Page 91 of The Hitchhikers

Her mother reached out and yanked both shoulders of Jenny’s leotard down her arms, revealing Jenny’s bound breasts. She tried to cover them, but her mother was now pulling on the binding, her lips pressed thin. She circled around Jenny as though she was a mannequin.

Then it was off, and Jenny was frozen, half undressed, her arms across her breasts, and her mother holding the binding in the air. She gave it a shake.

“What’s this?”

“Nothing.” It was the worst possible answer. Because she and her mother knew that it was very much notnothing, and now her mother had flung the binding to the side. While Jenny watched it sail through the air and land on her bed, her mother sank her vicious, red-polished nails into Jenny’s forearms and pulled her arms away. Jenny tried to resist, but her mother was taller, stronger, and meaner. Jenny now stood with her breasts fully exposed.

With a violent tug, which Jenny didn’t even bother resisting, her mother pulled the leotard down past her waist until it sat somewhere around her upper thighs and buttocks.

Her mother was looking at Jenny’s belly. She grabbed her hips and made her turn sideways. Jenny’s face was hot, and tears welled in her eyes, leaking from the corners.

Her mother suddenly let go. She marched toward Jenny’s bathroom. While her mother searched the cupboards, Jenny quickly pulled her leotard back up. Her mother was checkingher sanitary napkins. It had been months since Jenny had asked for more.

Her mother stormed back out of the bathroom, her finger pointing at Jenny.

“You’re pregnant,” she screeched. She looked ugly in that moment. Her lipstick bleeding. Her mouth and face twisting, her eyes wild. “It’s that boy, isn’t it? That fisherman.”

She moved over to Jenny’s vanity now, pointing to her fishing lures and shells. “This? You threw away your future because a boy gives yougarbage?”

Her mom picked up the tray.

“No! Don’t!” But her mother was already opening the balcony door and walking out.

Jenny chased after her and grabbed at her arm. Her mother shook free, smacking Jenny across the face with her forearm. Jenny tasted blood. Her lip was split. She clutched at her sore mouth and cried as her mother flung her treasures over the railing into the woods below.

Her mother whirled around. The clouds had won their battle, and rain now showered down on them. Her mother’s hair was drooping, her eye makeup streaking in black rivulets.

“How could you do this to me?” her mother shrieked.

“I’m sorry. I—”

“Get out.”

“What?”

“Get out of my house!” Her mother was pushing Jenny back into her bedroom and hitting her on the shoulders. Then she turned away and pulled Jenny’s one and only suitcase out of her closet. She grabbed handfuls of clothes from Jenny’s drawers, shoved them into the case.

Jenny couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She could only watch. Was her mother taking her somewhere? Jenny imagined a home for unwed mothers. She was being banished. Now her motherwas in her bathroom, grabbing her toiletries. They were tossed into the suitcase.

“Isabelle, what’s going on?” Robert stood in the doorway, knotting his tie. His black hair was shiny and combed smooth. He looked past them to the suitcase on the bed.

“She’s pregnant!”

Robert let go of his tie. He stared at Jenny, searching her face, then his gaze dropped to her belly.

Jenny could barely breathe. Sobs had taken over her body.

Her mother had cleared out Jenny’s drawers. She was pushing down on the top of the suitcase and zipping it up.

“Isabelle, you’re being rash,” Robert said.

Her mother jerked her head up, her hair flying wildly. “Am I? My ungrateful daughter has made it clear she doesn’t want this beautiful life.” She gestured around the room. “She’d rather live at the marina and gutfish.” She turned to Jenny again. “You stupid, stupid girl. That boy’s going to be a drunk just like his father.”

Jenny had the fleeting thought that her mother would have been less angry that Jenny was pregnant if her mother had thought the father more worthy. If he had been rich.

Her mother dragged the suitcase off the bed and pushed Jenny toward her door.

“Where are you taking me?”