Thursday, October 13, 2005

The Other Parents

Some asshole nurse was telling me to take deep breaths while Jane and Pricilla clicked away with disposable camera and Don calmly held my hand. I felt as though someone had just punched me in the crotch simultaneously as they stabbed me in my kidney’s. I had gotten to the hospital to late to have my epidural and my labor was increasing rapidly.

An excruciating pain shot up my ass as like poker. I felt my whole stomach stiffen then watched horrified as it actually moved on it’s own. Oh fuck me, I wasn’t ready for this thing.

Don was ready, he had a nursery commissioned diapers, clothes and formula stocked. We had discussed breast feeding, names, schools? I felt like an idiot.

Some part of me never thought I would make it this far, in the back of my head I was always going to loose this kid—now I had my big chance to screw it up. Don had made me tell James about the baby, he had promptly demanded a paternity test. Good sign right? I told him to fuck off he immediately realized I was telling the truth and refused to sign away his parental rights.

He was in the waiting room with his fiancĂ©e of one week, who actually seemed to be salivating at the idea of an instant family. Go figure, we thought the party boy decided to settle down but Priscilla scooped us all. James new honey wasn’t new at all. They had been on again off again since they were fourteen and apparently getting me pregnant curbed James need to explore.

PUSH

I did, so hard my face turned red and the world began to spin. My ears started to ring, I felt something pop and my world went black.

When I came to, everyone was staring at me they weren’t smiling anymore. Jesus, I felt my heart flip over and I lost sensation in my toes. I closed my eyes and nearly started panting my chest was so tight. Finally someone spoke.

“It’s a boy.”

I opened one eye, my chest was tight because there was a nine pound baby on it mewling and looking dead at me with big blue pools where his eyes should be. Blue? I looked at Don who laughed—I had actually forgotten he wasn’t the father.

hat a mess. I started to cry out of sheer terror but everyone thought I was happy and joined in then started taking pictures.

Two days later on the ride home, Don dropped a bomb and not so subtly. I had just turned around for the tenth time to make sure Dylan (named after Bob and Thomas) was still there when he told me that he had let James and Ann Marie move in to the house.

“Are you insane?” I couldn’t help it, my hand flung out and clipped him on the back of the head. Call it a knee jerk reaction to someone telling you there was something worse waiting at home than the bundle in the backseat.

“Look, we agreed we didn’t want a custody battle, right”

I tried to speak but he wouldn’t let me.

We he finished I found that he reasoned that it was temporary and only until Dylan was ready to travel more. The house was big, but it wasn’t that big…

When we got home, there was cake again and punch and Dylan's other parents.