Adopted Son Read Online Free PDF

anywhere else. She couldn’t survive anywhere else.
    “I’m sorry Joyce,” Lorraine said apologetically, “It’s just kinda sad, you know. I thought that having a baby would give me what I wanted in life. It’s what I’ve been talking about ever since I was a little kid. But it’s not working out to be what I thought it would be.” Lorraine didn’t have many friends. She lived outside of town and had given up most of her previous world to helping her husband. She didn’t resent that her life turned out that way; in fact, it was what she wanted, but sometimes it got a little lonely, especially during planting season. She was glad that Joyce was just down the road to talk to. She came over here a lot, and not just for the fresh muffins.
    Joyce sipped her coffee. “That’s just new mother’s syndrome. All women get depressed after having a baby. It’s natural. Hell, you should have seen me after I spit Harry out. I didn’t want to have nothing to do with nobody. It gets better though.” She stopped talking momentarily to pick a bit of blueberry from between her teeth. “I can only guess how you feel having a deformed kid like that. I don’t know what I’d do if any of my kids turned out that way. I truly don’t.”
    “It’s not that. I mean, Jim isn’t that much more work than a normal baby.” She looked down at the child, sleeping in its tote. He still had the bottle of juice hanging out of his mouth. “I can deal with the HS. I’m worried about Tom though. Things have been so... strained since the baby.”
    “What do you mean sugar?” Joyce shifted her bulk around in the chair.
    “Well, he puts on a good front, but I don’t think that he is happy with Jim. It’s like he doesn’t even acknowledge him. I thought that having a child would bring us closer together, but it hasn’t done that at all. I hardly even see Tom anymore, he spends so much time out in the fields.”
    “Well, it is planting season. He’s probably just busy. You’re just feeling oversensitive because there’s so much extra work to do around the house.”
    “No, there’s more to it than that. It’s like he’s ignoring me. It’s like he doesn’t want to be around the baby. He doesn’t want to face up to the HS. Ever since he got out of high school Tom has been talking about some football-star fantasy that he was going to live out through his child. Now that isn’t going to happen, and I don’t think that he knows how to react. I mean, he is doing his job as a parent and a husband, but it seems that he’s only staying around because he has a sense of duty, not because he wants to be a part of the family.”
    “Oh, stop talking like that. Tom’s a good man. He won’t turn his back on you because of this. It’s just going to take him a while to get used to the idea. I mean, look at him.” She pointed to Jim. “It takes a while to get used to that. The first time I came over after the birth I almost fainted dead away. I don’t think that you have anything to worry about.”
    “I guess you’re right Joyce.” Lorraine halfheartedly took a bite of muffin. “I just don’t know how to talk to him. You know how Tom is. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m accusing him of anything.”
    “Just give him time, he’ll come around on his own. And if he doesn’t, just slap him around some. That’s what I always do with Larry. You’ve got to make him understand who’s the boss. Man, I just put up a fist and he does whatever I say.” She held up a hammy, balled fist. “The little wimp. I love him.”
    There was a loud crash from the other room. Joyce turned her head and shouted, “What the hell was that!” She turned back to Lorraine. “Hold on a sec Lor, I got to go deal with my brats.” She got up creakily and began walking down the hall. “What the hell are you kids doing in there, don’t you know I got company. I’m gonna beat you kids stupid. Where the hell did you go....” Her voice faded as she