Page 71 (1/2)

"How a jacks?"

"Would that make the baby fall out? Like if you were near your due date, could you shake shake shake it out?" Carin wriggles her arms like she’s a member of Taylor Swift’s dance squad

I stare at her "Please tell rad school, it won’t be important"

Carin flipsdown to pick up one of the bags we filled at Goodwill She du the whites fro had to be washed in the hottest water possible given the smell of some of the ite that it’s called the quickening?" Hope says

I snicker "So she’s going to burst out ofthere can be only one?"

"Possibly Woht? The baby is essentially a parasite It lives off your nutrients, saps your energy" She taps the bottohlander motto could fit"

Carin and I look at her in horror "Hopeless, you can shut up any time now," Carin orders

"I was just saying, from a medical standpoint, it’s a possible theory Not here, but maybe in other less developed nations" She reaches over and pats ottenon to another topic while I’ that my baby is a parasite

I shake my head "No That stuff was hideous I already look like a boat I didn’t need to look like an ugly one"

"I think if I were pregnant, I’d wear muumuus or housecoats like Lucille Ball," Carin ?" Hope asks

"They should be"

I nod in agree like that over the awful jeans and polyester gear and their white expandable waist pouches I know I’ht now I’er

"I tried to bend over and touch irls "I tipped over, hit et up I’m literally the size of an Oompa Loompa"

"You’re the most beautiful Oompa Looe"

"Ooe?" I try to conjure up a mental picture of them but can only recall their white overalls

Carin purses her lips "Were they supposed to be candies? Like orange slices? Or maybe candy corn?"

"They were squirrels," Hope informs us

"No way," we both say at once

"Yes way I read it on the back of a Laffy Taffy when I was like ten It was a trivia question and I’d just seen the movie I was terrified of squirrels for years afterwards"