pool next to Alison’s chair. Alison’s hand dangled in the water, splashing her daughter when she thought of it. Total, complete relaxation after the night from hell.
Working out their call schedule so that someone was always home at night had its upside; if you were lucky enough to get the next day off, you got to spend it with Lisa Sue.
“Come here, munchkin. Time for more sunscreen.”
“It stings my eyes,” she whined.
“I’m sorry. I won’t get it in your eyes this time.”
Suzette Mortimer walked out of the kitchen onto the deck with a tray.
“Lunchtime for my bathing beauties. Your favorites, strawberry Jell-O with fruit, and cheese and crackers.”
Alison sat up straight, angling her face to the sun. “You’re not supposed to sunbathe anymore.”
“I always thought I looked healthier with a suntan,” Suzette said. “Of course, now I have to go to the dermatologist twice a year to get skin cancers zapped.”
She pulled a table up to Alison’s lounge chair and set the food out. “You ready for more iced tea?”
“Sounds great,” Alison said, lying back again. “I’ll make it up to you, Suz. I promise.”
“You’re fine. Lisa Sue?”
“Grannie, lemonade, please.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back. I might get into the big pool later. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Kathy called a while ago to see if you wanted to go to her OB appointment tomorrow. She’s coming to the office down here.”
“I’ll text her,” Alison said. “I want to go because I think they’re doing an ultrasound. We should all go. I have office hours tomorrow, so I can slip away for an hour.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
Alison reached for her phone.
Would love to go to the appointment. Do you want to shoot Rich a text? He might be able to step away for a bit.
In a minute, Alison’s phone beeped. Will do. Thank you, Alison.
Closing her eyes, the brilliant sunlight seeped through the lids, and she saw all the colors of the rainbow, like a prism. Shading her eyes with her hand, she looked over at Lisa Sue drowning her Barbies while she waited for her grandmother to come out and rescue her from boredom. They’d go into the big pool after lunch, a sacrifice at the time it was built, but now that Alison had finished her residency, joining the same surgical practice in which Rich had just made partner, they had the money for a few luxuries. Their little bungalow suited them perfectly, and if they needed more room, they’d add on someday. But right now it was fine.
Smoothing her hands over her flat stomach, Alison no longer thought of the loss of her uterus or the reasons behind its removal. In the past three years, she’d had a baby, finished a surgical residency while having two rounds of chemo and two of radiation, and recently a negative PET Scan, reason enough for rejoicing that their friends from all over the United States flew into San Diego to celebrate.
Intertwined in the activities of daily living, they’d gone through three agonizing rounds of Alison’s eggs, fertilized with Rich’s sperm, implanted into Kathy, the last one successful.
***
It began after Lisa Sue’s birth. Kathy had come by the house to drop Mike off on a Friday afternoon for his weekend visit. Rich wasn’t home yet, and Suzette had just left. Alison invited Kathy in for coffee and to see the baby. Mike had one focus, and that was the jigsaw puzzle he had started with them the previous week, before Lisa was born.
“Mike, come see the baby,” Kathy said.
“No, I already saw her. You go.”
The women laughed together. “Mike knows what he wants,” Alison said.
Leading Kathy into their bedroom, Alison had a momentary pang of embarrassment. Rich’s side of the bed had a pile of books, including one on fatherhood, a half-full water glass from the night before, his sweatshirt hanging on the doorknob of their closet. The bed was made, thankfully, but it had the look of a bed that two people shared, intimate, sacred.
She needn’t have worried though because Kathy had one mission and that was to see Lisa Sue.
“Oh my God, she looks so much like Mike now! She looked exactly like you when she was born. Can I hold her?”
“Of course,” Alison said, grinning.
Bending over the side of the crib, Kathy swooped the baby up in her arms. “This feels so amazing.”
“Are you planning on having more?” Alison asked.
“Oh God, no. I’m done. I mean, don’t get me wrong; I loved being