Stories tagged “pregnancy”
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Untimely Separation
“Can you moor the boat?” Sally asked me as she daintily hopped out of our sailboat onto the wooden dock. As she landed onto the panels of wood, she skidded, and grasped automatically at her stomach. “You should be more careful, Sal, t...
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A Two For One Switch?
Ever take a nap and then wake up more tired than you were before? That’s what I’m feeling right now. I went to sleep thinking about Jo. How funny she is, her laugh, her smile. She always makes me happy, except for when I place my hand on he...
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delivery
My hair is limp with sweat. The pain is unbearable, but I refused the drugs they offered. No one is here with me and all of a sudden I wish things had been different. I wish he was holding my hand. I want my mom to be here to coach me and help me throu...
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I Can't Do This.
It’s been two months. Two wonderful months; two wonderful months since I broke up with that bastard. But I think he did something to me. No, I know that he did something to because, right now, as I stare at the test in my hand… I’m pr...
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"We're going to have a baby."
Harlan smiled beatifically at his family. One inside the other, both alive. Both kicking. I am the shore, he thought, on which this detritus has arrived. His teeth were bared. He displayed as much of his skull as was possible without parting his skin. ...
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Splinters
It was that same day that I found out. I mean, everyone’s entitled to a little psychosis at that point, right? I just don’t know why it was I needed to take it out on my violin. Some kids cut, some drink, some do drugs, but me, well…I...
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December Denial Part II
I only back one suitcase, I can come back for the rest later. But then there came a step on the stairs, and a small cough, and I try to ignore it but he says, “You should come with me. We could go out for a real meal.” And my better judgment is te...
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A Matter of Priority
That would be a pile of gold coins minus five bucks if I didn’t do something. All coins have their own special character, tiny variations in the metal that give them a personality, and you can’t let people just take them away from you. I kn...
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i don't want this
They led me into the stark white room, guided my hand that signed the forms, and left me alone so I was surrounded by unfamiliar doctors in white lab coats. ‘Why are you letting them do this?’ I tried to cry out, but no sound came. The doctor spoke...
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Queen Sized
It all started when he insisted on buying a queen size bed. Things weren’t so great before the bed, but the bed was the last straw. I was six months pregnant, had picked up my whole life and moved across the country to some little broken town where i...
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Queen Sized II
I will admit I had not thought this entire thing through. The bump in my dress was a setback. I had never planned much past October, when I would start an intense yoga program to lose my baby weight. I never actually considered spending the rest of my ...
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Queen Sized III
We were eating dinner at a kitchen table, when the big yellow truck pulled up with our queen sized mattress, with the next fifteen years of our lives all wrapped up in plastic in the back. John he went running outside to greet the driver and show him w...
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December Denial
We were lying on the couch, our couch, when the telephone rang, and he jumped up so fast my heart skipped a beat. I could tell who it was by the way he talked in low tones, careful to stay just out of earshot. And I remember thinking it was over. In a ...
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On Villainy
He looks at me as if I were a snake. A poisonous, precious snake to be kept in a cage. It is amazing how men change when the women that love them carry their child. I am not even showing yet but he is already of the opinion that if not I, the child wit...