Daylight

Pet’s POV

For once, even Sal was speechless. She just knelt there, motionless, her mouth hanging open.

Stunned didn’t even begin to describe how we were feeling at that moment.

Shoshi went on: “You know, I never thought this would happen…Ray and I tried so many times, for so long…we’d just given up. We really thought….”
She was silent for a minute.
“…we never thought this was in the cards.” When I looked at her, her eyes and the tip of her nose were red from tears, but she was smiling serenely.

“How…how long?” Sal stammered out.
Shoshi wiped her face, sniffling a little. “As near as the doctor can figure, I’m about ten weeks along. Which accounts for the fatigue and the nausea.”
“You knew you were pregnant, and you came along anyway?” Tia asked in disbelief.
Our manager shrugged. “There didn’t seem to be any reason to stay away. And I didn’t wanna miss anything. But now….” She trailed off again.
“But now…what?” Mo prodded.
Shoshi let out a long sigh. “Now…my doctor’s afraid I might be over-exerting myself, and he wants me to stop traveling so much.”
“Will he put you on bed rest?” I couldn’t help asking. I’d seen my own mom go through that when she was pregnant with my little brother Sean.
“I don’t think so,” Shoshi answered. “I think he just wants me to stay put in New York, in case, you know….”

We looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

“Why didn’t you tell us at the start of the tour?” Tia asked softly.
Our manager pursed her lips. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t wanna jinx it, which sounds stupid and superstitious even to me, but there you go. I didn’t want to leave you all without a familiar presence, and I thought I could handle it.” She smiled and laid a hand on her belly, which wasn’t any bigger than it was normally. “But I guess…someone has other ideas. And of course,” she sighed, “Ray is tremendously relieved. He was so afraid.”

“So, you…won’t be our manager anymore?” Sal asked in a pitiful voice.
“I’d love to be, baby, but no, I can’t Sal,” Shoshi said gently. “But, never fear: I will leave you in capable hands.”
“You have someone in mind?” Mo wondered.
Shoshi smiled broadly. “Oh yes. Brian Schechter, as a matter of fact.”

Scratch what I said about stunned earlier. That was just a test.

I found my voice. “Shoshi…you know Brian Schechter?? My Chem’s manager? And you never told us?”
She blinked at me innocently. “I guess it never came up. We went to high school together.”
”Shit,” Sal breathed. “So, what do we do?”
“You don’t need to do anything,” was the reassuring answer. “I’ll call him and arrange a meeting when you get to LA later this summer. In fact, if you need a reference, I think I can set that up too.”

My head was spinning; I couldn’t imagine what she meant. I supposed we’d find out soon enough.
“Look, girls,” Shoshi was saying, “I promise I won’t abandon you till I’ve found a good replacement. I think you’ll be happy with Brian; he’s a pretty level-headed guy. But I have other names if he doesn’t work out.”

Just then, the bus door opened, and a man stepped onto the bus: Ray, Shoshi’s husband. Sal got out of the way as his wife stood to greet him. He came right over her and hugged her tight.
Then he gave her a kiss that left us breathless.

“I guess you told them?” he asked her.
Shoshi nodded, beaming up at him. “Ladies, since I don’t feel right about going away till you have someone else, Ray will be traveling with us for a few days. Is that okay?”
We all murmured our agreement. Ray took Shoshi’s hand and led her down the hall to the double-bed bunk in the rear of the bus, without so much as a goodnight to us.

“Thank God that door is soundproof,” Mo groaned.
We didn’t see them for the rest of the night.