Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 13 of 70

The next night Lymber found Paul sitting on the floor of the guest room across from hers, the crib box still flat against the wall. He had his phone in his hand and his back to the door. She saw the screen before he darkened it. A group thread with his old friends. Nothing new under his last three messages. He shoved the phone under his leg when she stepped in. His eyes were red. He said he was fine. He said it to the carpet. Lymber sat down against the box. She said his name. She said she knew he was not fine. She said he had been quiet at the store and quiet at dinner and quiet when Polly asked him about the car seat straps. Paul rubbed his palm on his knee. He said he kept thinking about Marcus. He said they used to shoot hoops every day. He said now the thread was dead and he could not fix it. He stopped there. Lymber waited. She counted the sleepers she had lined up that afternoon and made herself speak slow. She told him he had fourteen weeks. Fourteen weeks and then the baby would be in this room, in the crib behind them, crying at two in the morning. She said she could not do the two in the morning alone. She said she needed him at the appointments and at the register and on the floor folding the small clothes, not stuck on a phone waiting for a text that was not coming. She said stop beating yourself up over the boys who went quiet. She said be here. She put her hand flat on the box between them. Paul looked at her hand for a long time. Then he pulled his phone out from under his leg and opened the thread and deleted it. He set the phone face down on the carpet. He said okay. He said he was here. He got up and cut the tape on the crib box and started laying the pieces out on the floor by size, the way she had laid out the sleepers. Lymber went to get the instructions. When she came back he was already sorting the screws into the lid. Polly passed the doorway with a laundry basket and did not stop, but Lymber saw her look in and keep walking. They worked until midnight. The crib stood against the wall when they were done, empty, waiting. Paul sat back on his heels and looked at it. He said fourteen weeks. Lymber said fourteen weeks. He did not pick the phone back up.