A Fight in the Doctor's Office

Book excerpt: Fiction.In Spring, 1967, Jenny Havener, a young newlywed in Washington, DC, finds herself deserted by her husband. Her parents, ashamed and eager to find him, take Jenny on a search through the Virginia countryside. Their travels lead them to the rural community of Glen Allen. Jenny doesn't find her husband, but she meets a disabled African-American baby with whom she falls in love on sight. She abandons her search for her husband, parts way with her parents (who worry she is becoming unhinged) and settles in Glen Allen for the purpose of spending as much time as possible with the child. She settles into an abandoned furniture store and defies the community's growing suspicions about her reasons for being there. As her obsession about the baby grows, a battle of wills erupts between Jenny and the child's guardians--his elderly, impoverished great-grandparents--leading to Jenny's attempts to claim the baby as her own.