Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 7 of 70

The phone stayed off on the kitchen table. Lymber sat at the counter in a clean sweatshirt while her mother poured coffee she did not drink. The clock over the stove said ten past eleven. The appointment was at two. Polly set a mug down and said the nurses would ask questions before the doctor came in. Last period. First symptoms. Partners. If any of Lymber's answers landed wrong in the file, the file would say one thing and the town would say another, and a lawyer could not fix a chart written in ink. Lymber said she did not have answers. She had a strip on the nightstand and a boy's name on the internet and a crown she had already taken off. Polly sat across from her with a notebook from a drawer. She wrote three columns. Dates. People. Words to use. She asked when Lymber's last period was. Lymber counted back on her fingers and gave a week. Polly wrote it down. She asked when Lymber had last seen Paul. Lymber said the weekend before school started. Polly wrote that too. She said, tell them one partner. Tell them the date. Do not say the word dance. Do not say the word crown. If they ask why you waited, say you were scared. Lymber practiced. She said the week in August. She said one partner. She said she had been scared. Her voice went flat by the third round, which Polly said was good. Flat sounded like truth in a small room. Polly closed the notebook and pushed it into her purse. She said she would go in with her. She said if a question came that they had not practiced, Lymber was to look at her before answering. At one thirty they got in the car. Lymber turned her phone on for the drive and a text from Paul sat at the top. He had seen the post. He asked what he should say if someone called. Lymber typed back the same three lines her mother had given her. Week in August. One partner. Scared. She told him to say nothing else and to keep his phone off after. He sent back one word. Okay. She turned the screen dark and put it in the glovebox. In the exam room the nurse asked the questions in the order Polly had guessed. Lymber gave the answers flat. The nurse typed. The doctor came in and confirmed the pregnancy on a second test and a scan and put a due date on the chart that matched the week in August. Lymber walked out with a printout in her hand and a folder of pamphlets under her arm. In the parking lot Polly took the folder and said the record was clean. Then she said the harder part. The due date was on paper now. Anyone who could count would count.