and people shouting from building to building while hetried to study for his doctorate and do research for his very demanding mentor. It had never occurred to them that it would drive them crazy to listen to all the cheerful mayhem outside their windows while they were lying awake at night worrying about paying the bills.
Robby and Laura were broke. Continually. Scarily. When they were newly married and planning their future, they hadn’t had any idea of the expenses involved with having a baby, or that those expenses would start before the baby was even born. They hadn’t added the cost of doctor’s visits and prenatal vitamins and the seemingly endless amount of baby paraphernalia—all to be purchased in advance—to the budget they were writing up. Furthermore, they had counted on Laura bringing in a salary to augment the small paycheck Robby would earn from Professor Hawkins. There were so many little shops and restaurants on and around the university campus, they were sure she’d get a job in one of them. It hadn’t occurred to them that the little restaurants and shops would not want to hire and train a girl who was pregnant and would be leaving her job when she gave birth in just a few months. Laura kept on with her job hunt until she was a month away from her due date, then she finally admitted defeat and gave up.
–—
The baby was born. She was a little girl, and they named her Katie after Robby’s grandmother. According to the baby’s two grandmothers, both of her parents had been rosy, round infants. Katie was angular, and her complexion was a warm olive. She stared at the world with big dark eyes. It was Robby who finally realized who she looked like. “Remember your mother’s babypictures, Laura?” he said one morning as Laura was bathing Katie, “Katie could be her double.”
Laura looked down at her child’s face gazing up at her out of the soapsuds. “You’re right. She does look like Mom.”
The baby not only looked like Iris, but from the very beginning she seemed to have Iris’s temperament too.
“She takes things in the way your mother does,” said Theo when he and Iris flew out to California to see Katie. “I know she’s only a baby, but it’s as if she’s watching everything that’s happening and she’s going to understand all of it or know the reason why.”
Once again Laura had agreed that the similarities between her mother and her daughter were amazing. But later on, when she and the baby were alone she had whispered in Katie’s ear, “But you’ll never be afraid or insecure like my mother has been all of her life. You’ll be strong, Katie. I’ll see to it.”
Laura had fallen in love with her child. The guilt and doubts that had haunted her during her pregnancy seemed to have belonged to a different person. She could hardly remember them. Not that life with Katie was always easy. Especially when she was awakened in the middle of the night because the boys in the fraternity house at the end of the block had decided to march down the street singing the university fight song. Or when some noise her parents made in the tiny apartment woke her. She cried on these occasions; loudly, and for a very long time.
“Will she ever stop?” Robby demanded after a siege that seemed to have gone on for hours.
“She’s angry,” Laura said. “She was sleeping and minding her own business, and those idiots woke her up with their noiseand now she’s going to make sure we know how she feels about it.” And she added quietly in her daughter’s ear, “It’s okay, Katie. Don’t you pretend to be happy when you’re not. Not my little girl.”
But Laura and Robby weren’t getting much sleep, and Robby, particularly, was exhausted. To fill in their ever-widening financial gap, he’d begun tutoring a few private students in math and science. Now, in addition to the hours he spent doing research for Hawkins, he was preparing lessons and grading papers. On the weekends
Robby and Laura were broke. Continually. Scarily. When they were newly married and planning their future, they hadn’t had any idea of the expenses involved with having a baby, or that those expenses would start before the baby was even born. They hadn’t added the cost of doctor’s visits and prenatal vitamins and the seemingly endless amount of baby paraphernalia—all to be purchased in advance—to the budget they were writing up. Furthermore, they had counted on Laura bringing in a salary to augment the small paycheck Robby would earn from Professor Hawkins. There were so many little shops and restaurants on and around the university campus, they were sure she’d get a job in one of them. It hadn’t occurred to them that the little restaurants and shops would not want to hire and train a girl who was pregnant and would be leaving her job when she gave birth in just a few months. Laura kept on with her job hunt until she was a month away from her due date, then she finally admitted defeat and gave up.
–—
The baby was born. She was a little girl, and they named her Katie after Robby’s grandmother. According to the baby’s two grandmothers, both of her parents had been rosy, round infants. Katie was angular, and her complexion was a warm olive. She stared at the world with big dark eyes. It was Robby who finally realized who she looked like. “Remember your mother’s babypictures, Laura?” he said one morning as Laura was bathing Katie, “Katie could be her double.”
Laura looked down at her child’s face gazing up at her out of the soapsuds. “You’re right. She does look like Mom.”
The baby not only looked like Iris, but from the very beginning she seemed to have Iris’s temperament too.
“She takes things in the way your mother does,” said Theo when he and Iris flew out to California to see Katie. “I know she’s only a baby, but it’s as if she’s watching everything that’s happening and she’s going to understand all of it or know the reason why.”
Once again Laura had agreed that the similarities between her mother and her daughter were amazing. But later on, when she and the baby were alone she had whispered in Katie’s ear, “But you’ll never be afraid or insecure like my mother has been all of her life. You’ll be strong, Katie. I’ll see to it.”
Laura had fallen in love with her child. The guilt and doubts that had haunted her during her pregnancy seemed to have belonged to a different person. She could hardly remember them. Not that life with Katie was always easy. Especially when she was awakened in the middle of the night because the boys in the fraternity house at the end of the block had decided to march down the street singing the university fight song. Or when some noise her parents made in the tiny apartment woke her. She cried on these occasions; loudly, and for a very long time.
“Will she ever stop?” Robby demanded after a siege that seemed to have gone on for hours.
“She’s angry,” Laura said. “She was sleeping and minding her own business, and those idiots woke her up with their noiseand now she’s going to make sure we know how she feels about it.” And she added quietly in her daughter’s ear, “It’s okay, Katie. Don’t you pretend to be happy when you’re not. Not my little girl.”
But Laura and Robby weren’t getting much sleep, and Robby, particularly, was exhausted. To fill in their ever-widening financial gap, he’d begun tutoring a few private students in math and science. Now, in addition to the hours he spent doing research for Hawkins, he was preparing lessons and grading papers. On the weekends
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