Halfway through, she had to stop.
She leaned against the mower handle and breathed, one hand braced on her lower back, watching the heat rise off the asphalt in the street. Her vision went soft at the edges. She blinked it clear.
Mrs. Higgins appeared at her elbow with a glass of lemonade the real kind, not the powder mix ice clinking against the sides.
“Sit down before you fall down,” she said firmly. “You’re not going to do that baby any good if you pass out in my yard.”
They sat together on the porch steps. Mrs. Higgins didn’t ask questions right away. She just sat, and let the silence be what it was, which was something Ariel hadn’t realized she needed until it was there.
After a while, Mrs. Higgins asked how much longer she had.
“Six weeks. Give or take.”
“First one?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you scared?”
