The Ordinary Life of Emily P. Bates Read Online Free

think it’s really great that we’re having another baby.”
    Mom laughed, true delight sparkling behind her eyes. “Oh honey, you’re such a terrible liar!” she cried, but immediately sobered up when she saw my hurt expression. She crossed the room in an instant , took the dishes away from me to set them on the counter , and wrapped her arms around m e.
    “Emily, dear, I know that this is a big change and it’s going to be difficult. I understand that it’s hard for you. It’s hard for all of us to wrap our heads around this.” She held me away at arms length. “I do appreciate the intent, though, and the apology. Thank you.” She brushed my wild hair out of my face to kiss my forehead and went back to the stove.
    “I want you to know that I was serious, though. About you being too old.”
    Mom rolled her eyes.
    “Don’t roll your eyes! I’m serious!”
    “You said that.”
    “No, Shannon confirmed it. Jill Knox was right about the Down syndrome thing, and you could develop high blood pressure and diabetes because you’re over thirty-five. Are you sure you want to be sticking yourself with needles every day for the rest of your life?”
    Mom laughed and faced me. “Regardless, the deed is done. It’s too late.”
    I slouched in defeat. “I know.”
    “And don’t worry about me,” Mom said. “I will be just fine, even if I do have to stick myself with insulin every day. I like to think it’ll be worth it.”
    “If you say so.” The sarcasm was thick in my voice, but I smiled anyway, just to appease her.
    She patted my arm and the guilt-hole in my stomach began to heal. It was instantly replaced with a heavy weight in my gut as the reality of the situation suck in a little deeper. A new baby. The whole household would change. We’d all have to shove over to make room. There would be toys everywhere, and screaming in the middle of the night.
    That’s exactly what I needed, sleepless nights in my last year of high school. Knowing my luck, I’d flunk out in the home stretch.
    “Positive attitude!” I hissed at myself under my breath.
    “What?” Mom asked, turning around.
    “Hmm? Nothing. I didn’t say anything.” I went back to putting away the dishes, doing my best to ignore the growing lump in my gut.
     
    The next day I mostly stayed in my room tooling around on the Internet . As it turned out, a lot of good advice for older pregnant women was floating around on the web, and I spent all day pouring through the articles. I skipped over the ones that applauded women for waiting until their thirties because it meant they were “emotionally stable and more ready for the responsibility.” That wasn’t the sort of thing I needed to hear just then. What I needed was for someone to offer a specialized diet for older women or something, anything I could offer as advice for my own elderly mother.
    I couldn’t find one.
    Finn never showed up to look at Oscar’s engine. Either he’d forgotten about it or he’d been called in to work again. No, scratch that. Finn never forgot anything, not that I’ve ever noticed, so he must have been at work. I toyed with the idea of going to the library myself just to bug him, but gave up on the idea. Odds were he’d bug me more than I’d bug him.
    I called Shannon, though, and talked with her for a while about nothing at all. When I hung up the phone after half an hour of, “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” “I asked you first.” “Well I asked you second.” “I don’t know. Nothing sounds like much fun. What do you want to do?” I flopped down on my bed with a groan.
    “I am so ready for school to start!” I said to myself irritably. It might be too crowded for my taste, but at least then I wouldn’t be so bored all the time.
    “Freak,” Aaron said as he passed my open door.
    “Psycho!” I yelled after him.
    “You two leave each other alone!” Mom’s voice echoed up the stairs from the living