The Things We Do For Love

On a sunny spring day, Angie returns to her hometown of West End with her husband, Conlan, for a family dinner. Angie notices that the once vibrant town is now run-down. When they pull into her mother’s driveway, Conlan asks if Angie wants to leave. Both are reeling from the recent loss of their baby. Remembering her deceased father, Angie declines and heads inside to face her family.

Angie finds her mother and two older sisters, Mira and Livvy, in the kitchen. Despite their differences, Angie recalls how, when the girls come together, “they [are] unbreakable” (7). When her mother hugs her tightly, Angie fears a comment about the baby. At dinner, Mira toasts Livvy and her new husband, wishing them many healthy children. The room goes silent. Everyone looks at Angie, who tearfully raises her glass. Soon, chatter resumes, but Angie broods. Later, Angie retreats to her old bedroom and rebuffs Conlan’s suggestion that she get help. Moments later, her mother appears and advises her to accept being childless.

Back in Seattle, Angie awakens from a recurring nightmare about Conlan and her being separated by an ocean with a baby floating between them. In eight years, she had two pregnancy losses, a failed adoption, and one birth; her daughter, Sophia, only lived a few days.