Lola curled her toes into the soft grass below her. Tommy sat to her right, quiet and still, but she could feel his anxiety.
“Tom,” Lola whispered lifting her head from the tree trunk. “Please calm down, nothing is going to happen.”
“Maybe not to you,” he snatched back. “But I didn’t marry a cop. They’ll probably drop you off at home and lock me up.”
A small laugh rose in her chest, but stopped just short of her lips. She inhaled deeply trying to fill her lungs with the smell of the Maple tree.
“I’m sorry,” Tommy said glancing up at her. “I didn’t think…I’m sorry Lola.” He reached for her hand.
“I don’t want you to go back, I can’t…” His voice faded, and he looked down at his knees.
She watched as tears filled his eyes. She wrapped her fingers tightly around his, and for the first time she noticed his hand had outgrown her own.
“It’s ok…” she whispered and wiped her own stray tear from her face. “Did Mom tell you what I’m having?”
He shook his head.
“It’s a girl.”
Tommy sat still for a moment, then jumped to his feet.
“We need those doughnuts” he whispered with a grin, then crept to the car, gently opened the passenger side and slide the box out. He sat down again quietly beside his sister.
“Do you know what you want to name her yet?” he asked handing Lola a gooey glazed doughnut.
“No…” Lola said tearing a piece off.
“I was thinking…when the baby was born…I’d like to give it, I guess it’s a her now, well, I’d like to give her Tiger.”
“Oh, Tom, you don’t have to do that.” Lola swallowed, her eyes burned with fresh tears.
“Well, it’s just sitting on my shelf getting dusty.” he put another doughnut in his mouth.
“I think she would love that.”
Tommy tip-toed across his bedroom. He couldn’t believe he had made it back home without anyone knowing, not even his parents sleeping across the hall.
As he leaned over to get into bed, he pulled back his covers, reached under his pillow and gingerly picked up Tiger.
The next morning Lola woke with a strong craving for a strawberry yogurt. She made it all the way to the fridge, to the yogurt container when she ripped back the lid, wafted herself with a creamy strawberry scent, then immediately changed her mind as the nausea spread through her stomach. She choked back the acid in her throat, and grabbed a hold of the counter.
"Lola?" Gloria rounded the corner and into the kitchen. "Honey, what is it?"
"Sorry, Mom," Lola said through slow even breaths. "It was just nausea again, I thought it would be all done by now. I hate throwing up."
Gloria stepped over to the sink and ran the dishrag under cold water, then placed it on the back of her neck.
"There we go," she whispered gently. "I was really hoping it would have left you by now. With you, well, you know this story so well, but with you I didn't have one day of morning sickness. But your brother! Oh my, I threw up everyday until he was born.
Everyone kept telling me how lucky I was, so much sickness meant a healthy baby...but I wanted to tell them exactly where they could shove all their healthy baby tripe. So, I won't say that to you."
"Thanks Mom." Lola said straightening herself back up again, then rested her hip against the counter looking out the window.
"For what? The rag or not telling you to be thankful?" she asked with a smirk.
Lola shrugged. "Both, I think." She shifted her weight between her feet. "You know Tommy wants to give the baby Tiger?"
"It doesn't surprise me. Did he tell you that the other night the two of you snuck out?"
Lola looked at her in surprise. "You knew?"
"Honey, your dad is a detective."
Lola narrowed her eyes.
"Ok, fine, we heard Tom flush the toilet then stomp down the hallway. He doesn't realize how big he's gotten. I waited for him to clunk his way back to his room, but I heard a car start up instead. That's when I found both of you gone."
"But you didn't want to say anything until now?"
"Oh sweetie, I want whatever is going to help." she said grabbing a hold of her daughter's hand. "When I saw you the next morning and you smiled at me, not your ghost smile...don't look at me like that, you've been a ghost, but you smiled at me and it reached your eyes. I almost choked right there on my cereal, but I held it together so you wouldn't suspect. It only happened once that day, but it came back again the next morning. And well...I knew whatever happened that night was good."
Lola took a small step into her mother's arms. "Mom, I'm sorry...I never meant..."she said quietly as a light stream of tears dampened her mother's shoulder.
"I know...honey...I know." she stroked her blonde curls.
"I need to - I need to find my way again, but I can't see what it is. I don't know what to do." she cried harder now.
Gloria straigtened her arms and pulled Lola so she could see her daughter's face.
"You need to understand that there is no rush. You grow that baby, you start to love that baby...no listen." Gloria said firmly as Lola began to interrupt. "You start to love that baby, and we'll start to talk about what you need to do next."
Thursday morning arrived with heavy rain and dark clouds. It did nothing to aid Lola in calming her nerves as she got dressed for her doctor's appointment.
Gloria was already at the table eating breakfast when Lola came around the corner.
“There's fresh orange juice in the fridge, and brand new box of FiberX in the cabinet.”
The idea of eating made her stomach tie in more knots, but she also knew her mom would question her if she didn't. So, she picked out a small bowl, poured it half way with cereal and filled the rest with milk.
As she sat down, Tommy walked in holding a poptart and a notepad.
“Alright, so this is what I'm thinking,” he started, “you have your appointment today, right?” He directed his question to Lola.
She nodded taking a bite.
“I need to add to my resume of Life Action Events,” he said. “So I'm coming with you.”
“How does an ob/gyn appointment count as a Life Action Event?” Gloria asked.
“Well, all those other patients are going to be pregnant too, right? So, what if one suddenly goes into labor! This is the kinda things that I can pull from when I become a movie director, slash writer, slash producer,” he swooshed with this hand for emphasis.
Gloria laughed. “Sure, sweetie, if you think it will help on your career path you can come along.”
They pulled into the parking lot of a small building, with a sign that read “Alton Ob/Gyn Practice” and walked inside.
The waiting room felt cold despite the warm burgundy walls and mahogany floor. The smell of sterile cleaners hung in the air. Lola walked to the receptionist that sat behind the glass window to let them know she was there.
Gloria waited, flipping idly through a magazine as Lola came back and sat down in an uncomfortable straight back chair. Tommy sat patiently across from Lola, notepad at the ready, and kept a close eye on several mothers that looked to be 9 months along. She welcomed his presence, it distracted her from all the questions that raced through her turbulent mind.
"Tommy," Lola whispered leaning forward. "Keep a close look at the lady in the purple yoga pants."
Tom gave her a subtle nod, then glanced to his left where the poor woman sat rubbing her large round belly and taking long, deep breaths. He took a few notes.
Gloria giggled at Lola's side. "I tried to warn him that labor is no picnic, and if he was lucky enough to see someone's water break he might want to take a few steps back."
She laughed quietly, then tried again to settle into the rough fabric of the chair. She couldn't quite find a comfortable position, but at only twenty-four weeks it shouldn't be so difficult. She noticed as she shifted again a small cramp formed on the right side of her lower stomach just below her bump. She tried to rub it out, but the pain grew and sharpened.
"Mom," Lola whispered. "I have a sharp cramp right here." She put her hand on the spot again and pressed in.
"Maybe if you stand up and stretch it will help."
Lola stood and the pain only grew.
"It's not going away," Lola said. Worry began to fill her mind, but as she bent over to sit back down, a large rumble erupted filling the still waiting room.
Mortified, Lola sat down quickly trying to hide her beet red face in her hand.
"Now, that's what I call a fart!" Tommy said.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me! The prompt for part 15 was the word fart, haha, so it was really fun to make a light hearted part to this story. And if you've ever been pregnant or have been close to someone who was or is, then you know what the insides of woman's body goes through haha. Hope you enjoyed! For more info about freewrites, visit @mariannewest!
If you would like to check out the story from the beginning you can find the previous chapters here!
1 |2|3|4
To the amazing people that read this story! Thank you!
@cecicastor, @scribblingramma, @enginewitty, @janaveda, and @sirmartinet
Much love,
Stacie D
Hello @fredomtowrite,
This installment had a somewhat embarrassing ending hahaha. Good management of the daily life of a pregnant woman.
Haha thank you! Yes, there are a lot of embarrassing moments that happen while you're pregnant...that is for sure!
Oh yes!
Hy @freedomtowrite you are doing extremely well in your writing and thanks for the tag
Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying the story!
Yea am enjoying it
But just try and input more pregnancy related scenarios
And why is lola's dad not angry over his daughter's pregnancy?
Please feel free to stroll down my street @sirmartinet
Lola's dad isn't angry because she was married and then her husband died. I hope that helps 😀
Okay, I am caught up again! Looking forward to the next installment. Your descriptions of how it feels to be pregnant are bringing back memories 28 years old. It was certainly an interesting experience, but I sure wouldn't want to go through that again now. Makes me think about Sarah of the Bible. Of course, people lived longer then, so having a baby at age 90 wasn't quite as preposterous as it would be now. I'm not 90, but still...
Haha I'm glad that they are able to bring back those memories! Yes, pregnancy is definitely interesting. It's different every time and to everyone...but still oddly the same haha. Yeah...she was 90 and although they lived longer, she definitely thought her womb was all done, so I'm guessing she had gone through menopause. I bet it would have been like having a baby at 60+ which is enough haha. I've been going through baby fever for the last 10 years. I wonder if it will ever die away. Or maybe we'll end up adopting! Also, Chapter 6 is up!