she would have said," Corinne said gently. "What's the other thing?"

"Just that … well, I didn't tell you first," he admitted. "My brothers know. Pony knows we talked, but Darry knows she's mine for sure."

"That's all right," Corinne smiled. "Miranda knew before you did that I was pregnant with Shay. Come to think of it, I think Ponyboy did too, because he happened to call right after I found out."

"She wants to meet you all," Soda said slowly.

"Well, sure she does," Corinne said. "Let's talk to Shayne and Liz and then figure out what works. It can be tonight, even, I suppose."

Soda sighed, hugging his wife more tightly. "Cory. You are amazing. I love you so much. I bet plenty of other wives would be screamin' and cussin' about now."

Corinne snorted. "Then plenty of other wives are stupid. Cussin' about what? About something that happened when you were still a boy? Before we even met? I'll love her, Sodapop. She's part of you, how could I not?" She hugged him back, hard. "But yes, you're right. I am amazing. And I love you, too." She paused, the added quietly, "But you should have told me about this morning. That's what I ought to be screamin' and cussin' about. When I ever saw those trucks there …"

"You can't really think I'd cheat on you," Soda said.

"No, I don't, not really. But what would you have thought?"

"You're right," Soda acknowledged. "I'm sorry."

They sat for a moment in silence, then Corinne asked, "What are you going to tell the kids?"

The truth," Soda said simply. "Just what I wish I'd been told all those years ago."

He eased Corinne off his lap and walked to the door to the basement. "Liz, are you right there?" he called through it. "Because I'm going to open this and I don't want to knock you down the stairs."

There was a shuffling noise from behind it, then Liz called, a little out of breath, "No, I'm not, I'm playing a game with Shayne."

Soda opened the door. "Pause that and come on up, both of you."

He stood and watched them come up the stairs. Both his children were going to be tall – Liz already looked a little like a long-legged colt. Her brown hair was in a ponytail on top of her head. Shayne reminded Soda a lot of Ponyboy at that age – skinny, but not scrawny, and stronger than he looked.

"Come sit down," he invited. "We have something to talk to you about."

Shayne and Liz looked at each other. Shayne's face was unreadable but Liz clearly looked panicked. "Are you and Mom getting divorced?" she choked out.

"What? No, no, of course not." Soda sat on the couch. Liz sat next to him. Corinne took a seat in the chair across the room.

Shayne stayed standing, but after a minute, sat on the floor near his mother. "Are you going to tell us where you were this morning?" he asked. "Because Mom was fairly freaked."

"Shayne, hush," Corinne said.

"Well, you were," he mumbled.

"I'll get to that," Soda said. "I – you guys have a sister."

No one said anything for a long moment, then Liz said faintly, "Excuse me?"

"I had a girlfriend back when I was 16 who got pregnant," Soda said. "It was a different time back that, that was part of it, but part of it was I wasn't careful." He looked meaningfully at Shayne, whose ears reddened as he looked away. "She told me the baby wasn't mine and her parents sent her away to have it. But she lied to me."

"A steady girl?" Shayne said. At Soda's nod, he rolled his eyes. "And you believed her. That's pretty stupid, Dad."

Soda looked at him steadily. "Yeah, most of us are pretty stupid when we're around 16," he said pointedly. The redness in Shayne's ears spread to his face.

"That girlfriend – her name was Sandy Hinton – I never saw her again," Soda went on. "She died about 10 years ago. But her daughter, our daughter, called Uncle Darry looking for me. That's where I was this morning, visiting with her."

"What's her name?" Liz asked softly.

"Maureen."

"Curtis?"

"No. Tull. Sandy gave her up for adoption. Her parents named her Maureen. Maureen Elizabeth, isn't that funny?" Soda smiled at Liz. "And her name before that was Julie Diane."

"She was named for Grandma, like me," Liz said in wonder.

"Sounds so."

"How old is she?" Liz asked.

"Twenty-eight. Her birthday was June 11."

Liz counted on her fingers. "Daddy, she's old enough to be my mother, I mean, she could be, technically. God, you're old enough to be my grandfather. I never thought of that."

Corinne wanted to giggle, so she looked down at Shayne so Liz wouldn't think she was laughing at her. Shayne met her eyes and, to his great surprise, his mother winked.

"Does she want a kidney or something?" Liz asked.

"No, nothing like that. She just wants to see where she came from, is all."

"She doesn't want anything?" Shayne said in disbelief. "That can't be right. Did you tell her we're not rich?"

"Shay, what a thing to say," Corinne scolded.

"Well, how do we know she's telling the truth?" Shayne retorted. "Maybe that Sandy girl wasn't lying."

"No," Soda said. "And when you see her, you won't think so either." He leaned forward to brush Liz's bangs from her face. "She looks like Lizzy. Or I guess I should say, Liz looks like her."

"See her? What do you mean, see her?" Shayne demanded. "She's coming here?"

"We were thinking of inviting her to dinner tonight," Corinne said. "Maybe call your uncles. We'll have to see how Maureen feels; I imagine we'd be pretty overwhelming all at once."

Shayne stared at his parents as if they'd lost their minds. "Why would you do that? Ask her right in? Like she's part of the family? That's crazy." He shook his head violently. "I'm not meeting her."

"Yes, you are, and you'll be polite," Soda said sternly. "She will be a part of our family, if that's what she wants." It was a tone of voice he didn't often use, and even though Shayne was almost an adult, he didn't dare argue.

"So if you had known back then, would we know her now?" Liz asked, her brow furrowed. "Like, would we always have had her around?"

"If I had known then what I know now, you mean? Of course," Soda said quietly. "She's my child. I would have done everything in my power to be her father." He laid a gentle hand on Liz's face. "I love being a father. I love having children. It's the best thing I do."

Liz smiled and snuggled close to him. Shayne stood up and bolted across the room and out the back door.