Chapter 8

“You okay this morning?” said Blake. “You going to work?” she shrugged.

“Okay, I guess. And yes, I am going to work; it’ll be my last week, three days actually. I am a little on the uncoordinated side though,” she said, “I mean I am eight months along.”

“Doctor give you a tentative date yet?” he said.

“Second week of next month,” said Ava. “Blake, I am so scared. I mean having his baby, and him not going to know it, you know as we discussed. Blake, are we doing the right thing?”

“Fact is I don’t know,” he said. “Whatever we, you, decide, will hurt him in the long run. I mean, tell him, and he worries for the next twenty years. Don’t tell him and he hates us for not telling him after he gets out and discovers he has an adult daughter that he didn’t have a clue even existed.”

“But having said all of that, not adding to his stress and whatnot now, looks like the best way to go. But, like I say, there is just no way to know for sure,” he said. “Ava, the man is a convicted felon, a killer. He’s my brother, and I love him anyway, and I, we, will do what we can for him when he gets out; but, apart from that, he has made his own bed, and he will have to lie in it. He’s just lucky that he has a woman as wonderful as you who is willing to support him and wait for him no matter what.”

The man across from her didn’t see, or seeing, understand the look that the woman, Ava Gardner, had on her countenance.

“He’s a good man, a great man, Blake. I blame myself for all of it. And, I do support him and I am going to wait for him,” she said. The man nodded, but it was a dubious nod.

He stood beside her bed as she screamed bloody murder. It was not an easy birth. She was squeezing his hand like no one had ever squeezed it before, not even a man.

Then, the baby was out. The doctor cut the cord. The baby, baby Candace, was wailing. She sure was large, well largish,” he thought. A nurse then took her and did the cleaning up process. Another nurse was tending to mommy. It was October 10th 1972.

The father, the real father would not be told of his fatherhood; well, not in the near future if ever. That was a question for another time, a time, a better time, down the road. The man had a minimum of nineteen years left to serve for his crime, thought Blake Willis.

Uncle Blake had made a promise to his brother to keep his woman working to minimize the time she would certainly have spent thinking about things she needn’t be thinking about. But he was about to break that promise. She wouldn’t be working anymore. She needed to be with baby Candace. They’d be talking about that soon.

He was going to have her move into his condo at least until she could handle things on her own. He wanted her and the baby to be where he could watch over the two of them and guarantee their safety and well-being. It would be but two days after he’d made the decision that they did move in with him; actually, as soon as they left the hospital. Then it was a month after Candace’s birth. And then it was the week before Thanksgiving.

He arrived home, at the condo, just in time to see her packing to leave. “Ava, what are you doing?” said Blake.

“I need to thank you, Blake, for everything. For being there for us, the two of us, through this, all of it,” said Ava. “We won’t be imposing anymore after today.”

“Whaddya mean imposing! We’ve talked about this,” he said.

“Yes, but I’ve thought it over. Our house, Julian’s and my house, is where the two of us belong. Staying here, with you, doesn’t feel right,” she said. “The next-door neighbor is willing to sit for Candace when I’m at work. She’ll do it cheap.”

“Look, Ava, I promised Julian to look after you. Yes, he did want you to work so as not to spend all of your time thinking bad thoughts and worrying. At the time I agreed with him, but I also got him to agree to a change in plans if anything came along that would change the situation. Having a baby be with its mother is definitely a change in situation, and one that demands a change in plans. You can’t work anymore, not optimally.

“As for the house, we’ll keep it. It’s paid off. I’ll have housekeepers and gardeners take care of the place and you can check it out occasionally and make sure it’s ready for the man when he does come home. I guarantee he’ll be happy with the outcome,” he said.

“Blake, I don’t say that your proposal isn’t tempting, but...”

“But what. I love my adorable little niece. You too if it comes to that. Just stop packing that suitcase and let’s go into the kitchen and put together something to eat. It’s after five already. We can talk some more on full stomachs. Okay?” he said. She hesitated, but finally nodded in the affirmative.

Blake Willis may have only been an uncle in a genetic sense, but in truth, he seemed more like a dad, a father; that truth caused a pang of guilt to ring bells in the back of Ava Gardner’s conscious mind.

Dinner cooked and done; the two adults did talk. Mom was holding her baby.

“So, it’s settled then,” he said. “You’re staying permanently. You’ll still have the bedroom down the east hall. It’s big enough for the two of you, and private enough so that you won’t have to worry about any interruptions. And, that new phone is set up special so that you can get calls through to or receive calls from the prison.” She nodded.

“Okay, and it’s just something else that Julian and I have to thank you for,” she said. “And, I know that that phone thing must’ve cost you a fortune. I wonder if the White House has anything like it; I mean as good.”

“Harrumph, actually it’s modeled on the one the White House does have,” he said, smiling. “Well, that’s what the man who put it in for me told me.”