And Baby Makes Three Read Free Page B

came on the line.
    “Hey, Mom, how are you?” he asked.
    “Brody! It’s so good to hear from you.” Susan Gillis was a petite woman of sixty years. She made the best apple pie and cupcakes in Texas.
    “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah, Mom, I’m good. I’m at Pendleton and I’m here for four weeks jump training,” Brody explained.
    “Oh, baby, be careful.” His mother’s voice held worry. “I should get your father—”
    “No, Mom, don’t get him. We have nothing to say to each other. I am always careful, but I called you because I have some news.” Brody grinned. “I’m going to be a dad.”
    His mother screamed. “Oh, honey, that’s wonderful.”
    “Woman, what’s the screaming about?”
    He heard his father’s voice and gritted his teeth in anger.
    “Brody has made us grandparents,” his mother said with delight.
    “Bout time he pass the line along,” his father said. Woodward Gillis was a pompous blowhard preacher with a racist streak a mile long. Brody remembered getting a beating all because he brought his black friend Avery home for a play date when he was ten. His mother, on the other hand, taught him to never see color, only people. His father tried to beat prejudice into him and he certainly didn’t win. His father picked up the second line in the house. “Tell me about my new daughter-in-law.” Brody rolled his eyes. “We’re not married and trust me, I wouldn’t be bringing her home to meet you. Mom can visit, but I want you nowhere near her or my unborn child. I think you leak evil from your pores.”
    “Brody, don’t speak to your father like that,” his mother admonished. 
    “I’ll speak to his racist behind any way I want,” Brody said stubbornly.
    “Get off the line, old man.”
    “This is my damn house and if you want to speak to your mother then you speak to me,” his father roared. That voice had long ago stopped scaring him. By the time he was fifteen he stood a foot taller than dear old dad and was built. His father had come at him one day and Brody pinned him to a wall. Needless to say, after that they stayed out of each other’s way until he left to join the Marines.
    “Fine,” Brody said mildly. “Mom, Marie is the woman who is pregnant with my baby. She is beautiful and a nurse at Walter Reed Hospital.”
    “She sounds lovely, dear.” His mother’s voice trembled and anger surged through him. His mother hated being caught in the middle of their feuds. “What does she look like?”
    “Probably a blonde. He’s like his dad, has a soft spot for tiny blondes, just like me.” His father laughed raucously.
    Brody wished he could reach through the phone and strangle the man.
    “You should leave Mom then and go find one since Mom has brown hair.
    Don’t worry, Mom, you can come live with me.”
    “If you were closer, boy, I’d—” his father began angrily.
    “You’d what, be scared? Oh, please, you stopped meaning anything to me long ago. If it weren’t for Mom I’d have no reason to call your house,” Brody retorted.
    “Brody, tell me about Marie,” his mother interrupted gently. It was her way of telling him to focus on her and not on him.
    “She’s great, Mom. She has golden brown eyes to match her chocolate brown skin and a really amazing smile,” Brody said. He heard a gasp and then the phone dropped.
    “I can’t wait to meet her…”
    “Hell no, woman, you are not allowed to leave this house to meet no ni…” his father roared. 
    “Say it, old man, finish the word and see how quickly I can find my way to freaking Springfield and kick your sorry racist ass.” Brody’s voice was deadly.
    “You pollute my blood line and you dare threaten me.” His father’s voice was filled with rage. “You ain’t no son of mine. I would’ve ripped you from your momma’s belly if I knew what a disappointment you’d be.”
    “Woodward!” his mother gasped.
    “Don’t worry, Mom, it doesn’t hurt my feelings in the least,” Brody said