snippets from books
Debra Monroe teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University in San Marcos and lives in Austin.
This is the first book of hers that I’ve read – but it will not be the last.
I got the phone. Marla. She needed another adoption form filled out, I thought.
“A birth mother has selected you, and her due date is soon,” Marla said.
Where?
When?
Marla laughed. “This is the fastest this has ever happened. She saw your materials and said: I like the lady professor in the yellow house. Her baby is due in three weeks. Here’s the catch. She was visiting her brother here. She lives in Philadelphia. The baby wasn’t planned. She was raped. She has children at home. You’ll fly up and bring it back.”
I calculated. Plane ticket, no notice. Hotel. Rental car.
On the back burner, this thought, glowering: rape. The baby could never know. I’d hoped for a birth-parent story not so appalling that I would have to hide it. Too much to want.
“She doesn’t believe in abortion,” Marla said. “She’s been in a deep depression. Finally she called her brother who’s stationed down here. She wants to talk to you. Call her.”
