Chapter 23

Things were “settled” when Bobby went back to college, but the meaning of that word also has many interpretations.

To Jane Pendleton, it meant that she had a future daughter-in-law, and that she’d get to be in the life of her granddaughter immediately upon its arrival. She completely understood their decision not to “just get married” so that the baby could be born within wedlock, instead of out of it. “Wedlock” would have to be explained, based on who the bride and groom were, and it would be a lot easier to explain that a year and a half from now, when Bobby was older and had been out of high school longer. True, there would be gossip and rumors about who had “soiled” Mindy Middlesex, but they’d die down. And when Bobby arrived on the scene, long after the baby was born, and “fell in love with his old high school teacher,” it would be viewed as him taking pity on her. At least that’s what Jane hoped would happen. If it did, then everything would work out all right. There would be a few people who raised their eyebrows over who was marrying who, but most people would wag their tongues only for a day or two and then it would be back to the salt mines.

Things were settled for Mindy in the sense that, while she was running the gauntlet of public opinion that had already buffeted her, she could take strength in the fact that now Bobby knew. And Bobby was happy about it! And her future in-laws knew and hadn’t pilloried her. Jane could be cloying, sometimes, but at least now she had someone to talk to when things seemed to be about to drown her. For Mindy, there was a future that had happiness in it, and that was enough to help her weather the storm.

Things were settled for Bobby, but only in the sense that there was a road map ... a plan of action ... which might lead to the place he most wanted to be. Finishing his associates would give him options he didn’t yet have. His parents had convinced him of their love in ways they couldn’t have any other way. He was closer to them now than he’d ever been in the past. Mindy loved him, and she was going to have his baby. The world was a bright and shiny place. He now had motivation to study more and party less, and to take his future more seriously than he had before he saw a pregnant woman in the supermarket one day.

Things were settled for Bruce Pendleton, but that wasn’t unusual. He’d always been an optimist, having faith that “things will work out.” Probably the most startling thing to him was that, in the future, he’d get to be around Mindy Middlesex. He’d have to alter his fantasies about her, but that could happen later, after she married his son. Part of him knew it was nonsense to think he could do that - banish his fantasies - but he had to pledge to himself that he’d try.

And time passed.

It dragged for Bobby.

It raced frantically for Mindy.

They Skyped every day until it became clear that neither had the time they always took in that process. They settled for a long session on Wednesday nights, and unrestricted time on the weekends. Bobby got to see her belly stretch ever bigger. She moaned that she was going to have stretch marks, and Bobby swore to kiss them and say they were sexy. She flashed him, now and then, but only when he was sure nobody would accidentally see her on his computer. He didn’t want even his classmates to know that he was already in love with his prior high school teacher.

Mindy visited Jane, but only infrequently. The neighbors weren’t snoopy, but there was no sense advertising a relationship that might seem odd. It was Jane, in fact, who put her mind to coming up with a plan that could explain a burgeoning relationship between two women who had “nothing in common.” She told Bruce about it and he pronounced it to be brilliant.

The plan was put into motion on the Saturday evening, a week after Bobby went back to school, this time driving Jane’s “old” car. Bruce planned on getting her a new one. Mindy was just starting her ninth month of pregnancy. She called Mindy and told her to come to church the next morning, where Bruce and Jane had been members for decades.

“I’m not really a church kind of person,” said Mindy. “I mean thank you, but it would feel ... odd.”

“You mean because you have no husband to bring along to explain your condition?” Jane could be blunt to extremes, but was completely unaware of that. “That’s why I want you to come. I have a plan!”

“You want me to embarrass myself in front of the people at church?” said Mindy.

“I want them to accept you,” said Jane.

“Why would they do that?” asked Mindy.

“Because I’m going to accept you first. It’s the Christian thing to do, and I’m going to do it right in front of everyone.”

“Why, Jane? I don’t understand,” moaned Mindy.

“Because after I accept you as one of God’s children, we can become friends in public!” said Jane. “I don’t want to tell you more, because I want you to be able to react normally. Please? Do this for me? I’m sure it will help set the scene for when you and Bobby can finally be together.”

“This sounds very strange, Jane,” sighed Mindy. “Won’t you just be putting on a show for your friends?”

“Well, I admit that there is some play acting involved, but I have already forgiven you. I just want others to know that, so we can be seen in public together, from now on.”

To Jane, this all seemed perfectly reasonable. It didn’t occur to her that the term “forgive” can have both positive and negative connotations, or that Mindy might be offended at having to be “forgiven” before she could be seen in public with Jane Pendleton. In a very ironic sense, it was Mindy who expressed the more Christian viewpoint by deciding not to be offended at Jane’s somewhat blundering approach to emulating Jesus. Mindy had reminded herself on more than one occasion that Jane truly did mean well and had indeed accepted some things many mothers would not have.

In truth, Jane’s idea was a pretty good one. She might not have a college degree, but she understood people, especially the people at church. The idea was for Mindy Middlesex ... poor, pregnant, unmarried Mindy Middlesex ... to show up in church, where Jane could “meet” her and ask the obvious questions, one of which was going to be, “Who is your birth coach?” When Mindy mournfully answered, “I don’t have one,” perhaps shedding a tear, then Jane could announce that she would fulfill her Christian duty by helping this poor, unfortunate woman by becoming her birth coach. Nobody would think that was odd. People might even admire her for it! But the important part of all this was that she would then have an excuse to become Mindy’s friend. That friendship would last and people would come to understand that Mindy was really a nice woman, a lovely woman. And, when Jane “introduced” her son to this nice woman and he took pity on her (like his mother had) by liking her and helping her, nobody would think that was odd, either. And when Bobby fell in love with her, who could then fault him? Or her? Nobody! That’s who!

This master plan would appeal to those people in the church who went there more for appearance than to worship any deity. It displayed the attributes they were trying to pull off. And the people who really were trying to live a Christian life might have done the same thing, if for different reasons. They would at least understand Jane’s “motivation” to do this. What Jane was doing was bringing some gray into a situation that, otherwise, was being seen as black or white. There were people who were angry that this woman was pregnant because they thought she was setting a very poor example for the teenagers who observed her protruding belly. She was “bad” ... black. There were people who knew her and thought it was none of their business who had crawled between her legs. They didn’t really care. She was “Free, white, and over twenty-one,” to use the no longer politically correct vernacular from a time gone past. For the purposes of this argument, she was “white” to them. No pun intended.

But neither sort of people really knew or cared about Mindy Middlesex as a human being. Jane wanted people to give her a chance, maybe get to know her a little bit, and perhaps begin to care about her. Granted, the primary beneficiary of all this wasn’t Mindy. It was Bobby. But Mindy would benefit from it.

To reiterate an earlier comment: Jane truly did mean well and had indeed accepted some things many mothers would not have. She was simply a little flawed ... just like the rest of us. And what better place for such a person than in church?

So props must be given to Jane for this somewhat wacky and twisted grand plan, particularly because it worked. It didn’t exactly work like it might have if Mindy’s magic wand had been employed ... but it worked.

A very bewildered Mindy was at a complete loss for words when, after she reluctantly entered the sanctuary of the church, the next morning, Jane smiled brightly and approached her, acting as if they’d never set eyes on each other and loudly announcing, “Welcome to Living Word, First Assembly of God Bible Church! We’re so glad you’re here!”

Jane had already told Bruce “not to interfere” so he looked on with a bemused appearance as Jane studiously “got to know a little about the visitor.”

The only problem was that Bruce was practically the only person who looked on. People had already been talking to each other, chatting before the service started and, as happens in way more churches than it should, they ignored the visitor to their little church. A few noticed Jane approach and speak with her, and there was some mild interest, there, but in fact only one or two people recognized Mindy as being the music teacher at the high school. Half a dozen others had heard of her, but didn’t recognize her on sight. To the vast majority of people present in the sanctuary, Mindy was simply “a pregnant woman they’d never seen before.” That she was not accompanied by an obvious husband didn’t seem odd to the assembled group. There were over a dozen women in the congregation whose husbands refused to darken the doorway of the building.

On the other hand, by the time Mindy left, that day, arm in arm with Jane Pendleton, to “go out and get a bite after church,” pretty much everybody knew who Mindy was. That’s because almost all of them had been introduced to her by Jane, who usually said something like, “This is Mindy. She doesn’t have a birth coach. Of course, it’s my Christian duty to help her, so that’s what I’m going to do!”

Basically, after that day, there were roughly thirty-six people in the town of eight thousand who would think nothing of seeing Jane and Mindy together. That’s not counting the nurses who already knew that Jane was a steadfast visitor whenever Mindy was hospitalized.

The truth of the matter is that most of us only pay attention to a shockingly small number of the people we live among. The reader already knows this is true. When you go to WalMart (or Target, if you’re a Wally-World hater), you rarely pay any attention to other shoppers. Only if you already know someone do you stop and chat for a few seconds before moving on. You might notice someone’s appearance, for some reason. Maybe a hairdo, or outlandish clothing or whatnot. You might think, “I passed that person in the bread aisle a few minutes ago.” But you don’t care about what’s going on in the lives of any of the other shoppers.

And the truth of the matter is that only a maximum of fifteen or twenty people in town actually cared enough to judge Mindy Middlesex harshly for being pregnant and unmarried.

On January twenty-third, Mindy’s water broke while she was teaching a classroom full of freshman. The kids freaked out, but Mindy knew what to do. She called Jane from the office, where lots of other people were freaking out. Once again, an ambulance came to the high school to take the music teacher away. Jane met her at the hospital and fourteen hours later, Mindy Middlesex pushed Bobby’s baby out into the cold, cruel world.

And by May, when little Christine was four months old and cute as a bug, almost nobody thought of her with derision. The fact was, Mindy was a good teacher and her students performed amazingly good music.

A lot of people might have cared, had they known that the reason her students were so good involved the use of a magic wand, occasionally ... but nobody knew that.

That’s all she used the wand for - making music. And she was very conscious of how often she brought it out and employed it. She did a lot of self-examination after using it, trying to detect side-effects. There were none, at least as far as she could determine. Eventually she began to doubt that the wand had caused her to fall in love with Bobby Pendleton. It was possible, she decided, that it had simply happened. Of course the fact that he’d saved her from Batiste had a lot to do with that ... but she doubted, now, that the wand had made her do anything against her will. Not with Bobby.

Eventually, she had used the wand on a few kids who clearly had an aptitude for music, encouraging them to “want” to take lessons, and practice, and get better. She taught the piano students herself, which helped out, financially. Mindy was astonished at how much it cost to clothe and feed a growing toddler.

Meanwhile Bobby applied himself to his studies. He got to see the now two loves of his life most nights, even if it was only on a flat screen. He dealt with the peer pressure to kick up his heels by lying to his classmates. He told them he’d gotten engaged over Christmas break.

Had Mindy moved to another town to be a music teacher, everything probably would have gone flawlessly. When Bobby’s first year of law enforcement training was over, he came home. The plan was for them to be circumspect in their relationship, but that was doomed to failure. They’d been apart too long. He wanted (and needed) to spend time with his daughter. It was impossible for either of them to stay away from the other.

Jane had tried to set the scene, perhaps because, unconsciously, she knew how difficult it would be for them to present the “proper” appearance. To that end she had extended her “Christian duty” beyond merely helping Mindy through the birth of her daughter. She had invited Mindy to come for dinner a number of times. Mindy now attended church regularly, and it was clear to the congregation that Jane had taken the poor woman under her wing.

But it is one thing to coo over and spoil one’s granddaughter, and another to know that the still-unmarried parents of that granddaughter are in another room, naked, in bed, doing ... things.