Two Conversations About One Thing

Two very important conversations happened this weekend. One went like this:

“Hey Meg, it’s T.”

“Hey T.”

“What’s up?”

“Nothing much.”

(We can skip the boring stuff which went on for like, five minutes.)

“So you want me to bring my movies over tonight?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

“Okay, what time?”

“Like, 7?”

“You want to eat first?”

“Uh, okay.”

“How about we meet at Jackie’s at 6?”

Jackie’s is this diner kind of place about ½ a mile from my house. I can walk there from here which means T’s brother doesn’t have to give us a lift. Sweet.

“Perf. See you then.”

“See ya.”

Not too shabby, eh?

Important Conversation #2:

“Uh, Luce. Can we talk?”

“I was just about to take a shower.” Heavy sigh.

“You can shower later.”

More sighs. “What is it?”

“I, uh, found something in the trash last week.”

“A mouse? I told you we just have to put traps out but you don’t want to kill them.”

“That’s not it, Luce. I found a, uh, box for a, uh, pregnancy test.”

“Okay.”

“Is it…was it yours?” I can’t look at her at this point so I have no idea what she’s doing.

“Yes.”

Oh god! My breath catches in my throat. “And?”

“And nothing. It was negative.”

Thank freaking god! I smile and finally look at her and she looks almost sad. “Isn’t that good, Luce? You don’t want a baby, do you?”

“Of course not,” she scowls. Then she goes into the bathroom and shuts the door. While I’m standing there wondering, wtf, I hear the shower turn on.

Could she have been disappointed? I don’t get it. We have no money, no permanent place to live. She has a crappy job and no husband and even if she did marry Aaron, he’s a musician! It’s one thing for them to get married and live the artist’s life (with me) but quite another to have a child too. Kids need so much crap. They need a backyard for their toys and they grow fast and eat a lot and have to go to the doctor all the time. A kid is just not the right thing for my sister. I can’t believe she’d think otherwise.

Am I wrong about this?