The Surrogate

Grace stood first, finding the little pack of yogurt as Louis set himself on his banana that came with the bland and lumpy hot cereal. She opened it and shoved a spoon inside, handing it over to her grandfather.

“Thank you, baby girl.”

“You’re welcome.”

He took a bite of the banana, and after swallowing asked, “Did you bring some beautiful music with you?”

“My cello doesn’t travel well, but I am sure there’s a piano around here somewhere. I can play you the new pieces I am memorizing for my repertoire classes. I’m getting a lot better.”

“That sounds lovely. Let’s do that after my morning walk.”

“Deal.”

Louis thought for a moment before asking, “You aren’t at school in the city, are you?”

Grace shook her head. “No, I’m at this arts school in Michigan.”

“You like it?”

She nodded. “I love it.”

“You making friends there then?”

“A few.”

Louis smiled. “Friends are important for a girl your age. Six is an important age.”

“Grandpa, you know I’m not six.”

“I know you’re a teenager, but you always look small to me.”

Grace smiled, looking at the news as Esther chimed in.

“How is Connecticut treating you, Dad?”

He shrugged. “I guess it is all right. I don’t remember anything to complain about.”

As her father chuckled to himself, Esther shook her head. “You might be the only person who thinks forgetting is funny.”

“Well, I haven’t forgotten what matters. I remember you two, and I remember your mother. I even remember walking through the state parks for years and years, but trees blur together even if you aren’t going crazy.”

“You aren’t crazy.”

“Aren’t I?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as he took a spoonful of his yogurt. “My lady friend seems to think so.”

“Miss Constance is still chasing you?”

“Me and Frank Li across the hall. She’s a real player for a woman in her eighties. She’s a cougar as they call ‘em. I’m at least ten years her junior, but she likes it that way!”

Grace laughed with her grandfather as Esther took a sip of her father’s orange juice, knowing he would not finish it himself.

“Have you had any fun outings recently?”

“We are going to the aquarium next week in Norwalk they told me. I was hoping you would sign my permission slip.”

Esther pursed her lips before saying, “I’ll think about it.”

Louis set himself to eating the yogurt with the hot cereal spoon as he asked, “What have you been up to in the big city?”

“Work. I have had some interesting clients recently. I’m redoing a Lower East Side loft right now for a photographer who used to work for National Geographic. It’s been interesting to maximize the space for her trinkets from all over.”

“Oh really, what has this lady got?”

“She had some tribal masks from Uganda and dishes from Thailand that were beautiful.”

Louis nodded, finishing his yogurt before taking another sip of coffee. “Anything else?”

“I, um, have been spending time with Archie MacArthur. We reconnected a few months ago, and now we’re going to be spending a lot more time together.”

“I remember you saying something about an arrangement last time you were here. Was it about work? Is he a client?”

Esther started getting nervous. “Sort of, do you remember me signing up for that surrogate position last year?”

“No, but I guess you did.”

Esther twiddled her thumbs in her lap, looking at the fragile photographs behind pressed glass on the wall: pictures of her when she was Grace’s age, photographs of her parents wedding, and a handful of her father’s family in Haiti that Esther only met once in her life. She stood on the Haitian beach only coming up to her father’s knees.

Esther felt that small once more as she felt a lump in her throat. Louis waited for her to continue, eating his banana slowly. Grace sighed in exasperation, saying what her mother was taking ages to get out into the open.

“Grandpa, Mom is having another baby. She’s having a baby with Archie Macarthur because he’s decided to start a family before he gets too old.”

“Grace Margaret!” Esther exclaimed at her daughter as a rush of embarrassment flooded her cheeks.

“Well, that’s smart of him I guess,” Louis muttered to himself. “I don’t get it though. You aren’t going steady with that boy. Do you even talk to him?”

Esther tried not to stammer or stumble as she replied to her father, “He sought me out. We’re getting reacquainted.”

“If you’re going to have a baby, I guess you’ve got to do that biblically too.”

Esther blushed a deep rosy shade of pink as she struggled to respond with, “No, that’s not, um….”

Grace sighed again. “They do that in doctor’s offices, Grandpa. Mom and Archie aren’t romantically involved.”

“Well, science sure has changed since I was a younger man.” He set aside his breakfast as he looked at the little television Grace watched, which was starting a popular talk show where a woman stood in a stage kitchen with some other people surrounding her. “So when is a doctor going to do this for you?”

Esther swallowed hard, and in attempt to mend her frazzled nerves she finally answered, “Well, it already happened. I’m about seven weeks pregnant.”

Louis’s eyes brightened. “You’re going to have a baby then? You?”

Esther nodded. “It is my baby, yes.”

He chuckled. “Well, I don’t know what is making you nervous. A baby is exciting news!”

Using his orange juice, Esther’s father took his handful of pills, and sighed heavily. Esther relaxed, but she still was in shock. Her father was so calm about everything, and somehow that scared her. Why was she the only one nervous about this? Everyone else seemed happy about it. Grace was fine. Her father was excited to be a grandpa to another child. Hillary’s squeals still rung in Esther’s ears. What was Esther’s issue then? If everyone was content, why not her?

“You’re not… I don’t know… concerned?”

“Archibald was a good boy. He made plenty of money to have twenty children by now in the nicest schools and houses in that big loud city you love so much. He was always impulsive as a boy, but maybe he grew out of it. I remember him being a bit wild too, and I guess I’m not surprised he doesn’t have a child yet. Is he still the same Archibald?”

“He’s calmed down now. I think he wants to have something other than work in his life.”

“He’s not totally stupid then. I’m sure he’ll be a good parent. His mother was devoted to him. She loved him more than life itself. I bet he’ll be about the same.”

“I’m surprised you remember all that.”

“You forget Nora was the third wheel in my marriage. I married both those women when I tied the knot with your mother, baby girl. Your mother spent her first retirement check going to Paris to see Nora. Do you remember that?”

Esther mused, “You came to see me at school.”

“I got in the car after being alone in the house for one afternoon. I couldn’t take the quiet in that place. No chatty wife. No fussy daughter. The cat didn’t need me!”

Esther then remembered something else about that visit. Her mother had called her when she got back in the states, thrilled to hear her voice. Esther’s mother mentioned to her that Archie had been in the city for one day.