A group of the nuns went to see her that night. They had knitted little sweaters for the baby, and booties and babies’ caps, and reported that she looked great and the baby was gorgeous. Alex was still stunned by the mystery of it. But Brigid had her baby. They named him Steven Michael. And Alex and all the nuns wished him well, and his parents.
Alex had lunch with Bert the next day. They ate sandwiches she’d brought, and he showed her the editing he’d done and the changes he wanted her to make. He suggested she add details to the crime scene that would be even more vivid, and make the perpetrator of the crime even harder to guess. He was a hard taskmaster but she trusted him completely and he was usually right, so she followed his advice. She was going to start working on it that night.
She wanted to see Brigid again, but she had already gone home that day, thirty-six hours after the baby’s birth, and when Alex called her it sounded like chaos in her apartment, with Pat’s siblings, his parents, and their friends visiting. Brigid was exhausted and Alex didn’t want to add to it. She had her hands full.
—
Rose had left a message for Alex that afternoon at the convent office. When she got back from Bert’s, Alex called her.
“They want to buy it and they’ll pay a good price. And they agreed to our conditions for Mr. Green. They’ll pay to rent a house for him, and for his assistant to be the go-between. That would be you, Alex.” She listed the names of the stars who would be in it, and Alex couldn’t speak for a minute. “They want you and Mr. Green there on August twenty-fifth for preproduction meetings. So? What do you think?” Rose was very pleased.
“I think I’m going to faint,” Alex said as she sat down in a chair in Mother MaryMeg’s office. She was alone there.
“Please don’t. They’re sending the contracts over tomorrow. I’ll email them to you. You’ve got a movie, Alex. This is a big deal, especially with that director and that cast.” Alex was her youngest client, and one of the most successful at the moment. Rose was impressed too, and excited for her. She had never seen a career take off at lightning speed as hers had. But she worked so hard, she deserved it.
“Thank you,” Alex said, and they hung up, and she was still looking shell-shocked when Mother MaryMeg walked in a minute later.
“Is something wrong?”
“I got the movie. Darkness is going to be a movie.” She listed the cast for her. The superior was stunned too.
“Goodness.” She broke into a slow smile. “Brigid has a baby, you have a movie. What’s next? Things are booming around here.” She gave Alex a big hug, and they announced it at dinner. She had time to do the editing on her latest book before she left, and at the end of August, she was going to Hollywood. She still couldn’t believe it. She lay in her bed that night thinking about it, wondering what she had ever done to be so lucky. Bert had been thrilled too when she called him.
Alexander Green was the best thing that had ever happened to her. As far as the world knew, Alexander Green was the bestselling author, but Alex was the woman behind him in the shadows, making magic. It made her laugh to think that, in a way, she was the Wizard of Oz.
Chapter 15
As she always did, Alex turned in the editing she had to do on her book ahead of time, and it was complete before she had to leave for Hollywood, and Bert loved it. She went to say goodbye to him before she left. They wouldn’t be working together for a while, because she had no time to start another book. She would have her hands full with the movie. Her publisher knew it too, but she was ahead of schedule with her work.
She went to say goodbye to Brigid too. Steven was not quite three months old, but appeared twice that, he was so huge. She had just finished nursing him when Alex arrived, and he was sound asleep and seemed drunk in his mother’s arms. Brigid was loving every minute of being with him.
“He looks like he should be wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase,” Alex teased her. “When is he going to get a job? He’ll probably be roller-skating by the time I get back from L.A.” The movie was due to wrap in January, or possibly late December, and then she had to stay for six or eight weeks of postproduction. She was expecting to be gone for about six months.
“And I’ll be an elephant again by the time you see me,” Brigid said happily, as Alex looked puzzled. Brigid hadn’t lost much of the baby weight yet, and still seemed four or five months pregnant. But she’d had no time to exercise, taking care of a newborn, and he was colicky and cried a lot. And she wasn’t dieting because nursing made her so hungry.
“Why is that?” Alex asked. “You’ll lose the weight by then, Brig, don’t worry.”
“Not exactly.” There was a long pause as Alex stared at her, waiting for an explanation. “We had a little slip a few weeks ago, I always thought nursing was effective birth control, but it turns out…uh…actually, I’m three weeks pregnant. We just found out yesterday.” She looked both mortified and delighted. It was admittedly sloppy, and would stretch their budget incredibly. She and Pat were trying to figure it out.
“Are you kidding?” Alex stared at her. “You’re having another one? Already? You just had him.”
“Irish twins,” Brigid said, faintly embarrassed. It was hard to explain to Alex, at her age, how desperately she wanted a family before it was too late, even if it meant they’d be broke and dirt poor for the next five or ten years, or longer, which was likely to be the case. But Pat wanted a family too. He was thrilled about the second baby, and didn’t mind how fast it had happened. “I know it must sound crazy to you. If I were younger, I’d wait, but we’re playing beat the clock here.”
“How many do you want?” Alex was incredulous.
“Three or four, if we can manage it financially. His parents said they’d help us. It’ll make for some lean years for a while, but it’s worth it.”
“You’re crazy but I love you,” Alex said, grinning at her. “But I guess this is why you left the convent.”
“Yes, it is,” Brigid said, smiling broadly.
“You’re not afraid to go through it again? It sounded awful.”
“It wasn’t that bad, really,” she said easily, as Alex shook her head.
“Mother MaryMeg said you’d say that. It must be amnesia. Twenty-five hours of labor?”
“But look what I got out of it,” she said, pointing to the sleeping baby, who lay in her arms like an angel. She was more than willing to go through it again.
“And Pat’s okay with it?”
“It’s what we both want. I think we were careless on purpose.”
“Congratulations then,” Alex said, and hugged her.
“We want you to be Steven’s godmother. We’ll wait to christen him till you get back.” Alex was touched, and they hugged warmly when she left. She still couldn’t believe they were having another one so soon. She told the nuns about it at dinner, because Brigid said she could, when she had asked if it was a secret.