The Fourteen Day Soul Detox, Volume Two (12 page)

The doorbells jingled as I opened the
door and was met with a strong lavender scent.

I stepped up behind a woman who was
filling out some sort of paperwork.

“Hey.”

I turned to see Susan in neon green
stretch pants trying to fight her way off a couch along the wall.

“Beep, beep, beep,” I said,
offering her hands.

“You’re not funny. That’d
only be funny if I was backing up. So, is this the first time you’ve
worn those yoga pants actually to yoga?” she asked as she
grabbed my hands.

“Yep,” I grunted under her
weight. “Though I think I might be getting enough exercise just
helping you stand all the time.”

I turned to head back to the desk the
other woman had been standing behind before, but Susan said. “I
already did all that for you, just come back with me.” We
stepped into a hallway and up a long staircase to the second level.

“I’m glad I’m with
you. Can we stand in the back where no one will notice us?” I
asked as we walked into a large room.

Long gleaming lines of wood stretched
across the studio’s floor, seeming to stretch on forever into
the walls of mirrors on three sides of the room. The third side was a
long line of windows that looked down on the downtown street.

Before the windows, a young woman with
frizzy brown hair sat almost cross-legged, with one foot in front of
the other, on a mat. She greeted us with a wide serene smile. “Good
afternoon, ladies. Please, go ahead and grab a mat and some blocks
and find a nice open place to lay it out.” She gestured across
the room to where a pile of rolled up pink mats and purple foam
blocks sat side by side.

I glanced at the other women in the
room as we passed, my gaze passing over three women before I halted
mid-step. I looked from woman to woman.

Quickening my pace, I caught up to
Susan just as she pulled a mat from the pile.

I leaned down to her and whispered in a
really low voice, “Susan, this is pregnant lady yoga.”

“Yeah?” she said back, not
whispering at all.

“I’m not pregnant,” I
whispered, glaring at her.

“Yoga is yoga,” she said in
a low voice with a shrug. “Anyway, I’m not supposed to go
to regular yoga classes.” She grabbed her belly. “You
know, because I’m pregnant.”

“I didn’t need you to go; I
could have gone by myself.”

“But I wanted to go, I’ve
been wanting to do this for months,” she said.

“You have to be kidding me. What
if they kick me out?” I asked.

“It’s not a problem,”
she said, handing me a yoga mat. “I wrote on your intake form
that you’re two months pregnant, if anyone asks, you’re
just not showing yet.”

“This was completely
premeditated. I’m going to kill you,” I whispered.

“You’ve been saying that
for twenty years, yet I survive,” she said “Now, could
you grab me some blocks too?”

I glared at her as I grabbed four
blocks. We walked to the back of the group, laying out our mats and
placing the blocks at the end.

“Welcome friends, my name is
Jennifer. Thank you so much for joining this class and being here and
present with me.” She grinned around at us. “I’m
going to ask you all to sit as I am in siddhasana, or if it’s
too hard, go ahead and sit cross-legged. First, I just want us all to
get very grounded in our bodies, and our breath. I’m going have
you place one hand at your heart, while your other arm crosses over
your belly, really embracing your baby.”

Following the rest of the class, I took
one arm and wrapped it over my stomach.

“Now close your eyes and really
concentrate on the sweet little presence that is growing inside your
womb. Some of us know a lot about our babies, whether they’re a
boy or girl, what they’re name is going to be, while others of
us are just beginning to be introduced.”

I shot a glare at Susan, who was
sitting eyes closed with a happy serene smile on her face.

I closed my eyes again as the
instructor continued.

“So throughout this yoga session,
I want us to let our minds really center on the little one inside us
and let our breath extend out.”

We took several guided breaths while
the instructor detailed ‘our’ babies’ development
in the womb.

“Alright ladies, go ahead and
open your eyes.” She blinked around at each one of us. “Hello.”

The ladies around the room chuckled.

I looked over at Susan. When she met my
gaze, I pursed my lips and raised my eyebrows.

Her shoulders bobbed and she grinned at
me before looking back to the front of the studio.

“We’re going to be moving
into our poses now, but it’s really important to remember to go
at your own pace. Some here are on their thirty-eighth week, while
others are on their eighth.” She raised a hand and pointed
straight at me.

Several heads turned around to glance
back at me.

Susan made a noise that distinctly
sounded like laughter.

I made myself wave and grin at the
women before they returned their gaze to the front.

“Okay, so let’s pull out
our legs a bit and move into our bound angle pose, really feel that
stretch. Feel free to bounce gently in your legs. This is a pose that
will really help us open up our hips and relieve our lower back pain,
in turn, getting ready for when we go into labor.”

Pulling my feet together, I moved into
the pose with my knees out to either side of me. We continued to move
through poses fluidly, first through different sitting poses, to all
fours, and then to standing poses.

After an hour of stretching out muscles
I didn’t know I had, and staying in a squat for longer than I
would have thought possible, we stood. The entire class raised out
arms in a big circle until our hands met in the middle, we then
lowered our hands into a praying position and bowed to each other.

“It was lovely spending this time
with you ladies. Make sure to drink lots of water.”

“That wasn’t so bad, was
it?” Susan asked, grinning over.

“No, I guess it was pretty nice.
And… I’m now the soil cocooning a growing acorn, that’s
pretty neat,” I said while rolling up my yoga mat.

“Healthy dirt, you are healthy
and dirty,” she said.

I smacked lightly her on the head with
my yoga mat. “Go drink water.”

We walked toward the group of big
bellied ladies gathering around the yoga mat pile.

“Excuse us!” Susan pretty
much yelled, making most of the women glance back and a couple of
them shift out of our path.

After we put our equipment away, I
turned around and just avoided colliding with a big pregnant belly.

“Oh, sorry,” I said,
contorting my body so that I wouldn’t rub bellies with her.

She smiled. “Oh, that’s
fine, just trying to put my mat away too,” she said with a
thick southern accent.

Seeing a break in the ladies, I stepped
out of her path.

Her short, straight red hair flopped
around her sharp features as she turned back to me. “So you’re
only eight weeks?”

“Um—yeah,” I said,
trying to back out of the crowd of women without bumping into any of
them.

“How are you feeling? Do you have
morning sickness?” she asked.

“Yeah, she has it bad. Vomiting
all the time,” Susan said, patting me on the arm. “Sometimes
in the afternoons too, poor thing.”

When I turned a look on her, Susan just
kept her placid expression.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed.
We all had it.” The woman offered her hand. “I’m
Savannah.”

“Jamie and Susan,” I said.

“And how many weeks are you,
Susan?” Savannah asked. They started talking and Savannah
accompanied us all the way to my car. I tuned them out as they
discussed their labor plans.

“I ideally want a water birth,
though I know sometimes they won’t allow it depending on the
circumstances,” Savannah was saying.

“My wife had a water birth with
our son,” Susan said.

Immediately, Savannah’s cheeks
turned a bright shade of red. “Wow, that’s beautiful,”
she said, her voice a little choked.

“It was beautiful,” Susan
said.

“Yeah, it really was,” I
agreed, turning to them.

“Well, will you ladies be coming
back, do you think?” Savannah asked, her voice cheery and smile
verging on manic.

“Probably,” Susan said.

“Well, it was nice to meet you
and congratulations on your babies and your—marriage.”

“Oh, that’s not my wife,
that’s my sister-in-law,” Susan said, her cheeks fighting
a grin.

Savannah’s shoulder’s
visibly relaxed. “Oh, well, again, it was nice to meet you. See
you later.” She walked away from us up the street.

“She was nice,” Susan said,
chuckling.

“Are you really going to come
back?” I asked skeptically.

“If you do,” she said.

“Unless I really start putting on
the pounds, the ruse wouldn’t last long,” I told her.

“Or you could just go get
pregnant,” Susan said.

“Shut the fuck up. That’s
the second time someone said that today
—
third
if you count Cameron saying he’d like to make a sibling for
Sarah one day.”

“Holy shit, he said that to you?”
Susan said.

“Kind of. Where’s your
car?” I asked.

“Beza and I carpooled today; she
dropped me off on the way to pick up the kids. So you can give me a
ride home and give me all the juicy details.”

“Alright,” I said,
unlocking my car remotely.

When we were both inside, Susan turned
to me. “He came to your work?”

“Yeah, I closed early so I could
call the company that made an offer on the shop.” As we drove
to her house, I gave her all the details of the phone call with Mr.
Hamm, the one with Nicole Murphy, and what Cameron and I had decided
about our relationship.

“I have always thought that boy
had a beautiful soul,” Susan said.

“He’s pretty special,”
I said as I turned onto her street.

“Are you going to lose your shit
if he starts dating someone else?”

“I’d like to think that I’m
the kind of person who could be okay with him doing what I’m
asking for of him. If that makes any sense,” I said.

“Yeah, it does. Well, Beza and I
will definitely watch Sarah for your date this Friday,” she
said.

“Honestly Susan, I really feel
like I’m asking too much of you two. You guys don’t need
to do everything for me. Sharon is always begging for time with Sarah
and my dad doesn’t work on Fridays anymore. So together, I
think they could manage things without it being too stressful.”

“Well, it’s up to you, but
watching Sarah is never too much for us. Actually sometimes it’s
less work since she and Aiden entertain each other for hours.”

“Okay, well, I’ll ask my
dad and if he says he can’t, could she stay with you?” I
asked. “I also feel kind of bad passing her off to other people
so much.”

“Stop with the mommy guilt,”
Susan said.

“Fine,” I said as I parked
on the street before her house.

After grabbing the overnight bag from
the backseat, I followed Susan up to her house. As we stepped inside,
I dropped my bag and purse onto the bright green entrance table. The
colorful interior of the familiar house immediately made me smile.
The multicolored furnishings and walls managed to both clash and
complement each other. Large multi-colored tapestries covered every
wall.

I paused by one, touching its edges. “I
loved Peru, I wish we could go back there someday.”

“We should, we’ll do it
when the kids are teenagers or something,” Susan said, running
a finger along the tapestry’s edge.

We walked into the dining room,
following the excited voices. Sarah and Aiden sat at the table,
excitedly spooning macaroni and cheese into their mouths and talking
to each other with their mouths full.

Beza was laughing so hard, tears were
running down her face.

“You guys look like you’re
having fun,” Susan said, giving Beza a kiss before taking a
seat next to Aiden.

“How was yoga?” Beza asked.

“She tricked me, it was prenatal
yoga,” I said, pointing at Susan. “I always fall for
these things.” I shook my head as I sat down, swinging an arm
around Sarah’s chair.

“And you always will,”
Susan said. “It’s because you’re so trusting. You
and Beza are the exact same, always believing everything everyone
tells you.”

“And we should know better too,
with that one,” Beza said, pointing at Susan.

“With both of you, you’ve
been pretty devious lately too. I think Susan is a bad influence on
you,” I told Beza.

“Oh, I definitely am,”
Susan said.

“I’m a good influence on
Sarah,” Aiden informed us. “When I’m at the
playground, people don’t pick on her.”

“That means you’re a good
influence on the other kids, baby.” Susan said, her fingers
running through Aiden’s braids. “Do other kids pick on
you, Sarah?”

“No,” Sarah said.

“Are the other kids nice to you?”
Beza asked.

“Yes,” Sarah said, taking
another big bite of pasta.

Aiden said, “Only sometimes
they’re mean. There are some girls in second grade that say
mean things if Sarah’s not listening to the teacher and they
tattle on her to get her into trouble. They’re mean.”

“Sometimes kids your age really
care about the rules. And if they see a kid breaking the rules, it
gets them really upset,” I told him.

“I don’t care about the
rules. I just want people to be happy,” Aiden said.

Beza and I shared an amused look.

“Well, I hope you at least follow
the rules,” Beza said.

“I do, Mom,” he said,
rolling his eyes and giving an exasperated huff. He threw up his
hands. “I just don’t care if other kids break the rules
and I never ever tattle.”