PAPER HEARTS: CHAPTER FOUR
The day after Megan went to St. Mary's Home for Unwed Mothers, Edwina phoned early in the afternoon and invited her over to her house.
Megan felt excited and afraid, both at the same time.
Excited because she could see herself being good friends with Edwina – they were going through the same thing. She wondered if Edwina was going for the parenting option or the adoption option. It was too late for her to consider option number three because it looked as if she was only a few weeks away from going into labour.
Afraid because she would probably see Marcus, and she did not know what was wrong with her because she really wanted to see him again.
She knew she should stay away from boys.
Forever.
An hour later, Megan sat in the car beside her dad who offered to drive her over to Edwina's house. The car was silent as neither one of them wanted to be the first one to talk. Her dad glanced in her direction every now and again, while Megan wondered what he wanted to say.
Edwina lived down a quiet cul-de-sac with two-story semi-detached houses.
Her dad stopped at the second driveway to the right.
“Thanks, Dad,” Megan said, pulling on the door handle.
He smiled a kind smile. “Thank the GPS that got us here.”
“And for you who followed the instructions so well.”
“You stay safe now, Megan, and call me when you're ready for me to pick you up.”
“Okay, Dad.” Megan pulled the door open and got out of the car.
The welcoming smile on Edwina's face when she opened the door after Megan rang the doorbell made the heavy cloak of guilty feelings drop from Megan's shoulders. She turned her head to look back at her dad and lifted her hand in a wave. “Bye, Dad. See you later.”
Megan followed Edwina inside. The house was bright and light.
“Let's start in the kitchen,” Edwina said, looking back over her shoulder.
In the kitchen, Edwina's mum was baking cupcakes. The ones with the pretty decorations too fancy to eat and too delicious looking not to eat.
“This is Megan O'Brien,” Edwina said, by way of introduction.
“Hi, nice to meet you, Mrs Glynn,” Megan said.
“How are you, Megan?” Her glance darted between Edwina and Megan. She was tall, almost as tall as her son, and trim. Not at all the way Megan envisaged someone who could make such edible looking art.
“I'm fine, thank you. And you?” Megan said.
“Edwina told me she met you at St Mary's. Did you find their information helpful?”
Megan paused a second, not knowing if Edwina's mum liked or disliked the nuns. “It was okay. They can only inform us of our choices, I guess, not much else,” Megan finally said.
“I guess, you're right,” she said. “The Lord leads us all on our own path.” She looked a little annoyed until Edwina stepped closer to her and wrapped her arms around her mum's waist.
“Would you like to try a cupcake, Megan,” Edwina offered, sneaking her hand past her mum and grabbing hold of a cupcake which looked too delicate to touch.
“Edwina.” Her mum pretended to slap her hand, but only moved the air above the wax paper on the counter enough to ruffle the corners. “I was going to offer.”
“Promises. Promises.”
“Grab two plates, and I'll let you each have one.”
Edwina turned to a cupboard behind her, and with a noisy clatter brought three side-plates to the counter.
“Megan, choose anyone,” Mrs Glynn offered.
“Watch,” Edwina said to Megan. “My mum thinks she's a Cup-Cake Fortune Teller. She'll know your entire future just by the one you choose.”
Megan's hand hovered in the air as she gave them each a curious look. Did she want her fortune told? Would it help her to make her choice?
“Nonsense,” Mrs Glynn said. “Pick anyone. I'm trying a new recipe, and it would be nice to get an unbiased opinion.”
Megan chose the cupcake closest to her and took a bite. Mere adjectives could not describe the melt in the mouth deliciousness. Soft chocolate oozed from the middle.
“Ah, Marcus, just in time,” Mrs Glynn said.
Megan almost choked on the soft lusciousness in her mouth.
Marcus came to stand next to Megan and gave her a crooked smile. He lifted his hand and wiped his finger over the corner of her mouth. “Chocolate,” he said, as he popped his finger in his mouth. “Megan and I are going to watch You, me and baby make three.”
“Megan and I were going to talk. In my room. Alone,” Edwina said.
“The movie tells the same story,” he told her. “One I wish you had taken to heart.”
Edwina puffed out her cheeks and pushed her large belly forward. “Fine, we'll watch it,” she mumbled.
“Ready?” Marcus asked Megan.
Edwina said, “I'll bring the popcorn.”
Megan followed Marcus up carpeted stairs to a huge attic room. He walked toward the TV, where a pile of DVDs and video games were arranged into short and tall stacks. He bent at the waist and pulled You, me and baby make three from a taller stack. “I've got them arranged in decades. Lots of people don't like watching eighties movies, but like the music, the eighties got everything right. Not like today, rehashed tunes and re-makes of the same old movies,” he said.
Megan had taken a seat on the corner of a couch in front of the TV. She liked Marcus Glynn. She really, really, really liked him. His voice. The way he looked at her, differed from the way Donovan used to look at her. She also liked his crooked smiles.
After he slotted the DVD into the machine, he flopped down on the couch, taking the middle seat of three.
“So, what's your story?” Marcus asked Megan.
“Judging from where we met, you already know my story.”
“No, not that story. Your story. What interests do you have, your hobbies, what are you passionate about, any weird habits I should know about?”
“At the moment, none,” Mega said.
“Don't tell me you're one of those girls who become pregnant and then think life is over. There's another being percolating at this moment, right in there.” He gestured his hand toward her stomach. “And that's a miracle. Did you even stop to think about it for a minute? An actual person who will become just as wonderful as his or her mum.”
It occurred to Megan she was one of those girls who thought her life had come to a permanent full stop. She felt as if her train was standing in the rail yard, blocked in with no freedom to run along shiny tracks to Destiny. “Don't complicate things for me. This is already difficult enough,” she mumbled.
“Think of something you like. The first thing that comes to mind.”
“Drawing.”
“See, that was easy. What do you draw?”
“Everything. From anime to trees. Whatever.”
“What do you want to be when you are all grown up? Something arty?”
“The plan was to become a gaming developer.”
“Megan, you are the only teenager I know who knows what she wants to be. I bet your art is beautiful. Will you show me someday?”
“I guess.”
He smiled.
Megan said, not knowing if she should, “I actually have this idea for a game I have been working on since I was eleven. I have drawn most of my ideas already, but there's always something that needs fixing or primping. My knowledge of coding, at the moment, is still questionable, but that's where university would have made a big difference, but now… Now, I don't know if I'll have time for all of that, that is, if...”
“What's the name of this game? Does it have zombies or army troopers with loads of guns and explosions?”
“No.”
“Sports?”
Megan smiled. “No. You only get three guesses, though.”
“Princesses and everything pink and fluffy?”
“Nope.”
“Well, now you have me very intrigued.” He gave her a sideways glance and a toothy grin. “Although it must be terribly boring if there aren't any zombies.”
Megan laughed a happy sound which shocked her a little. It had been a while.
Edwina puffed out of breath when she walked into the room.
“I hate coming all the way up here, it takes all my effort.” She sat down heavily on the opposite end of the couch and placed a large bowl of popcorn on Marcus' lap.
Marcus started the movie, and they watched it with several inches of the couch between them. Once or twice, Megan reached to get a handful of popcorn and she was not sure if it was just bad timing or good planning, but his hand brushed against hers each time.
The movie was about a young high school couple one year away from graduation, with promising futures ahead of them. Then the girl became pregnant, unwilling to go through an abortion or an adoption. The couple sacrificed their college experiences and degrees to keep and raise the baby, but it was not as easy as they thought it would be.
As the credits rolled, Marcus said, “Pretty good movie, right?”
“Yeah,” Megan agreed, although she thought it hit too close to home. It was the kind of movie where everything always worked out in the end and everyone was happy, but this was real life and not make believe. She could not delude herself and pretend that was how things would turn out for her. “I should call my dad to fetch me. It's getting late,” Megan said.
“I'll drive you home,” Marcus offered.
After watching the movie, Megan felt a little down and she did not think she could endure a twenty-minute drive cloaked in her dad's brooding silence, so she agreed.
She sat on the couch as Marcus searched for his keys.
Edwina pulled forward on the couch with a loud grunt. “I can't wait for this one to pop out, it's so uncomfortable.”
“Are you going to keep the baby?” Megan asked.
“Come,” Marcus said holding his hand out to Megan so he could pull her up off the couch. She saw him glance in Edwina's direction and thought she saw a look of sadness wash over his face.
“A lovely thought,” Edwina mumbled.
Marcus drove her home in his old blue Toyota. He played her a couple of songs he liked by an indie band she had never heard of before, and they were good, catchy songs, but sometimes a person had to listen to a new band a few times before one could appreciate their songs, so she did not like them as much as he obviously did.
As he pulled up outside her house, Marcus clicked the radio off and as the silence replaced the music, it became awkward. He put the car in park and looked over at her with a fierce intensity in his eyes. “Megan,” he said. “I enjoyed your company today.”
“Me too. Your company, that is,” she said. She felt too shy to look at him. Crazy, considering her current quandary.
“Will we meet again?” There was an endearing nervousness in his voice.
Megan smiled. “Yeah.”
He asked, “When?”
“Call me. Edwina has my number,” she said.
“How does tomorrow sound?”
“I must first check my schedule.”
He rolled his eyes. “Busy, much?”
“Very.” She laughed.
“You said you'd show me your art,” he reminded her.
“You don't even know me,” she insisted.
“But I want to know you.”
“Your timing is really, really bad.”
He grinned. “Or maybe, just right.”