A Spiteful Deed
After a full day passed without any more calls from Dominic, Meghan thought for sure the wish she’d written in the black-and-white composition book had been granted, but the following night at nearly 3:00 a.m. the phone rang and woke everybody in the house.
Lila, fearful that something catastrophic had occurred, was first to grab the receiver.
“What happened?” she asked in a rush.
“Nothing,” Dominic replied. “Just let me talk to Tracy.”
Suspecting something like this, Tracy had already picked up the receiver in the guest room. The moment she heard the thickness of his voice and slurred words, she knew Dominic was drunk. Chances were he was still at the bar.
“Good grief,” she grumbled. “It’s three o’clock in the morning! Go home, Dominic, and get some sleep.”
Tracy plunked down the receiver, but it was too late. Everyone in the house was already awake. Lila pulled a bathrobe over her gown and headed for the guest room. Meghan came right behind her, and Sox followed along.
Seconds after they walked into the room, the phone started ringing again.
Tracy knew from past experience when Dominic was drinking he became more obnoxious and more persistent. If no one answered, he’d sit there and let the phone ring all night.
“Let me answer it,” she said. “I’ll tell him to stop calling this late.”
She lifted the receiver and in a fairly calm voice said, “You can’t keep calling this late at night, Dom. Everybody’s trying to sleep.”
“I’ve got something to say—”
“Well, call tomorrow and I’ll—”
“No, I’m not gonna call tomorrow. I got every right—”
“You don’t have a right to keep waking everybody up. If you call here again, Mama’s going to telephone the police and say you’re harassing us.”
“I got something important to say—”
“Whatever it is can wait until tomorrow. Call back in the morning, and I’ll talk to you then.”
He gave an evil-sounding chuckle. “I think you maybe need to hear this right now. I canceled your and the kid’s health insurance. I told ’em you’re not really my wife, and my name’s not even on the kid’s birth certificate.”
Tracy gasped. “You what? Are you crazy? You know Lucas needs—”
“Yeah, well, you should’ve thought about that when you decided not to put my name on his birth certificate. Now, if you’d get your ass back here—”
“Dominic! This isn’t about us and our problems. It’s about Lucas. He—”
“Unless you’re ready to come home and apologize for aggravating the crap out of me, I’m not interested in hearing it.”
Tracy stood there for a few minutes saying nothing as tears welled in her eyes, then rolled slowly down her cheeks. She knew Dominic had a mean streak, but she never thought he’d do something to Lucas just to spite her.
“I am home,” she finally said, and hung up the receiver.
Through the thin cotton of Tracy’s sleep shirt, Meghan could see her sister’s heart pounding against her chest.
“Calm down,” Meghan said. “I told you, whatever the problem is we’ll work through it together.”
Feeling somewhat in the dark, Lila eyed one daughter and then the other.
“Would someone mind telling me what is going on?”
Tracy sat on the bed next to her mama and tried to explain.
“The only way we could afford health insurance for Lucas was through Dom’s Municipal Workers Union group policy, so he listed us as his wife and baby.”
“Well, isn’t Lucas his baby?”
“Yes, but . . . ” Word by painful word, Tracy told of how she’d had the baby at home and, because of her anger, refused to put Dominic’s name on the birth certificate. She went on to say he’d now told the insurance company they weren’t married and Lucas wasn’t his baby.
A washboard of ridges settled on Lila’s forehead. “Health insurance isn’t something you should have to worry about. I’m certain we can get you and Lucas an individual policy.”
“It isn’t that easy. It’s expensive, and there’s a chance they’ll consider Lucas’s problem a preexisting condition.”
The look of concern on Lila’s face deepened. “What problem?”
This wasn’t a discussion Tracy wanted to have, but now it seemed she had no choice.
“We’ve got to face facts, Mama. Lucas still isn’t talking, and by now he should be saying several words. I think there’s a possibility he might—”
Lila eyed Tracy with an angry glare. “I told you, boy babies are late talkers!”
“It’s not just his talking, Mama.” Tracy seemed to fold in on herself as she spoke. “Haven’t you noticed when you’re talking to Lucas he pays no attention? It’s like his mind is a million miles away.”
“Well, shoot, that’s a baby thing. He’ll outgrow it.”
“Maybe, maybe not. We’ve got an appointment with the pediatrician . . . ”
As Tracy spoke, Meghan was running a dozen different scenarios through her head, thinking, What if . . .
“I’ve got an idea,” she finally said, and outlined the plan.
The next morning, Meghan sat at the computer and redid the “About Us” page of the Snip ’N’ Save website. Before noon, Lila was listed as the bookkeeper, Sheldon the production manager, and Tracy the graphic designer. That afternoon, Meghan applied for a group insurance policy. By pooling what she, her mama, and Sheldon all paid for individual policies, they could almost cover the cost of Tracy and Lucas. Plus, there was no preexisting exemption.