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her pregnancy were contagious, Norfolk State officials told her to leave the campus. No longer one of the hopefuls, she instantly became the girl Norfolk State graduates would look down on, the one they would warn their sons to steer clear of, one they would caution their daughters against becoming. All the possibilities, the future she’d imagined, college, Army, moving far from Deep Creek, were no longer possible. She needed answers and to get away from the people she’d spent weeks with, so she boarded a bus to Portsmouth. She was going to a place she felt safe, a place she knew had answers and possibly a way out. She was going to her momma.
    In preparation for Momma’s visit, Grandma Rachel had strewn her newly purchased red dress across the bed. She’d crisscrossed the store several times, trying to find the perfect one. Then she saw it, fire-engine red, with gold buttons on the side, a modest split, and turtleneck top. She couldn’t wait to try it on and show her baby how done up she’d be for her Upward Bound graduation. In celebration of Momma’s visit, she hadn’t taken a drink all day. She was not sitting at the kitchen table, arms limp at her sides, head smashed into the tablecloth. Her baby wouldn’t have to place her ear against her mouth, just to see if she were breathing. Grandma Rachel was wide awake, alert, and sober, all because she wanted to see her daughter’s face when she showed her the dress she’d purchased.
    Grandma Rachel stared out of the window as she saw Momma trudging toward the house. She studied her daughter’s movements, her body. Something just isn’t right , she felt in her back, her neck before she saw Momma’s tear-stained cheeks, before her growingbelly came into view. Grandma Rachel gathered the red dress with the gold buttons, folded it into a square, and placed it in the drawer atop her clothes. She smoothed the creases in the fabric, wiped the tears that fell down her face, and went to greet her daughter.
    Together, they devised a plan. Momma would have to tell her daddy she was pregnant. They agreed that was the right thing to do, but Grandma would be there. Not next to Momma, in the conversation, but on the porch steps, able to get to her if necessary. Where she’d live? What she’d say to Pop? All of that would come later. She first had to tell her daddy.
    Granddaddy’s gaze pulled Momma to the car. The passenger seat was empty, waiting for Momma to sit there, waiting to transport her back to Deep Creek. Momma saw that emptiness and knew it was a void she could no longer fill. The walk from Grandma’s porch to the curb had never been so much of a journey. She looked through the open window, saw her daddy’s bronze face, his round chin, which sat heavily on his chest, obscuring his neck. He didn’t look so mean, so demanding in that car by himself. He just looked like her daddy, the man who’d worked at the shipyard all of his life, the one who sold liquor to his little brother and then gently collected his rumpled, inebriated body after he’d passed out in the yard. She saw that man who’d loved hard, so hard sometimes she felt as if she were being strangled.
    Momma walked that last stretch of yard, paused at the open window, and placed her hand on the door. She leaned down to him, careful not to lean too far in. He locked eyes with her. She heard him questioning why she hadn’t gotten into the car even though he never opened his mouth. Momma swallowed, but her throat was as dry as the dirt yard she’d just traveled. She fingered the rim of the car window, wishing she could slink into the thin opening.
    Granddaddy, again, didn’t open his mouth, still speaking with his eyes, penetrating, growing more demanding with blinks. Momma had no response. She did not have his powers. It was hard enough to speak with her tongue.
    Granddaddy’s look softened, eyes questioning rather than