Matt just laughed and held a lamp in his hand. “You won’t call the police. You never call the police,” he said, his words slurring together so you couldn’t tell where one stopped and the next one began.
Grandma carried me, then three, into her room and locked the door. I heard glass breaking and Matt cursing. I heard what sounded like furniture flipping over. Then I heard a knock on the door. It was the police.
I buried my head in Grandma’s chest. I loved being so close to her heart. Its beating always soothed me. We watched as the police led Matt away. The house was a disaster. That was the beginning of the end. That was ugliness.
“Wait until I tell Daddy that you got your first tooth,” Elizabeth says as she changes Olivia’s diaper. “And guess what today is? Your six-month birthday! That’s half of a year.”
Elizabeth pulls pink pants over Olivia’s diaper then slips a pink top with brown polka dots over her tiny head. She picks up a basket filled with hair wear and slips a pink stretchy headband over Olivia’s head, positioning the flower on the right side, toward the front. “You’re getting so big. Yes, you are.”
Elizabeth picks up Olivia and twirls her around, and Olivia giggles. Elizabeth stops and pulls Olivia into her chest and kisses her cheek.
“I love you so much, Princess Libby. You’ll always be my princess, my little girl.”
A tear slides down Elizabeth’s cheek and her smile swallows her creamy face.
“Look, Matt,” Grandma said as he walked into the kitchen.
I sat in the metal high chair giggling as Grandma pretended the spoon was an airplane and made airplane noises as she flew the spoon toward my mouth.
“Coming in for a landing,” Grandma said. “Open wide.”
I opened my mouth and Grandma slid the spoon in, scooping up the cereal that slid from my rubbery lips onto my chin.
Matt walked over. “What did you want to show me?”
“Sarah’s got her first tooth. See it there? On the bottom? That little piece of white poking through her gum.”
“Yeah, so what? She’s got a damn tooth. I have a mouthful.”
“Matt, it’s your baby’s first tooth.”
“She’s more your baby than mine,” said Matt, pouring a cup of coffee and walking away.
He paused when he got to the door and turned around. “The tooth is nice.”
“Where did you find that?” Elizabeth asks Tom as he walks in carrying a stuffed tooth about the size of a grapefruit.
“Where I buy all of her stuffed animals,” he said.
“The store at the mall?”
Tom nodded. “They have everything there.”
Elizabeth smiles. “Yeah, and pretty soon we’ll have it all here.”
“Gotta celebrate the milestone, Liz.”
Tom shakes the fuzzy white tooth and it rattles. “Lookie what Daddy has, Libby Love.”
He walks over to the playpen and picks up Olivia. He shakes the tooth and Olivia laughs. Slobber slides down her chin and onto her pink bib embroidered with “Daddy’s little girl”. Tom gives Olivia the rattle and she shakes it and giggles. As always, Elizabeth snaps photo after photo. Her camera and video recorder are never far from her.
“Where are you going?” Grandma asked Matt.
“Out.”
“Out where?”
“Just Out.”
“Matt, this has got to stop. Drinking every night. Your grandfather died a drunk and I swore I would never bring up a child in the same house as a drunk.”
“I’m not a drunk. I just need to get away at night.”
“Then go to the gym instead of that bar. It’d be better for you.”
“My friends are at that bar.”
“Friends? You call them friends?”
“Yeah. Friends.”
“They’re losers, Matt. A bunch of deadbeat dads and worthless husbands. If Sue were alive she’d…”
Matt whipped around. Fire-engine red flooded his scrappy unshaven face. He hammered the air with his arm, using the movement to emphasize his words. “Don’t. You. Ever. And I mean never. Bring Sue up. She’s gone. Died and left me with her.”
He pointed to me in the playpen.
“Don’t blame Sarah for Sue’s death, Matt. That little girl is the best of both of you.”
“Well, then take her. Celebrate her first tooth and leave me the hell out of it.”
Matt walked out the door and Grandma picked me up and held me and cried me to sleep.
“Are you sure you want to go out tonight?” Elizabeth asks Tom.
“We haven’t been out alone since we got Libby. As much as I love her, I want to take you on a special date. Don’t worry. Your mom knows what to do.”
Elizabeth hugs Olivia before putting her in the playpen so she can finish getting ready.
“Do you think I’m getting fat?” she asks Tom, turning around in the black silk dress she bought at the new boutique by the bank.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I was just thinking how much you’re starting to resemble a pregnant hippo.” Tom laughs.
Elizabeth picks up the hairbrush on her vanity and throws it at him. “I’m serious. Do you think my butt’s getting fat?”
“No, Liz. Your butt’s beautiful.”
“What about my thighs?”
“They’re perfect, too.”
“My boobs?”
“Not that I wouldn’t mind it if they were fatter, er, bigger, but they’re the same size they’ve always been. And they’re perfect.”
“There has to be some part of me that’s not beautiful or perfect,” Elizabeth says.
“Well, now that you mention it, you do have a little wiry hair that grows out of that mole beside your lip that looks a little witchy. Sometimes, I just want to pluck it but I’m too scared to touch it. I think it might attack me.”
Elizabeth
