Chapter 2

Three Months Later

“Okay, I think I get it now,” Darren said. In his MKZ he’d driven from Chicago, he’d taken the long way across Ft. Wayne from one of his properties on the far south side to a small office park on the far north side. A sense of accomplishment came over Darren as he learned his way around the city. Now, all he had left to do was to find out where all the best bars were, what restaurants had the hottest women, and if any of the strip clubs were even the kinds of places he would step foot into. He still couldn't believe he actually lived here. Never did he think he’d trade life in Chicago for a slower, sleepier place in Ft. Wayne. Then again, the real estate opportunity was too profitable here to ignore.

Darren parked then walked into the glass office building, which set at the side of a retention pond. He was greeted by Doug’s secretary – an attractive, older woman who still had a youthful spirit about her – then sat in the lobby while he waited. Only seconds after picking up a Sports Illustrated, Doug came. He shook Darren’s hand then walked him back to his office.

“Well, nice to see you back in the city,” Doug said, sitting down at his desk. He grabbed some information and pushed it across to Darren. “Like we talked about on the phone, you’ve come to Fort Wayne to live. You purchased a Victorian when you first got here, but now want some other houses to where maybe you could rent the rooms out. Is that right?”

“Yes,” Darren said. “And, like I said, I want homes closer to to downtown. I can tell that revitalization efforts are about to really be underway here. There’s this area I kind of like, I think I told you about it in our emails...a lot of Victorian homes, I think by a river. I’m interested in properties I already have.”

Doug explained he already had some options ready to show on this winter day. Snow had already started dusting the parking lot, but wasn’t supposed to be heavy until later in the evening. Doug pointed at various addressed in areas with what Darren, answering any questions Mr. McWaters had. By 1 o’clock, Doug found the keys to the company vehicle and escorted his client out the door.

The more properties Darren saw that afternoon around the city, the more confident he felt about this endeavor. In fact, in the back of his mind as Doug drove back to his office building around 3 o’clock, Darren realized coming to a place to like this might be just what he needed to build his own empire of sorts. He already had five rental properties in the area that were turning out to be extremely lucrative. And based on what he was seeing as he looked out of the window, there was only going to be more opportunity for him to plant his flag, so to speak.

Around 4 o’clock, Darren was finally back to his new home – a 1914, restored Victorian with a carriage house above the detached garage. With five bedrooms, the house was certainly more space than a single man like himself needed. Naturally, the front, side, and back yards was much more than he was used to having in Chicago. Nonetheless, as Darren opened his blinds, a strange comfort came over him. It was quiet, no gunshots, and the neighbors were friendly.

Darren had just lay down on his couch, pushing his head back into his pillow, when his phone vibrated. His initial reaction had been to groan a bit because he thought it could be a tenant calling with a problem. He then remembered, though, how just a week ago he finally found a property management company to take on the burden of dealing with tenants. Darren looked at his phone, seeing that it was his mother calling. Damn. I would rather it be one of my tenants calling than her. Let me see what she wants today.

“Darren, are you busy at the moment?” his mother Joan asked. “I called you earlier, but you never called me back.”

“No, Mom, I’m not busy,” Darren said. “And sorry, I was riding around with Doug, looking at properties and stuff when you called. I didn’t want to be rude to him.”

“I understand, Dear,” Joan said. “Well, that’s why I was actually calling. Wanted to know what your feelings were. Haven’t talked to you in a while and wondered what you were thinking about the city now that you’re actually living there rather than just visiting like you were before.”

Darren gave his mother a run-down. He started with the properties he already purchased and how they were doing. He worked his way down the list to the urban renewal projects popping up all over the city. He gave the pros, cons, and made sure to shut up any and every time his mother cut him off to speak. She talked on and on about how the family was looking to branch out and, after considering a few other small cities in the Midwest, they would settle on investing the most money into Ft. Wayne if Darren felt like it would be the right place for it.

“Oh, yeah, there is opportunity here, Mom,” Darren said. “That’s for sure. When I’m riding around, I can definitely see it.”

“Okay, that’s good,” Joan said. “Glad to hear it. I’ll talk to your father about it later on in the evening, when he gets home from his meeting with the mayor. So, son...” Darren’s mother put on her imitation sweet voice – a voice that sent slight chills down her son’s spine because he knew what she was about to start talking about. “You know you’re getting a little older now and whatnot, and your cousins all have their families and stuff. I’m not talking about right now, of course, because you still have goals and whatnot there, but have you thought anymore about what we were talking about the last time we talked?”

Darren rolled his eyes and shook his head. He mouthed the word ‘fuck’ then recalled so vividly the conversation he had with his mother nearly two weeks ago. She seemed to take great pleasure in harping on him being open to finally settling down. “Yeah, I’ve given it more thought, Mom. Still thinking, really.”

“Well, I was just asking,” Joan said. “No reason to get defensive or anything like that. A mother will only be concerned. Well, what do the women seem like there? I know I used to get on you about finding a wife here in Chicago, but now that I’ve gotten older and look around a bit, I could see how maybe these wouldn’t be the kind of wife you want. So?”
“Mom, they seem nice,” Darren said. The only women he’d really talked to this time around were those he met at bars, in meetings, or who worked at the property management company. They all seemed “nice.” Then again, many of them knew what Darren was about business-wise. For that reason, he wasn’t surprised how some of them acted as if they were oh so interested in him when if her were walking down the street, such probably wouldn’t be the case. “I just don’t know, yet, so sorry I don’t have anything else to tell you. I told you how I feel about marriage. I know what you said, but that’s just what I feel.”

Again, for what seemed like the umpteenth time in his adult life, Darren listened to his mother go on and on about marriage and how it was important for him to get married for the sake of passing the family wealth down. Darren listened, as he always did, not saying much back. His mother could use his words as more fuel on the fire. Like always, he promised his mother he would think about it then came up with a flimsy excuse to rush her off the phone. He tossed his phone onto the other end of the couch as he leaned up, shaking his head. A nap was out of the question at this point. His mother, having gotten him worked up by the end of the conversation, ended the call with saying she’d be visiting soon, but wasn’t sure when.

“I’ m so sick of hearing that stuff,” Darren groaned to himself.

As he got up and made his way to the kitchen where he put together a lunch meat sandwich, all the references to him being over thirty and single with no children started creeping back into his mind. Sure, it was something he thought about often; however, the busier he was with everything else, the less of a priority getting married and having children seemed. Still, ,he couldn't ignore what had been happening around him with regards to his friends in Chicago.

Tommy married whats-her-name a couple of years after we graduated. He seems happy. Got a baby. Wife still in-shape. Then there’s Rachel. She’s already been married twice, got those two little kids. Saw her at that gala, married to that dude who works at the bank. Looking a little tired, now.

As Darren ate his sandwich, he thought about all of his peers who’d gone on and gotten married then had children. In some ways he felt left out. Then again, with the kind of life he had going with having to branch off and build his own part of the family business, his success more than made up for what he was missing when it came to getting married and having a family. Still, the idea of marriage scared him. In fact, whenever the last few girlfriends he had brought up the idea, he slowly pulled away as to not get to close to them or lead them on to thinking such a thing was in the cards.

I could lose everything… She could wind up taking the kids because she’s mad. What if she only loves me for the money? I could wind up like what’s-his-name...dude had his entire career ruined by a false accusation because the chick wasn’t happy with something. He was married to her and everything and she still did that. If I marry the wrong woman, she could really ruin my life. He thought about his properties, his business investments, and his other goals he still hadn’t accomplished. So much to lose, so little to gain by getting married.

***

Sherry slammed the glass of ice down under the tap then pushed the lever. She rubbed the sides of her head, wondering why her jaws tingled with that ugly nauseous feeling. For the last couple of days, she’d been waking up not feeling herself. In the beginning, she thought it was a cold or worse, a flu, coming on. She chugged some cold syrup, felt better for a while, then the same queasy feeling would come back. Now, here she was at 11 o’clock on a Thursday night and feeling like she shouldn’t have come to work. She was tired, a bit irritable, and the sick feeling just wouldn’t go away.

“Sherry, you all right?” Carl, the shift manager at The Blue Ivy asked.

“Yeah, I’m alright… Why?” Sherry looking up and across at the pudgy man.

Carl pointed toward the tap, drawing Sherry’s attention to the overflowing beer. Foam ran down the sides of the glass.

“Oh, damn,” Sherry said. She quickly pulled the glass away, wiped the sides, then set it on a tray for the waitress to come and grab. As she moved on to making the next drink, Carl approached her and grabbed her arm gently.

“Sherry, I can tell you’re not feeling well or something,” he said. “Maybe you have a bug or something, but I think you should probably just call it a night and go on home and get some rest. I’ll let you go on and leave now while it’s not snowing.”

At first, Sherry insisted she could stay because she needed the money. However, before she could even get Carl to walk away, the queasiness came on once again. Finally, she agreed to go. Carl allowed her to get a meal to take home then watched from the back window as she walked out into the snow-dusted parking lot and climbed into her Toyota.

Sherry’s ride home felt longer than usual, much like her ride to work. There were a couple of times, especially shortly after crossing the river, she felt like she would have to pull over and throw up. She pushed through and made it home, slamming her apartment door shut and glad that she made it without throwing up. After several minutes of her jaws tingling, the feeling finally subsided. Sherry stood up off of her couch so she could close her blinds. She then called her best friend Chrissy, who had been texting her earlier.

“Hello?” Chrissy answered.

“Hey, Chrissy, it’s me,” Sherry said. “Sorry I didn’t text you back earlier, but I got kinda busy up at the bar.”

“Sherry, you don’t sound real upbeat like usual,” Chrissy pointed out. “I remembered you said you weren’t feeling good in the text earlier, but I don’t know now.”

Sherry went into explaining how this feeling still hadn’t gone away after a few days. This morning, she’d woken up early so she could rush to the bathroom and throw up. She then talked about how it ruined her plans to go to the mall earlier in the day and buy some new clothes to replace those that were starting to get a little too tight. She finished off with saying how she still wanted to hang out with Chrissy and share a bottle of wine like she promised they would sometime this week.

“Sherry, um,” Chrissy started, hesitantly. “I don’t know how to say this, but...”

“But what?” Sherry asked. “What is it you gotta say, Chrissy? You know I hate when you talk like this.”

“Well, um,” Chrissy said then swallowed nervously. “Do you think that maybe you’re...you’re...pregnant?”

“Pregnant?” Sherry asked. The word rolled around in her mind – a word she hadn’t thought about in years since her last boyfriend. “Chrissy, no. Why would you ask something like that?”

Just as Chrissy got a few sentences into explaining, she cut herself off and said, “I’m on the way, Sherry. I’m on the way. I’m going to stop and get a pregnancy test and be on my way.”

“Chrissy, no,” Sherry said. “It’s probably going to start snowing and stuff. And I seriously doubt that I’m pregnant. Look, you know the weather is changing and stuff. I’m probably just getting sick and need to take a couple days’ rest or something.”

Chrissy wasn’t hearing it. After some back and forth, Sherry finally accepted that her friend was on the way with a pregnancy test. She had even started repeating over and over that she wasn’t pregnant and that doing all of this is silly.

While Sherry waited on Chrissy to come knocking at the door, she straightened up around her apartment. A stack of unopened mail had been building on her table, so she shoved it into a Kroger bag and tossed it onto the kitchen table. She made her bed then gathered up some of the piles of clothes. When she’d finally stepped into the bathroom to see what needed to be tidied up in there, she found herself stuck in front of the mirror and fixed on her own reflection. She took note of the her weight gain; the fatigued look in her face. “Pregnant?” She took a deep breath in thought.

Twenty minutes passed until there was a knock at the door. Sherry let Chrissy in, looking down at the Walgreen’s bag in her hand. Her heart thumped; the pregnancy test seemed to be the only thing in the bag. Nervousness overcame her. She sat down on the couch with Chrissy consoling her after they hugged and said their hellos.

“I really don’t think I am, Chrissy,” Sherry insisted. “I mean, I hope I’m not. God, I hope I’m not. I can’t afford a child right now just working at the bar thirty hours, if that, a week. Look at this place. I’m not set up to have a baby.”

Chrissy, who was a bit plump but certainly prettier than the average woman, hugged her friend again. “I’m not saying that I hope you are, Sherry,” she explained, “but before you go chugging down a bunch of medicine, I...I...I think you should really take a test just to be sure. That’s all.”

Sherry looked into Chris's eyes with so much uncertainty. Since that Darren guy from Chicago, she hadn’t even been with another guy. Before that, there were a couple “friends with benefits,” but nothing that was worth mentioning. She didn’t remember exactly when she stopped taking her birth control, but her sex life had slowed down so much it fell to the back of the line in terms of priorities.

“Okay, okay,” Sherry said. “I’ll do it, I’ll do it. Like you said, just so I can know and be relieved that it’s not being pregnant that’s causing me to feel like this.”

Chrissy reminded Sherry that she would always be there for her and that she loved her like a sister. Together, they took the test out of the bag and read over the directions before Sherry somberly headed toward the bathroom. She looked into Chrissy’s eyes one last time as she pushed the door shut, hoping to God and the heavens above that she would walk out of the bathroom with a smile on her face.

The next few minutes were agonizing. A level of suspense Sherry had never felt before in her life nearly caused her hands to tremble. Sure, she had her fun times in life. She was a bit of a party girl when she was younger and wound up dropping out of college, but she managed to support herself and was thinking about her next step in life. Having a baby would totally derail any ambitions. On top of that, she’d have to face her family – conservative people who by in large avoided having children out of wedlock, or having them while working a low-paying job.

Once Sherry realized that enough time had passed, she hesitantly reached over from the toilet, where she’d been sitting, and grabbed the test. Her heart seemed to stop for a second – her stomach sunk. The test result was positive, indicating that she was pregnant.

“Oh my God!” Sherry yelled. “I don’t believe this.”

“Sherry?” Chrissy yelled, getting closer to the door. “Sherry?” She knocked on the door. “You okay, Sherry? You okay? What does it say?”

With her eyes swelling with inevitable tears, she yanked the bathroom door open. She held the test out in front of her, motioning for Chrissy to grab it and have a look herself. She did, and looked at the results. With her mouth hanging open – an expression which only sent Sherry deeper into her confused state – she looked up at her best friend. Chrissy had not the faintest idea of what to say. “Sherry, I...”

Sherry’s blank stare was alarming. The world stopped spinning. Was this a bad dream? Had she gone to sleep when getting in from work and was now dreaming a terrible dream about something that would change her life forever?

Chrissy wrapped her arms around her best friend and hugged her tightly, telling her everything was going to be okay. Before Sherry could pull away from Chrissy’s embrace, her head dropped into her shoulder. She sobbed loudly as Chrissy gently guided her down the hall and back to the couch. There, the two friends sat next to one another while Chrissy tried to lift her spirits with positivity. It took a while for Sherry to stop crying, but once she finally did, she could start to come to grips with things. And Chrissy being there was turning out to probably be better than taking the test and going through all of these emotions alone.

***

It was now nearly 1 o’clock in the morning. This day seemed to be dragging on forever. Sherry said her goodbyes to Chrissy, walked her down to her car, and saw her off. She trudged back into the building, every step feeling heavier than the previous one. By the time she got back up to her apartment, her mind was so consumed with questions she could help but to close the door then lean against it for a moment. Processing the test results while Chrissy was here with her was one thing; however, now that she was alone in her apartment with her own thoughts, the feeling was something else. With a heavy heart, and a confused soul, Sherry headed for her bedroom, dragging her feet. She nearly collapsed into her bed a few moments later. For much of the night, until the sun nearly came up in the morning, Sherry stared into the dark and thought about how her life would change. She rubbed her stomach. Time was already ticking until she would have a little baby running around.

How could this have happened? How did this happen?