Reaction - Lesley Choyce [16]
“Have you thought any more about giving the baby up for adoption when it’s born?” Ashley’s mom asked.
“We’ve talked about it as a possibility,” Ashley said.
“I don’t think it’s what I want,” I said. “But I haven’t ruled it out. I just know that there are no easy answers here.”
Mr. Walker looked at me differently now. The hostility had faded. It’s almost like he was looking at me as me for the first time, not as the boy who had gotten his daughter pregnant. “Well, you sure got that part right,” he said.
And that’s where we left it. I gave Ashley a hug and walked home. I was still baffled as to what would come next. I didn’t know how we were going to sort out the difficulties or make the right decision. All I knew was that we had, for now, taken some control. There would be problems ahead and difficult decisions. And I knew I would never be fully prepared for what lay ahead. But we had taken our lives back for now. There would be a child, and we’d have to figure out what would be best for that child.
Maybe Ashley and I could see it through and stay together. It wouldn’t be easy. Nothing would be easy from here on. But I knew one thing for sure. I’d be there for her right up to the time the baby was born and beyond. We’d see this through together.
Lesley Choyce teaches part-time at Dalhousie University, runs Pottersfield Press and has published over seventy books for adults and kids. He surfs year-round in the North Atlantic and has been a newspaper boy and lead guitarist. Lesley lives at Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia.
Orca Soundings
The following is an excerpt from
another exciting Orca Soundings novel,
Comeback by Vicki Grant.
978-1-55469-310-8 $9.95 pb
978-1-55469-311-5 $16.95 lib
RIA IS RICH, SLIM, PRETTY, POPULAR.
If you only knew her at school, you’d think she led a charmed life. But her situation has suddenly changed. Her parents’ seemingly perfect marriage has broken up, and before she’s had a chance to absorb the blow, her father disappears in a plane crash. What’s worse, rumors begin to surface that he may not be the man—or father—everyone thought he was. Ria decides she needs to take desperate action to protect herself, her younger bother and her father’s reputation.
Chapter One
My boyfriend is trying to make me feel better. He’s leaning against his locker, one arm over my head, making a little cocoon for me. He tucks a wisp of hair behind my ear and says, “It’s not the end of the world, Ria. Who knows? You might even end up liking it. So smile, would you? C’mon. Just a little… Please?”
I appreciate the effort. I really do. Colin’s sweet—but it’s not helping. He doesn’t know how I feel.
How could he?
His life’s right off the Disney Channel. The mom. The dad. The three kids. The mischievous but lovable dog. Everyone sitting around the kitchen table, laughing at dumb jokes and flicking corn Niblets at each other.
Colin couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like to live without all that— any more, I guess, than I could have three months ago.
The weird thing is I didn’t even know my life was perfect until suddenly it just wasn’t anymore. It was like waking up after a car crash and realizing your legs aren’t there. Who even thinks about how great walking is before something like that happens?
The word crippled pops into my head, and that’s enough to get me started again. I have to close my eyes.
Colin says, “Oh, no. Ria…” I feel the air go out of him.
This isn’t fair. I shouldn’t make him miserable just because I am. That’s the type of thing my mother would do.
What am I saying? That’s the type of thing my mother did do.
This whole thing is all about her. Her life, her happiness, her whatever.
It’s as if one morning she just decided she didn’t want to be married anymore, and that was that. No explanation. No apology. No nothing.
Next thing we knew, she’d kicked Dad out. She’d fired the housekeeper,