Girls in Trouble by Caroline Leavitt Page B

easy. And ridiculously fun to have another person to do things with. Another person she truly liked. “Our family’s getting bigger,” she told George, exultant.
    Of course, there were times she worried. One night, when she and George were taking a walk in the neighborhood, using flashlights to show their way, Eva blurted, “Do you think we’re the only people she’s considermg?
    “I don’t know. I guess we could ask,” George said.
    “I’m afraid to hear the answer. What if she is? What if we’re second choice? What if she’s not going to choose us at all?” A door slammed shut and Eva shone her light at it.
    “Well, we’re still taking calls, right?”
    “What calls? We haven’t had a new one in weeks.” Eva glanced at the neighborhood. Her eyes were already adjusted to the dark and she shut her flashlight off. “I want this so much it’s making me crazy. Doesn’t it make you crazy, too?”
    George shrugged. “She’s been pushed into things enough. Let’s just let her be.”
    But Eva couldn’t let anything be. The next day, she went into town and bought a beautiful blue box. In it, she put all the initial flurry of exchanges. The letters and photos. And she shared the box with Sara. “You saved all my letters?” Sara asked.
    “Every one,” Eva said, sifting through the box. She showed Sara the first letter Sara had sent them, the copy she had made of her and George’sresponse. There was Eva’s wedding picture, and then another picture of Sara and Eva and George in the backyard. Eva glanced at Sara, who was frowning. “Is something wrong?” Eva asked.
    Sara shook her head. “Why are you saving everything?”
    “Maybe it will be a scrapbook for the baby,” Eva said.
    “Maybe,” Sara said, and Eva winced because
maybe
could also mean
no
.
    Eva didn’t tell Sara that sometimes, when she felt most unsure, when she worried that every time the phone rang it might be Sara telling them she had chosen someone else, Eva would get down that blue box. She’d reread all of Sara’s letters, she’d study the photographs, as if each one might be a talisman keeping their covenant.
    One day, when Eva and Sara were just sitting out back on the chaise lounges, sipping iced tea, Sara talked about what it would be like to recuperate from giving birth, how it would feel to go back to school in the fall, and how anxious that made her. She talked about Danny, too, how much she had loved him, and how he had hurt her. Eva had to admit it was hard to listen to that because the girl was in such pain, it was hard to make the appropriate supportive noises about Danny getting back in touch when what she most hoped was that he’d disappear forever. But then, as Sara cried, all she could think about was how much this young girl was hurting, how awful a thing it must be to be sixteen and pregnant and abandoned to boot. She got up from her chair and leaned over and wrapped both arms about Sara and rocked her. Sara looked up at Eva, blinking. “My parents think I’m a fool for loving someone like that. They think I made the biggest mistake of my life,” Sara said.
    “It’s never a mistake to love,” Eva said.
    “The baby’s a mistake.”
    “Oh, my God, absolutely not! How could you even think such a thing,” said Eva, rubbing Sara’s back. “This baby’s a miracle.” Impulsively, Eva kissed Sara’s hair. It smelled of maple and vanilla. “And you are, too. You’re the miracle in our life.”
    “I am? Really, you think that?” Sara sat up, rubbing at her eyes, snuffling,so that Eva dug in her pocket for a clean tissue and handed it to her.
    “Every day I think that. I love having you here. I hope you love being here, too.”
    Blowing her nose noisily, Sara looked off into the distance. “I do,” she said. “I really do.” She grew suddenly calm again. “I’ve decided something,” Sara said.
    “What is it, honey?” said Eva alarmed, and Sara reached for her purse. For a moment, Eva wasn’t