Chapter 4
Chapter Four
July 2002
Nantucket Island
I t wasn’t hard to find Tara at the Nantucket Harbor. Despite the crowds and the Fourth of July chaos, the stalls and parade floats, and the hundred-piece marching band, Tara was the only person there who was a little more than nine months pregnant. Everyone around her gave her a wide berth as she barked orders, adjusted her bright red dress over her stomach, and tried to maintain order at this year’s Nantucket Fourth of July Festival. Why Tara had agreed to plan the Fourth of July Festival was beyond Josie. Everyone knew Tara was about to be a mother. But Tara was unstoppable. She was too excited about her event planning career. She wanted to go full-speed ahead.
Josie ambled toward Tara, her arms full of decorations and supplies for the stalls, and felt a sharp spike of pain on her shoulders and neck. Despite the heat and the sterling-blue sky, Josie had been too busy to remember sunscreen. She was going to pay for this. But when Tara spotted her and flashed her that big smile, pain evaporated from Josie’s mind, and she threw the supplies on a big table and hurried to hug her sister.
“Tell me how to help you,” Josie ordered.
Tara laughed. “Can you give birth to my baby, please?”
“Sure, let’s trade,” Josie joked.
Tara was sweating profusely, and her eyes scanned the crowd. “I have about twelve thousand more things to do before the race,” she said, speaking of the Round the Island Race to be held later that afternoon. “Have you seen Donnie?”
Josie shook her head. “Not since this morning.”
“He’s supposed to pick up Greg’s float and drive it in,” Tara explained.
Josie wanted to say, You know how Donnie is . But she bit her tongue. “I’m sure he’s on his way,” she said.
“You’re right,” Tara said. “I’m going to help Mike with the hot dog stand. Do you mind helping out with the parade? The marching band is in the wrong place, and I’m too tired to yell at the director. He’s scary.”
Josie laughed. “You think he’ll come after you with his baton?”
“I don’t want to take any chances.”
Josie sped off to chat with the marching band director, who was just as surly as Tara suggested. But in five minutes, Josie led the marching band to the correct location. Again, she had to bite her tongue to keep from saying, That wasn’t so hard, was it? That kind of behavior didn’t fly in event planning. Tara had taught her that you had to be smiley and chipper, be a team player, and create an environment of optimism so that everyone else wanted to be a team player, too.
But as Josie sped away from the marching band, something out of the corner of her eye gave her pause.
It was Donnie.
He was leaning against his truck, the same truck he’d used to pull the parade float into town. He was talking to a woman Josie half recognized as a tourist who spent every summer on the island. The red-headed woman was pretty, and she twirled her hair around and around her finger as she laughed at whatever Donnie said. Josie flared her nostrils. She had half a mind to storm up to Donnie and punch him in the face.
Of course, that wasn’t a valid response. She knew that. All Donnie was doing was talking. But ever since Donnie had moved to Nantucket full-time in April, Josie hadn’t trusted him. Something was off about his whole scheme.
One of Josie’s biggest problems with Donnie was that he never did what he said he was going to do, or at least he never did it exactly when he said he would. First, he’d said he was going to drop out of his band and move to Nantucket as early as January. But January turned to February, which turned to March. When he finally moved to Nantucket in April, he didn’t have enough money to get his place at first, so he moved in with Josie and Tara. By then, Josie and Tara had a great rhythm. They were perfect roommates and best friends dealing with the grief of their parents’ spontaneous departure while preparing for Tara’s new baby.
Donnie threw a wrench into things. And he kept throwing a wrench, even three months later.
“Donnie!” Josie couldn’t resist breaking up his little party. She strode up to him and raised her eyebrows.
Donnie flinched and smiled. He looked guilty. “Yo! Josie. You good?”
“You brought the parade float? Tara was worried.”
Donnie pointed. “It’s attached to my truck right now.” His tone was like are you blind?
“But didn’t Tara tell you to park back there?” Josie pointed far in the distance.
“I can’t remember what she said.”
“And I’m telling you what she said,” Josie shot.
Donnie rolled his eyes and turned back to the redhead. “Duty calls.”
“Maybe I’ll see you later?” the redhead asked.
“Maybe your fiancée will go into labor later,” Josie said to Donnie. “Perhaps you’ll be holding your baby daughter later.”
Donnie’s face turned crimson. “Fine, Josie. I’ll move the dang float.”
“Thanks, Donnie!” Josie didn’t wait to hear another word. She sped off to find Tara, hoping and praying they got through the rest of the festival without any incidents. Everything felt precarious. Tara’s due date was a week away, and nothing seemed to be going right.
For a little while, Josie couldn’t find Tara at all. But the festival was still churning forward. It was a great beast that couldn’t be stopped.
“Have you seen my sister?” Josie asked several employees. “She got away from me.”
Nearly a half hour later, Josie tracked down Tara in the ice cream parlor nearest the harbor. Tara had ice cubes on the back of her neck, and her legs shook.
“She overheated,” the woman at the parlor explained, furrowing her brow. “I told her she needs to go home.”
“The parade starts in twenty minutes!” Tara said.
“The parade will run itself,” Josie insisted. “You’ve done everything you can.” And you’ve pushed yourself way too far , she did not say.
“This festival isn’t like the Christmas Festival,” Tara said. “It’s a mess. Nobody knows where to go or what to do. If I leave, the whole thing will explode.”
“I hope it won’t explode.” Josie chuckled. “Not till the fireworks, anyway.”
Tara glared at her.
Josie tried to smile.
“I just need three minutes to rest,” Tara said. “And then we’ll go back out there and make sure the parade gets off on the right foot.”
But suddenly, there was the sound of a car crash. A couple of people ran past the window, and Tara was on her feet.
“If that was one of the parade floats, I’m going to scream!” she cried.
Unfortunately for everyone, the accident involved the cherry orchard’s float and a farmer’s tractor. One person was injured—a broken ankle from falling off the float during the crash—and Tara’s face was so swollen and sweaty that Josie wanted to call off the entire parade.
“Remember, we have insurance!” Josie kept reminding Tara.
Already, the woman who’d broken her ankle had her arms around her husband’s neck, and he was carrying her away and shaking his head angrily. “This is supposed to be a safe, family-friendly event!” he called back.
Tara leaned against the broken float with her hands on her stomach. She was listening to the orchard float’s driver, who was screaming about why the tractor’s driver was at fault for the accident. Suddenly, Johan, the Swedish immigrant, was there, just as he’d been when Tara had fainted during the Christmas Festival.
“I can fix that,” he said of the orchard’s float. “I have a few tools in my truck. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Tara looked at him as though he were an angel who’d just flown in from heaven. “Are you sure? We don’t have much time.”
Johan waved his hand. “It’s simple. Don’t worry about it.”
But suddenly, Tara’s face crumpled, and she hissed and leaned forward. Everyone went quiet and gaped at her. Even the tractor driver stopped yelling. And then she cried out, “Josie! My water broke!”
It was happening, just as Josie had prayed it wouldn’t.
Josie knew it was up to her to maintain sanity and calm. On the inside, she was screaming and freaking out, but on the outside, she said to Tara, “Remember your breathing, honey. Come on. Let’s walk slowly, slowly. I’m parked just over here.”
“I need to stay!” Tara said. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “What if…?” But she trembled with pain and clung to Josie’s hand so hard that Josie winced. And then she muttered, “My career. What about my career?” Her legs shook so much that her knees knocked together.
Josie turned to look at Johan. His eyes were so soft, so beautiful, so kind. “Tell me what to do,” he insisted. “I’ll handle it.”
As Tara breathed and rasped and panicked, she managed to translate everything over to Johan—who he needed to talk to, where everybody needed to go, and at what time everything needed to happen. Tara managed to hand over this information in just seven or so minutes. But at the end, she said, “You didn’t write anything down! I’m worried you’ll forget!”
“I have a perfect memory, Tara,” Johan said in that Swedish accent. He winked.
“Come on, Tara,” Josie urged. Sweat billowed on her upper lip, and people were eyeing them nervously as though they were frightened Tara would give birth right here next to the tractor.
Tara melted into Josie. “Okay. We need to go to the hospital. Now.” And then she remembered, “But where’s Donnie?”
“Somebody find Donnie and tell him we’re going to the hospital!” Josie called.
Ironically, the tractor driver sped off to find Donnie. He’d forgotten his anger. In the face of a new life, everyone remembered what was really important.
Josie wasn’t sure how she and Tara managed to get to Josie’s car. But soon enough, they sped off to the hospital, putting the Fourth of July Festival in the rearview. Tara huffed and puffed and panicked. But Josie continued to remind her, “Johan is going to handle everything. You prepared for the festival. It’s a machine rolling along now, and everything is in place. Right now, you have to focus on you and your body and your baby!”
“Oh my gosh! I’m going to have a baby!” Tara’s eyes were buggy. And then she blurted, “Where are Mom and Dad?”
Tara began to sob with fear and sorrow. Josie’s heart felt crunched. She drove faster and parked in the hospital lot, then helped her sister to the double-wide doors. Soon enough, they were given a wheelchair and whisked off to the labor and delivery ward. But even there, Tara couldn’t stop crying.
“Do you think you could try to call them?” she asked of their parents. “I mean, I just always imagined Mom being here, you know? I always imagined it would be you and me and her?”
Josie held Tara’s hand and tried to be strong for her. She didn’t want to remind Tara that their mother had left without telling them where she was going. She didn’t want to remind Tara that their parents had always been egotistical.
The night their parents left had been the first time they’d shown their true colors to Tara. Tara was still reeling.
“I can’t do this!” Tara cried.
“You can,” Josie reminded her calmly. “I’m right here.”
Tara squeezed her hand hard as another contraction pummeled through her. Josie bit her tongue to keep from screaming.
For a little while, Josie thought maybe Donnie had run away with the redhead and abandoned Tara. Perhaps she’d lucked out. He’s a ticking time bomb , she thought. But soon enough, Donnie hurried into the hospital room, covered Tara’s face with kisses, and said he’d be there for her every step of the way.
“I want Josie to stay,” Tara said.
“Of course. Of course,” Donnie said. “We’ll both be here.”
But Donnie wasn’t in the hospital room for long. When the going got tough, he panicked and went for long walks through the hallways, grabbing coffee and food and making phone calls. Josie had no idea who he was talking to. But she didn’t have time to care.
Tara was too distracted to worry about what Donnie was doing. Josie coached her as best as she could and was the only one in the room when it was announced she was fully dilated and it was time. Neither of them mentioned Donnie’s name when Tara began to push.
At eleven thirty that evening—as fireworks continued to explode across the black sky—Tara gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl. Josie was there to cut the umbilical cord. It didn’t matter where Donnie was, not now, as Josie wiped her sister’s forehead of sweat and told her, “You were brilliant. You were sensational. You did it.” Tara wept when she held her baby for the first time, peering down at the tiny red feet, the teensy hands, and the big eyes.
“You’re safe, little one,” Tara whispered to her daughter. “Your aunt and I will always be there for you. We’ll never let you go.”
Josie bit her tongue to keep from bursting into tears.
This is all I’ve ever needed , she thought. I’m safe in this bountiful love.