Dawn: Diary Two by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin [Martin, Ann M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-9814-5
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-02-20T17:21:00+00:00

11 p.m. 6/17

We rushed through dinner so we could go right back to the hospital. I brought Carol her Discman and some of her favorite CDs. Mrs. Bruen picked flowers from the garden for her. And Jeff remembered to bring the baby name book. So we could pick out a girl’s name.

As we walked through the maternity floor we stopped to look in at the newborns. Now one of them would be Baby Schafer-Olson. We read all of the names, even the ones on the incubators. None said “Schafer-Olson.” Mrs. Bruen and I exchanged a worried glance. Had something happened to Baby Schafer-Olson? We rushed to Room 307.

There, lying in Carol’s arms, was the baby we were looking for.

“Hi,” I whispered to Carol and Dad.

“You don’t have to whisper,” Dad said in a loud, happy voice. “We want her to get used to noise.”

“Come on over and see her,” Carol said. Carol looked tired but so very happy.

I looked down at the sweetest infant I’d ever seen. Dad put his arm around me. “You know what, Sunshine?” he asked. Dad hadn’t called me that in so long. The tone of his voice was warm and familiar. It was the voice he used to tell me bedtime stories when I was little and that he used to comfort me when I was sad. I suppose he’ll use that voice with his new daughter. It’s her turn to have bedtime stories and a dad who makes up a terrific nickname for her.

Hearing Dad call me Sunshine reminded me of Sunny too. The fact that my nickname was Sunny’s real name was the great coincidence of our friendship. Not many people are named Sunshine. We decided this was a sign that we were supposed to be best friends forever.

I missed being Dad’s Sunshine and I missed Sunny. I felt a knot rise up in my throat, as if I was going to cry.

I swallowed and said, “What, Dad?”

“Your sister looks just like you did.”

“But …” I looked at Carol. It was Carol’s baby. Shouldn’t she look like Carol?

“She does look like you,” said Carol. “I’ve seen your baby pictures, Dawn. Isn’t it wonderful?”

I am amazed that Carol doesn’t mind that her baby looks like me. She lifted the baby and held her out to me. “Here.”

I took my half sister and cradled her carefully in the crook of my left arm. Other newborns I’ve seen looked scrunched up, like old men. But not this baby. She has smooth, soft, pink skin. And her lips are a perfect tulip shape.

“She’s so little!” Jeff exclaimed. “I thought she’d be bigger. Are boys bigger?”

My father laughed. “No,” he said. “And Elizabeth Grace is eight pounds, two ounces, which is a very respectable weight for a girl or a boy.”

“Elizabeth Grace!” Jeff cried. He threw the “name your baby” book down on Carol’s bed and pouted. “You went ahead and named her without me.”

“I’m sorry, Jeff,” Dad said. “But it just came to us. We were looking at her and I said, ‘Let’s call her Elizabeth.

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