It was so bad—so, so bad—the way everyone treated her after everything
happened, it was so bad because if anybody actually watched her, like I did;
really watched her, the look on her face, the growth in her pupils dilating
when she smiled, the way her body opened up and accepted the baby into her
womb; if anyone had watched her the way I did, they would’ve seen how happy
she was. She was so damn happy with him; Jamie and Josh had never been so
crazy about each other; I’d never seen anyone more in love than the two of
them (if we’re being honest I never really had the opportunity to see anyone
really happy so maybe they weren’t all they were cracked up to me in my head
but I want to believe I’m right so I do.) But when everything got bad and
Josh fell in on himself and Jamie was alone, and everyone had nothing better
to do than attack her that’s what they all did; because I guess there really
isn’t anything better to do in a Podunk down in a nowhere place and that’s
just where we live. They wanted her to feel awful because they were so
confused and didn’t have access to any of the answers and so they had to make
their own no matter who they hurt in the process I guess (but my Aunty Mae
did raise me like that, she told me I was gonna be better than all of that
shit.) I think the thing that changed the most was her skin, when she was
nearing the end of her pregnancy she had this radiance about her, and Josh
did too, and they had this skin that glowed together, they were so much more
beautiful together, and then all that shit happened and everything changed and
Jamie looked like a ghost when I’d see her around town even in the heat of the
summer; she looked see through and shrunken; like a raisin. And everyone
called her all these names, so many people harassed her and made a fool of her
and she had no one to protect her any more and more than anything I wanted to
be the person that could protect her but I wasn’t big enough for all that, I
was too small to shield her from the wrath God had brought down upon her. And
one day I walked real close to her on the sidewalk, I didn’t know it was
gonna happen, all of a sudden we were just upon each other and I whispered to
her;