“Are you insane?” Paul said to her after taking a long swallow of his drink. “Do you want your daughter to have an illegitimate child because of a half-assed ‘noble’ decision she makes at seventeen, with stars in her eyes? Do you want her to end up even worse off than we are? We had to get married too,” he reminded her, and informed the Blakes while he addressed his wife. “You never got to pursue the career you wanted to,” he said to Eileen in a disparaging tone. “You’ve been a housewife for nearly eighteen years, bored out of your mind. And I never had the career I should have had because I had to leave Harvard Business School and take a job I’ve hated for eighteen years. That’s what they’re facing now. But they have no other choice. And Pennie making herself an uneducated social outcast out of misguided noble motives is not the answer here.” His words weren’t lost on the Blakes or his wife. They fully understood how bitter Paul was about his own forced marriage, but he wanted the same fate for Tim and Pennie. Marriage was the only solution he could see to minimize the damage if Pennie wouldn’t give the baby up. Eileen was silent and looked stricken after he spoke. He had exposed their whole history to the Blakes.
“That’s exactly what we don’t want for our son, or your daughter, the scenario you just described,” Bill Blake said more gently. “I hope they see sense eventually, before they do something even more foolish. And I’m very sorry Pennie has to go through this, but I think our wives are right, and if Pennie insists on having the baby, I hope she’ll be willing to give it up. Unless she’s willing to have an abortion, which they both say they don’t want at this stage, they feel it’s too late. And the doctor Pennie saw felt that way morally too.”
“I won’t have an abortion, and if I have it, I’m keeping it,” Pennie said in a strong adult voice. She wasn’t budging an inch.
“And if she doesn’t keep it, I will,” Tim spoke up. “She needs my consent to relinquish it for adoption. I checked, and I won’t give it. This is my child too.” Tim moved to sit next to Pennie on the couch, took her hand in his and squeezed it. “I know this is hard, but it’s our decision. You love us, and we love you too,” he said, looking at both sets of parents. “Pennie and I can think about it while I’m in China, and I hope she’ll agree to marry me when I get back. That is the best solution, as I see it. It’s an early start for us, but the right one in the circumstances.” He looked long and hard at Pennie and she shook her head. “I’ll get a job on weekends and after school, and support my own child. This is my responsibility,” he said directly to his parents. It had been Paul’s conclusion too, eighteen years before, and he still regretted it, but he believed it was the right thing to do. Paul had paid a high price for his decision, and if their dreams for their life together hadn’t come true, they still had a beautiful daughter to show for it, and their two boys. If he hadn’t married Eileen, they wouldn’t have the twins, and he loved his children.
Tim stood up then, and looked at his parents. “I think we’ve said everything we had to say, for now.” They stood up reluctantly, but knew he was right. The Jacksons followed the Blakes to the front door, and Tim hung back for a moment and spoke to Pennie in a whisper.
“You know I’m right. Let’s get married in August when I get back.”
“No,” she answered in a single word, and then kissed him, and he kissed her back. “I love you. I’m not going to wreck your life. My parents are miserable,” she whispered. “They don’t admit it, but they are. I don’t want that for us.” It was obvious to all how bitter her father was.
“We won’t be miserable, I promise. Sometimes people get married at our age and it works. We’ve had three years together, we know each other. This didn’t happen on a casual date. And we’re not your parents.” Tim didn’t like her father, but he liked her mother.
“You’re crazy,” she said, smiling at him. “I hope the baby is a boy and looks just like you. Then I’ll have you with me forever and ever, whatever happens,” she said, with eyes full of love.
“Maybe this was meant to be. And there are better ways to have me with you forever, like getting married. I’ll talk to you before I leave. Be careful at camp. Did the doctor say you could do that?” She hadn’t asked, but she was young and healthy and felt sure she could.
“Just have fun on your trip,” she said.
“So much for our plans to break up.” He smiled at her. He didn’t think she had done it on purpose, at least not consciously, but maybe they both had. Maybe this was their destiny, and their way of ensuring they had to stay together.
Tim joined his parents outside, they were waiting in the car. A few minutes later they drove away. Bill and Barbara had politely said goodbye to Pennie’s parents, and hoped they wouldn’t wind up related to them forever. Barbara commented that Paul seemed like a bitter, angry man, and Eileen looked depressed, but they said nothing about Pennie, and Tim sat lost in thought all the way home. He was making his peace with the idea of marrying her, and having a baby. It wasn’t what he had wanted, but he loved her. It gave new meaning to his trip to China. Maybe this was going to be his last fling before he became a married man. It was an overwhelming thought, but he was willing to face it with her, if she agreed to marry him. Given the circumstances, he hoped she would, despite what his parents thought. One thing was sure, at seventeen and eighteen, overnight, their wish had come true, they were adults.
Chapter 3
Pennie’s parents tried to discuss the situation with her before she left for camp, and most of the time she refused. Her father wanted her to get married, and thought Tim should shoulder his responsibilities, as Paul himself had been forced to. And Tim was willing to do that. Eileen thought she should give the baby up.
Pennie saw Tim once before he left for Beijing. Things were different now between them. Life was forcing them together, whether they married or not. For the rest of their lives, they would share a child and have a bond to each other. Tim was trying to convince her to get married as soon as he got back. For now, his plans for China and Stanford still hadn’t changed. He promised to come home and see her as often as he could during his first term at Stanford, in the last trimester of her pregnancy. And if he stayed there, he wanted her to come out with the baby and live with him. They had time to make the decision, since neither of them wanted an abortion. Pennie said she just couldn’t, after seeing the sonogram. Whether they married or not, they were going to have a baby in December. They both still found it an astounding idea. They were going to be parents themselves in less than six months.
Pennie left for her job at camp two days after Tim left for China. He sent her occasional texts from his trip, but he had no service at all in some of the more remote areas he went to. She hoped he was having fun with his friends.