Jack Griggs
She had just one exam left.
One final exam and then we could start moving forward with my timetable.
And I had a lot planned.
We visited the doctor’s office two days after our home test, although it was a bit of a none event. They got her to pee on some industrial strength pregnancy test and the results came back the same as before. Apparently, it’s a formality. These days a false positive is virtually impossible. I still couldn’t help jumping with joy and offering to high-five the doctor, screaming, “Yeah! My girl is bakin’ my baby!” Carly was mortified, but the doctor didn’t care. He’d seen it all before. Next, he checked her over. Blood pressure – fine. Temperature – fine. He quizzed her for a bit about how she was feeling and then he kicked me out so he could give her a quick internal check. I was pacing the hallway like the expectant father I was, and I seriously hated that someone was getting to see and touch her insides. When he opened the door to tell me that I could come back in, I was at her side in a split second. “Is she okay, Doc?”
“She’s as expected, Mr. Griggs. Her body is doing exactly what it should be doing.”
“Phew!” I was relieved enough to grab her hand and squeeze it. “Baby good. Baby Momma good. What now?”
“Here are some leaflets for parenting and Lamaze classes in the area, and your scan appointment is confirmed for a week’s time.”
I knew my eyes were wide like they were on stalks. “We get to see the baby in a week?”
“Come on.” Carly laughed. She was definitely embarrassed now. I watched as she shook her head at the doctor and pulled me in the direction of the door.
It felt like I didn’t sleep a wink in the run up to the scan. I was wired like I’d never been wired before. I kept asking Carly asinine questions and brought every baby book I could lay my hands on. It was only when Carly threatened to book into a hotel so she and the baby could get some rest that I put a lid on it.
“Did you just play me?” I asked, shocked when I realized she had.
I didn’t receive an answer. She just burst out laughing. I loved that I could make her laugh; even with so much turmoil in our life, I could still do that for her.
“I can see I’m going to have to keep an eye on you, Miss Sevens. These baby hormones have made you a little sneaky.”
“And you extremely gullible,” she muttered.
“What was that word you used ‘gulp-ible’? I can think of something that would make you gulp and wear me out.” I sidled up behind her, kissing that sweet ticklish spot behind her ear.
“How does me gulping tire you out? I’ll be doing all the work.”
“You’re right. I’ll do all the work. Let me feed you. You lie back and enjoy it.”
And she did.
And I slept like a baby.
* * *
A week later as we sat in the waiting room at the clinic, I was surrounded by baby mommas of various different shapes, sizes and pregnancy stages. The perma-grin was still there and after a while, Carly grabbed me and whispered in my ear. “You’re starting to look a little creepy. Dial it down.”
“I can’t. I think I may actually burst from the excitement or anticipation, or both!”
“I remember my first time,” a large pregnant lady sitting opposite said. “My hubs was just like you, excited and shit. Then he made the mistake of checking out the business end during the labor. Believe me, seeing that put a dent in his mojo for a while. My advice, stay away from the business end.”
“Uh… right,” I replied as I looked around, hoping like mad she wasn’t actually talking to me.
“The second time was bad. Ass grapes. Hemorrhoids. Helping me cream up those bad boys, well, I thought that would put a dent in things, but no.”
I felt Carly jolt behind her magazine.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t hiding behind reading material and she knew she had my undivided attention. I had no escape route.
“And he thought wearing condoms was uncomfortable.” The more she said, the closer I got to shoving my fingers in my ears.
“Baby number three, well, that was like firing a gun. That slippery screamer shot outta my cooch like I was a snack machine in a high school full of fat kids.”
“Oh God. Make it stop,” I muttered under my breath. Carly was laughing from behind the cover of her magazine. You couldn’t hear anything apart from the odd snort, but I could feel her shoulders juddering next to me. “Help me.”
“Now I’m on baby number four. This one is a surprise even though I tried, my old man did not heed my warnings. I told him he only has to look at my lady bits and his sperm is impregnating me. So, I’ve planned my own surprise for him.” She leaned forward to share her pearl of wisdom, and I was genuinely scared. She’d not bothered with discretion up to now, so what the hell was she going to say? “I’ve booked him in for a rewiring. I was tempted to take a couple of bricks to his man jewels and perform the procedure myself. He’s ruined my cooch. It looks like a taco that’s losing all the meat goodness, so I was gonna repay the favor.
“Holy fuck.” I finally broke my silence and in a gesture of solidarity, I crossed my legs to cover my own man jewels. Carly was done for. She couldn’t hold it back any longer. She was laughing that much tears and snot were running down her face.
I watched as crazy baby lady took a breath and went to continue. I was genuinely fearing for my sanity when a doorway opened and I heard, “Miss. Sevens?”
“Thank fucking Christ.” I jumped up, snatched the magazine off Carly and dragged her from her chair. The little minx was still chuckling when we took our seats inside the room.
Five minutes later, after yet more blood pressure checks and more routine questions, she was told to climb on the gurney and prep for the sonogram. I hopped about from foot to foot as Carly edged down her pants and raised her top. The nurse approached and mumbled, “Sorry, it’s going to be cold,” before a blob of gel was squished on her belly. After a tense minute, she came back with what looked like a bar code scanner and started price checking my girl’s belly.
The monitor was facing away from us. The nurse swiped the bar code scanner with one hand and worked a massive rollerball with the other, all while humming and talking to herself. My eyes didn’t know whether to watch her for some clue or the joystick game of Mario Kart going on on Carly’s belly.
“Uh huh,” she mumbled again.
“Righty-ho,” she muttered.
Yet we still couldn’t see the monitor.
“I just need to get another tech to check what I’m seeing. Hold tight. Oh that rhymes.” And with a smile, she walked off.
Carly’s fingers tapped the on the gurney surface beside her and I was back to pacing again. She seemed calm, whereas I was a nanosecond away from tracking the nurse down and dragging her back in here. Just as I was about to pick that option, she reappeared with a much older looking woman.
They both smiled at Carly and peered at the monitor. The infuriating clicking and tapping started again before the older one said. “Yes, I agree. I’ll leave you to it.”
“Would you like to see the screen?” she finally said. There was no look of despair on the nurse’s face and I instantly felt calmer. Whatever had gone on was not bad news.
“Of course we do,” I demanded. “Spin that motherfu- round!”
“Jack!” Carly reprimanded me, but the nurse just laughed.
“You daddies… You’re all the same. Nervous as jackrabbits. Oh, listen at me. Jackrabbits.”
I swear to God if she didn’t stop patting herself on the back for this her shit jokes and turn that monitor around, I wasn’t going to be responsible for my actions.
Painstakingly slowly, she gradually presented us with a picture of fucking nothing.
Black and white nothingness.
Before I could panic, she grabbed the bar coder again and set to work on Carly’s belly. “I needed my colleague to confirm what I was seeing. I’d hate to give the wrong information and it always pays to check.”
The black and white went hazy and blurry in sync with the twisting and turning of her hand directions. “I do believe we’re looking at twins. Are there twins in either family?”
I fucking knew it.
The screen blurred again but this time I knew it had nothing to do with a bad signal. My eyes were watering and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I tried to look at Carly who was now squinting in an accusatory manner, like I’d infected her with some disease. I suppose I had really.
“Okay, I’ll answer then,” she snapped. “Seeing as someone appears to be shocked, speechless and emotional. He’s a twin.”
I heard the words. I even saw her lips forming them and pushing them out, but I still felt like some kind of outsider in my own body. Fuck, was I going to faint?
“I was just checking the type of multiple pregnancy with my colleague. Your twins are what we call monoamniotic or ‘momo’ for short. They’re sharing one amniotic sac and one placenta. Each baby has its own umbilical cord. Essentially, identical twins. What type were you?”
Once again I heard the question, but still couldn’t make myself cogitate and answer.
“He’s an identical twin.”
“Oh fab,” the nurse squeaked. “How romantic, if you don’t mind me saying. You’re about fourteen weeks along. They look settled and will start plumping up quite rapidly now. Because you’re going to be a multiple momma, we’ll see you more regularly to keep an eye on all three of you. I’d suggest you make all your appointments with the doc before you leave today. I need to tell you that multiples come with risks, so be sure to look after yourself.”
I could see Carly listening to the nurse but constantly glancing in my direction, checking on me. She was worried about me and I snapped out of it when I realized she should be giving her attention to the nurse and not worrying about me.
“So, here’s baby number one and this little blip is their heartbeat.”
“My baby has a heartbeat?” I blundered in stupidly.
“Annnnnnd dad is back from his little shock vacation. Of course it has a heartbeat, listen.”
The noise flooded the room and a feeling of wonderment flooded me. Carly seemed relieved I was back in the land of the living, too. We watched as she pointed out the features of baby one’s body, before moving onto the second blob on the screen.
“Both are looking and sounding fine.” The nurse gave Carly a paper towel to clean up with and then handed me a roll of prints showing the transmission blackout from the movie show we’d just sat through.
“I’ll see you in a month unless you need us before then. Take it easy, momma.”
Carly led me out of the room and when I hit the waiting room, I didn’t quite know what to do, so I leaned against the wall.
“Honey, are you okay?”
“I… uh…”
“I’ll just take a seat until you’re ready.” Carly left me and went back to her chair by the husband-rewirer-torturer.
“Is he okay?” she asked.
“Twins,” Carly replied.
Mrs. Man Jewel killer burst out laughing. “Well I never. He definitely don’t wanna be looking at the business end now. Your lunch is gonna be spilling outta your taco fast, you know what I’m saying.”
“Twins,” I said to myself.
“Yes, honey,” Carly replied, clearly keeping an eye on me.
“Twins!” I shouted before jumping up and punching the air with sheer joy.
Focused on the prize now, I had to get Carly home.
Our real home. My woman and our babies needed our families and a permanent doctor. I was going to share the news of the babies quickly so it didn’t stress her out too much. I didn’t want this hanging over her head.
When I got her back to the apartment, I made her a sweet tea and put her in the tub for a long soak. I needed her out of the way while I broke my promise to her.
My family needed a place to live. I had a week left in my job and she had one exam left. There was only one person I knew who could give me somewhere to live and some sound advice.
Jonas, my big brother.
And in order to do that, I had to tell him when I’d promised Carly I wouldn’t. I had to tell him everything. The man who had fallen in love with the wrong girl, the ultimate in forbidden love stories, had ended up with twins and was going to hear how history was repeating itself. That was why I knew he wasn’t just the best person, but probably the only person who could help me make this right.