Eduardo's Arc

Chapter 109 of 115

A week after the note, Eduardo stood in the empty room at the back of the house. Two front doors opened to the main room, but this space had stayed bare. He had planned to fill it himself, the way he filled everything once. He stopped. The old pattern ended here. He went to find Kiersten. She was at the tea table, hand flat on her belly. He pulled a chair across from her and sat. "The back room," he said. "It should be for Mellani. I want to build it with you, not for you." Kiersten studied him. She did not smile. "You mean that." "I do. You decide what goes where." "Good." She stood. "Come." They worked for three days. Kiersten chose the corner for the crib, away from the window where cold came through. Eduardo cut the boards. She told him where to nail and he nailed. He did not argue the measurements. When he reached to move a shelf without asking, she touched his wrist. He stopped and asked first. She nodded. On the third morning, they set the small cradle in the corner. It was a round thing, pale as bone, with a curved roof. Light glowed soft from its windows. Kiersten had traded for it in town. Carved moons and stars ran along its edge. Old marks circled the arched door like a blessing. "A sanctuary," Kiersten said. "For the baby." Eduardo knelt beside it. His hands had shaken a week ago. They were steady now. He ran a thumb over the carved moon. "My father never made me a place," he said. "I slept where he told me. I was never safe there." "I know." Kiersten sat on the floor beside him. "This is different." "It has to be." She leaned against him. He did not pull her closer or steer the moment. He only sat and let the quiet hold them. "I kept waiting for an ending," Kiersten said. "My whole life I felt them coming. I don't feel one now." She placed his hand on her belly. "I feel her." Eduardo looked at the room. A week ago it was bare boards and cold air. Now there was a crib in the warm corner, a place made by two pairs of hands. He had wanted a homestead once, and a name people would speak with trust. He had not understood that a home meant making room for someone he could not control. "I need to work more now," he said. "More hours at the feed store. There's a mouth coming that we have to feed." "We'll manage it." Kiersten rose and brushed off her dress. "Together. Same as the walls." The room was finished. The space for Mellani stood ready before she arrived. Eduardo stood in it and felt no fear, only the weight of what came next. He had to become the father he never had, and there was no time left to wait.