Lost Daughters (35 page)

M
AUREEN WAS DUMBFOUNDED. FOR THE NEXT FEW SECONDS, SHE
couldn't tell if she was coming or going. She had to give a quick tune-up to her brain to try and figure out what Loretta was talking about.

“Mama, did you hear what I just asked you? Do you still know how to get in touch with that couple?”

“Couple? What couple?” Maureen had given up on the idea of Loretta letting the fictional couple in Canada have her baby. Loretta asking about them now caught her completely off guard.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, I guess you've gone senile too,” Loretta complained. “Don't you remember tellin' me about the couple who wanted to adopt my baby?”

“Oh! You mean that nice rich couple in Canada. I . . . oh . . . yeah! Of course I remember. You got it right about me bein' senile because my memory ain't what it used to be. Yes. I still have their information.”

“If they still want my baby, they can have it,” Loretta said quickly. “I don't want to meet them, and I don't want to talk to them, not even over the phone.”

Maureen couldn't believe her ears. “Uh, are you goin' to come home and have the baby? I can take the baby up to Canada myself.”

“Didn't I already tell you that I'm never comin' back to Florida? The only way I will go through with this is if
you
don't get involved.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don't want to see this baby when it's born and I don't want you to see it either. One of the other girls I know changed her mind after she and her mama saw her baby, and her mama talked her into givin' it to her to raise. I know you don't want to raise Mel's baby, but you might change your mind if you saw it.”

Maureen didn't want to comment on Loretta's last sentence. There were no comments that she could make without using a lot of profanity. “Uh, how do you want the couple to pick up the baby?” Maureen had not thought this far ahead. She had also not considered the possibility that Loretta might change her mind someday in the future and want to meet, or at least communicate by telephone or letter, with this bogus couple in Canada. “Uh, they want to keep this as impersonal as possible. They don't ever want to meet or talk to you either.”

“I don't even want to know their names or exactly where in Canada they live. You already told me everything I want to know about these people.”

“I'm glad you feel this way,” Maureen said, relieved. “I think that's the best way to handle this. I'm sure I can find somebody we can trust to come get the baby right after it's born. They can take it to that couple. The husband and wife already said they would pay for any expenses involved.” Maureen immediately wished she had not said anything about money. All she needed now was for Loretta to ask for some impossibly huge amount of money in exchange for her baby. She recalled a TV movie that she had seen about a greedy female who had done just that. The girl had sold her baby for some humongous amount of money to a wealthy couple. Maureen hoped that Loretta wouldn't ask for money in exchange for her baby. The thought of something like that happening almost made Maureen pass out. Poor Mama Ruby. It was a good thing she was dead. She would never put up with something like this! But if Loretta did want money for her baby, well, Maureen would scrape up whatever she could. Virgil had a nice savings and so did Big Maureen and her husband.

“I don't want anybody too close to me to pick up the baby. Not you, not Virgil.”

“I understand. Like I said, I can find somebody we can trust to come to New York and get the baby and take it to that couple.” Maureen was close enough to a couple of women at work. She knew she'd be able to talk one of them into posing as a representative for the couple in Canada. Who wouldn't want a free trip to New York? Maureen knew she could fabricate a believable story to tell the woman so she wouldn't have to know the truth about where the baby was actually going to end up. If she had to, she would hire some local actors to pose as the Canadian couple. Otherwise, she would have her coworker bring the baby to her, and she would take it to Big Maureen.

“What about Big Mo'reen?” Loretta asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Do you think you could talk Big Mo'reen into comin' to New York to get the baby? Maybe if that couple from Canada would get a hotel room here, too, Big Mo'reen wouldn't have to go all the way to Canada to drop off the baby.”

“I don't know about the Canadian couple travelin' to New York, but I know I can get Big Mo'reen to pick up the baby and take it to that nice couple. Uh, Big Mo'reen is family, though. I thought you didn't want nobody in the family to see the baby in case they get attached to it and want to keep it, or somethin'.”

“Oh, I doubt if Big Mo'reen wants to raise another baby at her age!”

Thank God Lo'retta didn't know how desperate Big Mo'reen was to raise another child! Maureen told herself.

“Since Big Mo'reen ain't had enough time to really bond with our part of the family yet, she shouldn't have trouble doin' somethin' like this. Can you call her up right away? I want to get this mess straightened out as soon as possible so I can start makin' plans for my future.”

“I will call her up right away,” Maureen said, speaking so fast she almost bit her tongue. “I'll make sure that couple in Canada got the papers for you to sign off on and whatnot.”

“Papers? What kind of papers? I don't want to sign off on a bunch of papers!”

“Um, papers to make everything nice and legal. In case you decide later on that you want the baby back, these papers will protect the Canadian couple's interest.”

“Yikes! I would never want this baby back once I get rid of it. I am goin' to be the most famous black model in the world. I can't stand that Naomi Campbell, so I want to knock her off her high-ass horse as soon as possible. Besides, when I do get married, I don't want my husband to be bothered with no
ready-made
family! That almost never works out.”

Tell me about it
, Maureen said to herself. “I am sure you won't want the baby back, but I am also sure that the couple would like to have some peace of mind. They wouldn't want to sit around wonderin' from one year to the next if you might come to claim your baby. You signin' the paperwork is just a formality.”

“All right, then. Send me the paperwork I need to sign and I'll sign it. If things get too complicated and I have to run back and forth to some lawyer's office, I won't go through with this!”

“I'll make sure it's just some simply worded document that says you can never try to find or reclaim the baby. That's all. Virgil knows some real sharp lawyers. I'm sure he can get one to draw up some papers.”

“Just make sure that Uncle Virgil gets one that'll draw up some papers that don't have a lot of confusin' mumbo jumbo and big words I have to look up. I'm not in the mood to deal with anything real complicated. Do you hear me?”

“Yes. How will I get in touch with you?”

“You know where I am, Mama. I'm in New York City.”

“I don't have your address in New York City, and you changed your telephone number and didn't give it to me,” Maureen said dryly.

“Is that why you didn't call me?” Loretta whined. “I wondered how come you didn't call me up and wish me a happy New Year!”

“I would have . . .” Maureen was stunned and disappointed to hear that her daughter was such a dingbat. How in the world was Loretta going to make it in the cutthroat business of modeling and become the most famous black model in the world if she was this dense?

“I guess I forgot to give you my new number, huh, Mama?”

“I guess you did.”

Loretta was the last person in the world who needed to be raising a baby. Maureen was glad she didn't want to. She was also glad that Loretta had mixed up her dates, making it impossible for her to get an abortion.

After Loretta gave Maureen her new telephone number and her address, she hung up without even saying good-bye.

Maureen wasted no time calling Big Maureen. “Do you still want Lo'retta's baby?”

“H
OLD ON. LET ME GRAB A BEER.” BIG MAUREEN DROPPED THE TELEPHONE
onto her living room coffee table and trotted into the kitchen to snatch a can of beer out of her refrigerator. She returned to the telephone in record time, huffing and puffing and slurping her beer. Flopping down onto her couch, she said, “Okay, sugar. Now what did you just ask me?”

“I asked if you still wanted to raise Lo'retta's baby?” Maureen was so excited, she felt warm all over. She felt so good that she was grinning from ear to ear, something she had not done in months, except when she was with Jay. It warmed her heart to know that at least one good thing was going to come from the mess Loretta and Mel had created after all.

Big Maureen screamed like a woman in ecstasy—and that was exactly what she was. “Lord Almighty! Do I still want to raise Lo'retta's baby? Girl, you know I do! I thought she got rid of it?”

“It's a long story, and I don't want to go into that right now. The main thing is, you can have the baby if you still want it. It'll be your and Lukas's baby, free and clear. You can name it whatever you want and raise it the way you want to, which I know will be good with you bein' so much like Mama Ruby and all. But only you, me, and Virgil will ever know who the baby's real mother is. That's one of the things that we have to agree on.”

“I can agree to that! What about Lo'retta? She won't know nothin'? She won't know me and Lukas got her baby? Wouldn't she feel better knowin' her child was with family?”

“No. She thinks that some couple in Canada is gettin' the baby.”

“Huh? You mean there is another couple in the mix?”

“Yes and no. Lo'retta thinks there is, but I just made them up.”

“You made up a couple?”

“I had to. She didn't want anybody she knew to have the baby because she was afraid she'd eventually be around it. That's why I made up the story about a rich couple in Canada. That pleased her and that's the only way she would agree to my suggestion.”

“Oh. I just don't want to get that baby and get attached to it and then find out that somebody else might pull the rug out from under me and Lukas. You sure this is the only couple you made up? You sure there ain't no real couple that might cause trouble?”

“Big Mo'reen, you don't have to worry about anybody messin' things up for you once you get that baby. You just have to go along with my plan. You have to keep all of the details a secret. That's the only way this is goin' to work.”

“We can do that.”

“We? We who?”

“Me and Lukas. Since he'll be the baby's daddy, shouldn't he know everything I know?”

“No! He can't ever know the truth. It's got to be just you and me and Virgil. I don't even want Virgil to tell Corrine. She might decide to leave him one day, and who knows who she will blab our business to. Lukas might do the same thing. You just tell him that some unwed young girl up in Alaska is givin' y'all her baby.”

“That story sounds kinda flimsy, even to me,” Big Maureen stated. “You goin' to have to do better than that, baby sister.”

“Okay. How's this sound: tell Lukas and everybody else that one of the nuns from that asylum you grew up in transferred to Alaska. Somebody told her how bad you wanted a child. Say she wrote you a letter and told you that she'd help you get this Alaska girl's baby but that everything has to be kept top secret on account of the girl is kind of fickle.”

“What would a black girl be doin' in a remote place like Alaska?”

“Her boyfriend got a new job up there in Alaska, and she followed him a few weeks after he left their home in . . . uh . . . Atlanta. But by the time she got there, he already had a new woman.”

“And that's why she don't want to keep his baby?”

“Exactly.”

“That's more like it.” Big Maureen actually clapped. “Now all I want to know is when and how I'm goin' to get my new baby? Ooh-wee! Christmas is comin' early this year!”

“I need to talk to Virgil first. I'm goin' to get him to draw up some papers for Lo'retta to sign.”

Big Maureen's mouth dropped open. “Papers? Yo Lawdy! If we involve a lawyer in this, someday Lo'retta might get a hold of him and make him tell her who got her baby!”

“Don't worry. We won't need a lawyer to get involved in this. This is just another part of the plan to keep Lo'retta in line, in case she tries to stir up some mess later on down the road,” Maureen explained. Big Maureen's silence told Maureen that even more of an explanation was necessary. “We'll make Lo'retta think these papers are real, but they will be as phony as a three-dollar bill. After she signs them, you, me, and Virgil will be the only ones with copies.”

“What about Lo'retta? Won't she need a copy?”

“She can have a copy if she wants one, but it won't do her a bit of good. I'm goin' to have Virgil word it so she can never try to contact her child, even after it gets grown.”

“Oh.” Big Maureen's silence worried Maureen. “I'm glad Mama Ruby didn't sign no papers like that when she gave me up. My daddy's mama wouldn't have been able to find me and bring me home to my real family. I'd still be the lost orphan child that I was for the first fifteen years of my life.”

Maureen was tired of all the secrets and lies in her family, but she knew that for the good of everybody involved, some of the secrets had to remain. Mama Ruby had given up her own baby and then stolen one from another woman. Well, with Loretta's baby, it was time for somebody to do the right thing. But was what she had cooked up the
right
thing? Maureen wondered. She didn't know the answer to that question, and she didn't want to dwell on it. As far as she was concerned, it was the best thing for everybody involved.

After Maureen ended her call with Big Maureen, she began to pace back and forth, almost walking a hole in her living room carpet. She had overloaded her mind with more scary thoughts. Now she had one more thing to be on pins and needles about. In addition to being nervous about getting married soon, and still trying to get used to the fact that she had been kidnapped at birth, she was scared to death that Loretta might change her mind about the baby. That night before she went to sleep, she prayed twice as long as she usually did.

 

Maureen dialed Loretta's telephone number several times over the next couple of days. Each time the answering machine picked up. So far, Loretta had not returned any of her calls. That made Maureen even more nervous and apprehensive. She couldn't wait for this adoption thing to be over and done with.

That Sunday, Virgil composed a very official-looking bogus contract on his computer. The next day, Maureen sent it by registered mail to Loretta. She called Loretta's residence again and left a detailed voice mail, alerting her that the “contract” was on the way. Maureen had to make sure that Loretta didn't get slaphappy and talk to one of her so-called new friends, or somebody with some legal knowledge. The message she left informed Loretta that if she involved someone else, the couple in Canada would cancel everything and she'd be stuck with a baby she didn't want.

Loretta didn't bother to return that call either. The only way Maureen knew she had received the document was when she verified its delivery with the post office.

Loretta had not only received and signed the document, but she also returned it to Maureen by overnight FedEx the next day. That was a good sign, Maureen decided. Even so, all kinds of random thoughts kept entering her mind. Like, what if five or ten years from now, Loretta had a change of heart and hired a lawyer to help her get her baby back? Or what if Loretta did something stupid and had a miscarriage? And the worst thought of all: What if Loretta and Mel got back together and he talked her into keeping the baby?

Maureen knew that she wouldn't be able to rest or sleep right again until everything was over—her marriage to Mel and the “adoption.”

She waited a few more days and dialed Loretta's number again and got her answering machine once more. “Hello, baby. I hope you are takin' care of yourself. Uh, Jay and I finally set a date to get married. We are not doin' anything fancy or even in a church. Big Mo'reen recently had surgery and is taking longer to recover, so she can't make it back to Florida to see me and Jay get married anyway. We're just goin' to go to the courthouse. Virgil and Corrine will be our witnesses.” Maureen knew that it would do no good to invite Loretta to come home to see her get married, so she didn't even bother with that. It broke her heart to be so cold toward her own child, but what choice did she have? Loretta knew what she wanted to do with her life, and it didn't include her countrified mother.

Three days later, Maureen received a card from Loretta congratulating her on her upcoming nuptials. It made Maureen cry. It was the plainest, cheapest (ninety-nine cent) card that she had ever received in her life. But it was still special. Maureen didn't mention the card to Jay or anybody else. She slid it back into the envelope and placed it in her Bible, paper clipped to the original copy of Mama Ruby's death certificate.

 

“Have you been crying again?” It was the first question out of Jay's mouth when he arrived at Maureen's apartment a couple of hours after she had read the card from Loretta.

“Somethin' got caught in my eye,” she fibbed, wrapping her arms around his waist. “What's up?” She grinned.

“Look, we need to get to the furniture store by tomorrow. We have to pick out the rest of our stuff by then if we want it to be delivered before the wedding.”

“Okay. Oh, by the way, Catty and Fast Black keep makin' a fuss about us not havin' a big church weddin' or even a reception,” Maureen told Jay.

“That's too bad,” he chortled. “I don't want to do any of that. I'm tired of bein' the center of attention.”

Somehow, the news had been leaked to the press that Jay was getting married. Several photographers and a couple of reporters were already at the courthouse when he and Maureen, with Virgil and Corrine in tow, got there the following Saturday afternoon.

“I guess the world will never let me forget about what happened to me. I just hope that someday you can forget about it and we can go on with our lives and live like normal people,” Jay told Maureen the day after they had exchanged vows. A picture of them running out of the courthouse was on the front page of the local newspaper that day, as were a few updated bits and pieces about Jay's kidnapping. “The way these people are carrying on, you would think that I was the only black baby in America that ever got kidnapped! It's a good thing I had the strong, loving mother I had—even though she wasn't really mine. She taught me to be strong. If I hadn't had her, I would probably be stone crazy by now. Do you know what I mean?”

A slight smile crossed Maureen's face and she nodded. “Yes, I do know what you mean.”