Everything Changes

Make You Feel My Love

Amanda opened her mouth to say something in response to what her mother had said, but words were failing her.

Bedelia couldn't help but be amused. "I'll explain the situation to you, but I need you to pick something from the menu before the waitress comes. You must be hungry after being at work all day long."

Amanda decided that Bedelia had a point and chose what she wanted just in time to place her order. When that was done, Amanda finally found the words to say to her mother.

"Maggie Blue is my sister...?"

Bedelia nodded. "She's as much your sister as Kimberly Paige is, wherever that particular child of mine off and vanished to, but I got completely clean for Maggie Blue when the doctors told me that she was going to be born with extreme hearing loss; that occurred because of a virus she contracted en utero."

"So that's why the hearing aids?"

"Yes. Your sister can hear us just fine when she's got the hearing aids in, and she's had them since she was very tiny, but once you get her talking, you'll notice that she signs when she's nervous and she has a language delay." Bedelia sat back in her chair, sighing, almost sadly. "It took me a lot longer than it should have to get myself together, and I'm so sorry for that, but I want you to get to know Maggie Blue now."

Amanda accepted Bedelia's apology. "When you say Maggie Blue is my sister, does that mean that you and my daddy...?"

"Twice."

Amanda blanched and held her tongue: the last time she saw her father, Odis Lee, she was twelve and chasing him out of the trailer after she caught him beating on Bedelia during a bad fight. She hadn't seen Odis Lee since, nor did she care to, but if Bedelia had gone back to see him after all of the years of separation (they were too broke to afford a divorce) then something was up.

"But don't you go throwing stones at me and calling it a lapse in judgement because I don't regret either time."

"No?"

"No." Bedelia confirmed. "If I had any ounce of regret, Amanda-June, then Maggie Blue wouldn't be here, and neither would the baby in my belly, who, I might add, is a boy, which means that you're finally getting the brother you spent your childhood begging me for."

Amanda very easily recalled all of the years she'd spent begging Bedelia for a brother so she could have a sibling that didn't annoy her as badly as Kim did. Even still, although it was mostly because she was awash in pregnancy hormones, Amanda sat back and rubbed at her eyes as tears formed in them.

Alarmed to see her precious big sister so upset, Maggie Blue left her seat, rounded the table, and climbed into Amanda's lap, hugging her tightly. Amanda was very surprised, but she returned the hug, even kissing Maggie Blue on the top of her head when she leaned against her.

Bedelia, meanwhile, was turning to mush at the sight. She'd always known that Amanda was the good one and had the biggest ability out of all of them to love and love deeply, and as she watched Amanda make Maggie Blue laugh up a storm, she knew she was being proven right.

And in Bedelia's eyes, Kim was a lost cause, but would always have a piece of her heart because she was her own flesh and blood. That left Amanda, and she would always be the best of them to set a good example for the youngest members of the Rollins clan.