Filed to story: Love on the Sidelines (Natalie & Karl)
Aha! Had I inadvertently stumbled on the answer that would explain Liz Swanner’s six kids? “Can concubines have babies?”
“Sure.”
That had to be it, but I wanted to make sure I got this right before I reported back to Jenna. “Is Liz Swanner a concubine?”
His eyes narrowed. “No.”
Drat. I’d been so sure. “Well, then how come she has six kids? Jenna says you have to be married to have babies.”
“Jenna is wrong.”
A vague tingle of alarm went through me. If you didn’t have to be married, that meant any female could have babies. Including me. And I darn sure wasn’t ready to be a mother yet. When I told Karl as much, he shook his head.
“You can’t have one alone. It takes a man and a woman together to make a baby.
Besides, you aren’t old enough.”
Now this was getting interesting. “How old do you have to be?”
“I think it’s different for everybody. You’ll know when you’re old enough.”
“How?”
His chest lifted in a long-suffering sigh. “You just will.”
“Are you old enough?”
Red tinted his cheeks. “Boys aren’t the same as girls.” Well, even I knew that. I’d been around enough mothers who were in the process of changing diapers to determine the plumbing on boys wasn’t like my own. I had even checked once, after my first glimpse of a baby boy, to make sure there weren’t any surprises lurking down there. “But are you old enough?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not gonna make any woman have a baby.”
“You mean you don’t ever want to have any kids?”
“It’s not that.” He hesitated, staring across the room. “It’s just that it’s better for the kid to have two parents who are married and who love them. I won’t have a kid unless I’m married to its mother, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
“Why not?”
His shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I’m Frank Hayes’s son and I live in a junkyard.
Who’d want to marry me?”
“I’ll marry you,” I told him decisively. “That way, we can both have kids someday.” He grinned, those dimples emerging in a blaze of glory. “Yeah, you probably would. But I don’t think you should go around telling people you’re going to marry me.
They might get the wrong idea.” Draping an arm around my shoulders, he gave me a little shake. “Now shut up and read. I just got to a good part.” I snuggled down next to him, happily sure that our future had been settled. There were still some blank areas in my knowledge of where babies came from, but I knew that together we could work it out. How hard could it be when Liz Swanner had managed it six times?
Of course, I didn’t pay much attention to Karl’s admonition about telling people I was going to marry him. It was almost a week later when I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my homework while Mama and my aunts cooked. Karl hadn’t used his room since the weekend before and I was constantly jumping up to look out the back door, hoping he’d show up.
After the last check with no sign of him, I sighed mightily and resumed my seat.
“Natalie, you’re going to wear that chair out if you don’t sit still,” Mama said.
“She’s watching for that boy.” Leave it to Aunt Darla to point out the obvious. “She spends entirely too much time holed up in that room alone with him. Aren’t you the least bit worried, Ellie?”
“Why should I be?” Mama stirred a pot of soup beans on the stove, then opened the oven door to check the cornbread. “There are no other children in the family for Natalie to play with. I imagine he’s like an older brother to her.”
“No, he’s not,” I told her earnestly. “I’m gonna marry him and we’re going to have kids together.”
All three women stopped what they were doing and gaped at me. Aunt Darla’s hand went to her heart, her face turned red, and sputtering sounds came from her lips.
Aunt Jane was the first to find her voice.
“Whose idea was that, Natalie?”
“Mine.”
“And just how did the subject come up?” Mama’s face was nearly as red as Aunt Darla’s.
“I asked him what a concubine was.”