Hush Little Baby by Caroline B. Cooney Page A

rearview mirror, and she was pleased with what she saw, tilting her head to the right and then to the left, admiring her own profile.
    Rowen waved to get her attention, but she did not see him. She was pretty busy attending to herself.
    When the lights changed, she drove jerkily, accelerating in little bursts and slowing in little jabs. She changed lanes without looking to see if there was space.
    There was not.
    Horns blared, fingers were lifted, drivers shouted unpleasant words, the syllables hidden by their closed windows. She did not notice. It was her perception that this was her own road, and she had no sense that she must share it. After several blocks, Row managed to slide in behind her. This was a woman you could follow for days and she would never know, because she was thinking only of her destination, whatever that was, and did not once glance around to see what traffic was doing.
    It was astonishing such a driver was still alive.
    Eventually, they arrived at Kit’s father’s house, which he should have guessed. She was returning for her baby. Dusty parked, walked up to the front door, and let herself in, while Row drove up right behind her. Then he reparked, because she was not likely to notice there was a car behind her and would just back into him if she left first. He pulled way to the side, using the last inch of asphalt, so she couldn’t open her doors up against his car, either. She’d left the front door wide open so Rowen also just walked right into the house.
    He was in time to see her beautiful ankles vanishing at the top of the stairs. “Kit! Kit! Kit!” Dusty cried. He could hear her running from room to room, slamming many doors, as if checking closets. “Kit!” she called. “Kit, where are you?”
    He waited while she rushed around the house the way she had driven around the town, and then she came racing back down the stairs.
    She shrieked when she saw Rowen, so he said quickly, “I’m a friend of Kit’s, Mrs. Innes. I’m Rowen Mason, we met at the club, remember you were playing tennis and my parents had friends there for dinner?” She had seemed so glamorous to Rowen — slender and gold. “The baby is fine, I saw him this afternoon, Kit’s taking great care of him.” As soon as the sentence was out of his mouth, he realized that Dusty had not been looking for the baby; she’d been looking for Kit.
    “Oh, Rowen, of course I remember you,” she said. She smiled sweetly. “You were wearing the cutest little outfit.”
    “The cutest little outfit?” That made him sound like Muffin. He said weakly, “Yeah, that was me.”
    “So the baby is fine, then,” said Dusty happily. “I knew I could count on Kit. Let’s get a Coke. It’s the only thing you can be sure of in this house. Gavin never runs out of Coke.” She set off for the kitchen. Over her shoulder, she said, “Did Kit take the baby to her mother’s? That would be fine, except then I have to deal with her mother. I like Gavin’s first wife; she was nice to me. But the thing is, she’s sticky about things, do you know what I mean, Rowen?”
    Things like — babies?
    Things like — who is the father?
    “I know what you mean,” agreed Rowen, whose mother and father were stickier than anybody. “But Kit didn’t go over to her mother’s.”
    “Oh, I’m so glad. I just cannot get into explanations. I mean, so many people are going to be mad at me if I have to bring them into this, and I don’t want to.” She took a six-pack of Coke from the otherwise empty refrigerator and yanked two cans free from the plastic collar.
    Rowen took his. He said, “Where were you? I mean, this afternoon. You’ve been gone for hours. Where did you go?”
    She beamed at him. She put her long slender hand with its beautiful long slim nails up against the golden pouf of her hair and said, “I had my hair done. I just could not stand looking crummy one more minute. If anybody had told me what having a baby does to your figure and