“Yeah, but I think I have a headache or something. I worked in the darkroom late last night, and I think that did it.” She smiled but it didn't look real, and then she forced herself to look more cheerful still. “Where's my nephew? I'm dying to see him.”
“In his mother's room.” Teddy looked at her with a smile, but he was still worried as he followed her inside. Linda was sitting on the bed, nursing the baby. Vanessa stopped for a moment, she had snuck in her camera, and clicked several frames, before she put the camera down again and came toward them. There was something terribly serious in her face as she looked at Linda, and then without saying a word, her eyes went to the baby. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. She just stood there staring, her eyes big, her face pale, and her hands trembling.
“Do you want to hold him?” She heard Linda's voice as though from very far away, and without saying a word she nodded and reached out and Linda gave him to her. She sat down in a chair with a look of awe, holding the tiny bundle. The baby had gone back to sleep at his mother's breast, and now he lay round and content in Vanessa's arms as she looked down at him. She said nothing for long moments, as Teddy and Linda exchanged a smile, then suddenly Linda looked at Vanessa. There were tears running down Vanessa's face in steady streams, and a look of pain on her face that tore at Teddy. But before he could say anything at all, Vanessa had begun to speak softly.
“She's so beautiful … she looks just like you, Mommy …” She didn't look up at Linda as she spoke, and Linda sat very still, worried about both Vanessa and the baby. “What'll we call her?” And then softly, she began to croon her name. “Charlotte … Charlie. I want to call her Charlie.” She looked up at Linda then, but her eyes were blind to the people around her. She cradled the baby gently and began to sing softly, as Teddy and Linda watched her. Some deep-seated maternal instinct told Linda to take back the baby, but another sense knew that it was important that she leave him with Vanessa.
“Isn't she pretty, Vanessa?” Linda's voice was like a whisper in the quiet room, and Teddy watched with awe what was happening. “Do you like her?”
“I love her.” Vanessa looked straight at Linda, and saw her mother. “She's mine, isn't she, Mommy? She doesn't have to be his. She's ours. He doesn't deserve her.”
“Why not?”
“Because he's so mean to you, and … and those things he does … the drugs … and when he didn't come back … and … Uncle Teddy said you could have died. But you didn't.” She looked at once agonized and relieved, as they watched her relive it. “You didn't because Uncle Teddy came and got the baby out.” She winced then, remembering how she had seen her mother, near death, her legs in stirrups, strapped helplessly to the table. “Why did they do that to you? Why?” Instinctively Linda knew.
“So I could have the baby. That was all. They didn't mean to hurt me.”
“But they did, and they almost let you die … and he wasn't there …”
“Where was he?”
“I don't know. I hope he's gone for good. I hate him.”
“Does he hate you?'
“I don't know …” Vanessa started to cry. “I don't care …” She continued to cradle die baby, and then, as though she'd had enough, she held him out to Linda. “Here, I think she wants you.” Linda nodded, took the sleeping infant from her, and handed him to Teddy, nodding toward the door. Teddy left with him immediately, and returned a moment later, alone, to watch the drama unfurl. He was terrified at what was happening to Vanessa, but he had always known that it would have to come one day, and it was best if it came now, all at once, with Linda there to guide her.
“Does he hate you, Vanessa?”
“I don't know … I don't know …” She jumped out of the chair and went to the window, staring out of it blindly. And then she wheeled around and looked at Linda. “He hates you … he hates you … he hit you … oh, Mommy … we have to go away … back to New York, to Uncle