Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 11 of 70

The truck pulled into the driveway and Lymber stayed in her seat with the draft still open on her phone. The name sat in the text box. Violetta. She read it three times and felt her stomach tighten. Paul cut the engine. Polly got out of the back seat and shut the door. Lymber did not move. She thought about the girls at school reading it in bed tonight, screenshotting it, sending it to each other with a laughing face. She thought about the queen bee's mouth. The post was not cute enough. If she sent it like this, she would never hear the end of it. Inside the house she went straight to her room and sat on the floor with her back against the bed. She opened a new draft. She typed baby girl. She deleted it. She typed her name is Violetta. She deleted that too. Paul knocked once and came in and sat on the floor across from her. She turned the phone so he could see. He read it. He said the name was good. She said the name was not the problem. She said the post had to be soft. She said if it read flat, people would say she did not want the baby, and then they would say worse. She found a photo from the scan and dragged it into the draft. She typed under it. Meet our girl. Violetta Craft. Coming this spring. She showed Paul. He read it twice. He said take out our. He said put your name and mine under it instead. She asked why. He said because people already thought he was not real. He said his name on the post made him real. She changed it. Paul Craft and Lymber Craft. Below that, Violetta Craft. She added a small heart at the end and hated herself for it and left it in. Polly came to the doorway and leaned against the frame. Lymber held the phone up. Polly read it and said it was fine. Polly said the heart was smart. Polly said to post it before dinner so the comments would be buried by morning. Lymber hit post. The screen loaded. The photo appeared under her name and Paul's name together, the first time those two names had ever sat side by side on the internet as parents. She set the phone face down on the carpet. By the time Polly called them down to eat, the post had four hundred likes and climbing. The top comment said Violetta was a beautiful name. The second comment said congratulations to the little family. Lymber read them twice and did not smile. She knew what came next. Someone would count again. Someone always did. But tonight the name was out there in her handwriting, cute enough, and no one could take it back.