The Weight of Love

Chapter 8

The soup kitchen was bustling. Lila carried the big pot she'd been allotted in one arm, her muscles aching. It was split pea today, and it looked gloopy but smelled pleasant. She imagined that it was very filling, and that was probably what the people who came here came for.

Her mother and a couple other ladies from their church were spending more time gossiping than making a pot of chicken noodle, which should have been done by now. Lila heaved her pot of split pea onto the counter and smiled at the line of hungry faces and the paper containers in their hands.

"Anyone for split pea?" she asked brightly.

A couple hands went up. She dolloped soup into their containers and watched them shuffle off. One woman stood out to her, because she was jouncing a little child, who couldn't have been more than two or three, against her shoulder. Her face looked weary and lined, but when Lila came to fill her container, she smiled.

"Nice to see a young'un helping out," she said. Her smile was kind. "And what's your name, sweetheart?"

"My name's Lila," Lila said. She wiggled her fingers at the toddler, who was reaching toward her with a curious hand. "Your baby's so cute. What are your names?"

"I'm June, and he's little Anthony. Say hi, Anthony." June smiled again. "Lila's a beautiful name. I hope we'll see you again, honey. We're new to town and living in the women's shelter down the street."

"I'm here most every Saturday," Lila said, smiling back.

She watched them turn to go, and then it struck her. Reaching into her pocket, she felt for the ten dollar bill Robert had chucked at her while in the car driving over. She could see him now, standing across the room with the guy who managed the soup kitchen.

"Hey, wait!" she called after June. "Could I give you this?"

June turned and stepped back up to the counter.

"Oh, honey, you don't have to," she said when she saw the bill in Lila's hand. "We're getting along just fine."

"But I want to," Lila said. She pressed it into the older woman's hand and closed her fingers over it. "For your baby, at the least. I'm sure you're doing right by him."

A shadow seemed to cross over June's face, but it faded momentarily.

"Sure am," she said. "Got myself a husband and a restraining order against him. They sent us here because I have family in Boston, not that they want me either. You have a good soul, Lila. Thank you so much for this."

"And let me give you more soup, since you have Anthony as well," Lila said hurriedly. She snagged another paper container and filled it to the brim with split pea soup before slapping a lid on it. "There you go. God bless."

"God bless you too," said June, her eyes brimming over with tears.

Lila watched them go, the little boy peering over his mother's shoulder at her with big brown eyes. Then they were gone. The last ladles she had taken from the pot of split pea soup had emptied it, so she went and started washing up. Elbow deep in hot, soapy water, she listened to her mother and the other ladies prattle on behind her.

" -- and he broke the window in the back door getting her into the house. Robert was furious at first, of course. But we're having it replaced."

"How chivalrous," came the perpetually flirtatious tones of Hannah Barclay, one of the youngest members of Miranda's social circle.

"I'm surprised you let your daughter go out alone with an older man, Miranda." This from Mrs. Cox, with a disapproving air.

"Oh, well, he's an old family friend," said Lila's mother airily. "And he's teaching her to drive. I couldn't, not after my first husband died in an accident. It gives me just terrible anxiety, I tell you. Thank God I have Robert for that."