On the Altar

Chapter 8

POV-Mystique, age 20

Christy and I eat whatever lasagna we can stomach and leave for the hospital at one in the afternoon. Our flight to California is not till 6:30, and our bags are packed, so we can go to the hospital, confirm whether we are right or wrong, and then go to California. 

"Why did you feel like you had to hide this from me?" I ask Christy the question I'd been dying to ask her as we sat in the surprisingly bright-colored waiting room of the L&D department of the hospital, after Nurse Matilda had drawn her blood.

Somehow, Jen had been notified that Christy and I were here, probably by someone who met us at her wedding, two years ago. People here have a sharp memory. She joined us and we filled her in.

"Yeah, that and what the f**k, Crystal!" she exclaimed loudly and a very pregnant woman near us put her hands on both sides of her bump, as if covering the child's ears. She looked at us disapprovingly.

"Well, Misty, to answer your question, I don't know." Christy looks at me and I see the sadness and guilt in her eyes. "I couldn't handle you being disappointed in me twice in a span of less than over a year. I've hurt you a lot already."

"Oh, Christy" Jen and I say simultaneously. "No matter what you do, you never have to hide it from us, understand? We will always have your back." I say and Jen continues, "And, sorry for my reaction, kid. My hormones are raging just like yours might be." 

Christy and I do a dramatic head turn to look at Jen, horrified, and she says, "Yeah, I'm pregnant. Nearly two months. With two babies."

"What the f**k, Jennifer?" says Christy, vocalizing my thoughts with the same amount of shock while I say, "When did you find out?" 

"Christy, the f**k is that I did that with Marty and I'mma be a momma!" Jen says excitedly. "And I found out just yesterday. I hadn't even noticed I'd missed my period, but Dr. Green noticed I wasn't eating fish sticks, the only decent thing in the cafeteria, and went for the veggie burger instead, which tastes like cardboard, by the way, and we got to talking." 

She put one hand in her pocket and removed a piece of paper. She pointed as she said, "That balloon is my womb. Oh, that sounds weird. My uterus, and those two dots, there are my babies." "Were you carrying that around with you all day?" Christy asks snidely.

Is that what the picture would have been like if....

The both of them look at me worriedly and Jen says, "M, if it makes you uncomfortable, I won't talk about it." Christy looks at me, ready to console.

She is the only one who knows about....Little Bean.. other than Christy and Dr.Green.

Bean was gone before anyone else could find out.

"Don't spout nonsense, Jenny! I'm happy for you." I give her a nearly genuine smile, trying to mask my sadness, "I would be happier, if say, you were pregnant with my godchildren." I laugh to end my amazing joke.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I get to appoint the godmother as Marty will choose the godfather. I'd choose you and Christy, but she's a minor herself, so it has to be just you. But I'm nearly a hundred percent sure that Marty will make HIM the godfather. He doesn't have any cousins he's close to, and he's an only child." Jen ends with an uncertain tone.

"Your husband doesn't have any good taste in friends. My irresponsible brother can't handle kids." Christy says vehemently, but then looks at me and says, "Well, he'd learn if they were his own.."

I get a sense of déjà vu.

I have had this same conversation with these two knuckleheads a year ago, when they visited me for Christmas break. The same feelings of simultaneous euphoria and depression flood me once again.

Jen looks at her watch so suddenly I'm surprised her neck didn't snap. "Oh, damn. Lunchbreak is over, gotta go. Love ya!" she says joyously and hears an echo of "love ya" from Christy and I.

I feel like I'm the pregnant one and those two are walking on eggshells around me, just like a year ago.

As if I'm the one with unstable hormones.

After waiting for nearly an hour, Christy got hungry, so we went into the cafeteria to get fish sticks, for me. The smell of fish made Christy nauseated, apparently. She got fries, because of Jen's comments regarding the burger, and a Shirley Temple, because they were oily, and she needed something to forget that, she says.

We went around New York sightseeing once again, seeing all the things we'd already seen since we were kids. We were at Times Square at four, when I realized it was time to leave, because it would take an hour to get to the hospital, with traffic in mind.

We reach at the hospital at five twenty pm. 

Dr. Green, the OB/GYN who taught me yesterday, and is Jen's doctor, apparently, calls us into her cabin, saying she got Christy's report.

Now is the moment of truth.