Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 14 of 70

The crib had stood empty in the guest room for two weeks when Polly announced the shower would be on Saturday at the house. She said thirty weeks was late enough. She said any later and Lymber would be too tired to smile for photos. Lymber sat at the kitchen table and wrote the list while Paul read the names over her shoulder. She kept it small. A few girls from student council. Two cousins. A nurse from the clinic who had been kind. Polly said keep it to the ones who already knew the story and would not count on their fingers. Lymber underlined six names and stopped. Saturday morning Paul carried folding chairs into the front room while Polly set out a sheet cake she had baked herself, buttercream piped in pale purple with the name Violetta across the top. Lymber wore a stretch dress that fit over the shelf of her stomach. She did her hair the way she always did, one side pinned back, and stood in the front hall of the big white house checking her face in the mirror before the bell rang. The girls came in with bags. The cousins came in with boxes. The nurse brought a diaper cake tied with ribbon. Nobody asked about dates. Nobody looked at Paul sideways. He took coats and set them on the stair rail and said thank you each time, short and clear. Lymber sat in the armchair and opened gifts while Polly wrote each one down on a legal pad. A bassinet from the cousins. A stroller from a council friend whose mother had chipped in. Bottles. A monitor. Two stacks of onesies in newborn and three months. A bath tub that folded. Muslin blankets in cream and pink. The nurse handed her a bag of nipple cream and a nursing pillow and said she would need both by week one. Paul sat on the arm of the chair and held each thing up for the phone camera Polly aimed at them. When Lymber opened a small knit hat with a bow, Paul took it and put it flat on his palm and did not say anything for a second. Then he set it on the pile and squeezed her shoulder. By four the guests were gone and the front room was stacked with boxes and bags along the wall. Polly totaled the legal pad and said they were done. She said the baby had everything she needed now, down to the thermometer. Lymber walked upstairs to the room across from hers and set the knit hat on the mattress of the crib. Paul followed with the bassinet box. They stood in the doorway and looked at the room, full now, ready. Ten weeks left. Lymber put her hand on her stomach and felt the baby turn once, slow, under her palm.