Melyssa Grant, Lyssa to her friends, pushed her cart through the produce section of her grocery store, wondering why she hadn't eaten before coming in to get groceries, since everything looked really good, and she was probably going to blow her budget. "It should be illegal for pregnant women to shop for groceries when they're hungry," she muttered under her breath. She pulled a couple of the clear plastic bags for produce and after filling them with various vegetables, dropped them into her cart.
She turned, her mind somewhere else, and was pulled to a sudden stop when her cart bumped into another. Her eyes flashed up, and the apology died on her tongue when she recognized the man pushing the other cart. Her hand flew to her obviously protruding belly, covered by a fuzzy, emerald green sweater. His eyes followed the path of her hand, then widened in shock when he saw the gravid belly.
"You're pregnant?! How?"
Lyssa gulped and said, "The normal way." She paused, thought quickly, and blurted, "You should know, anyway. You were there!"
"I. . . I. . . It's mine?" His handsome face darkened. "Are you sure?"
Lyssa's brown eyes narrowed and she snapped, "Yes, and you blasted well know it, Kenneth." She pulled her cart backward a step and maneuvered around a stand of potatoes, stalking away from the until now absent father of her unborn child. She made a quick trip down the cereal isle, hastily grabbing two boxes of her currently favorite cereal, then catching a glimpse of Kenneth following her, ducked down the next isle. Kenneth followed her again, and she simply abandoned her cart, making for the door, moving as quickly as she could, her hands protectively over her belly.
Outside, the snow was falling thickly from the New Mexico sky, hitting the existing ice on the asphalt of the parking lot, adding a new sheen of ice. Lyssa was once again glad she'd bought the thickly treaded hiking boots, and picked her way carefully down the row of parked vehicles to her own truck, parked at the end of the row.
"Lyssa! Lyssa, please wait for me. We need to talk about this! This is a fairly life changing deal we've got going on here!" Kenneth called out, coming out behind her.
Lyssa sighed and doggedly kept going, watching her steps as carefully as she could under her growing child. She ignored the sound of Kenneth's own boots hitting the ice, then shrieked when a hand closed over her arm, and felt her boots slide out from under her on an unexpected sheet of smooth ice. One foot caught Kenneth's booted feet, sweeping them out from under him, causing him to fall toward her. Lyssa landed hard on her behind, her hands wrapped tightly around her belly in an attempt to protect the baby, then tipped backward when Kenneth's head connected solidly with hers. The back of her head bounced sickeningly off the trailer hitch of the truck behind her. Her moan of pain as she slumped limply to the ground ripped at Kenneth's guts. He braced himself above her, careful not to let his weight touch the baby, his baby, growing inside her.
"Shit! Shit!" He quickly shifted so he was sitting next to Lyssa, and fumbled the high neck of her sweater down so he could check her pulse. He was relieved to feel it beating strongly against his fingers. He looked closely at the mound of baby under the green sweater, and felt a chill roll through him that had nothing to do with the nearly freezing temperatures. "I hope it's okay. I don't know how to check for that," he thought. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed 9-1-1, and quickly relayed where they were, and what had happened.
"Is she okay?" A voice asked from behind him, causing him to whirl around.
"No. She slipped on the ice, and I'm afraid our heads connected solidly enough to make her hit her head on that hitch, there. Do you have a blanket or something I can cover her up with? I don't know where her jacket is," Kenneth said with a frown.
"I've got just the thing in the Jeep. Try not to move her. She may have hurt her neck. Have you called the ambulance yet?" The older woman's voice was level, but tight with worry, her eyes on the Lyssa's belly.
"Yeah. They're on their way. It shouldn't take long." Kenneth said, adding to himself, "They'd better not take too long."
The woman nodded and walked off quickly, pulling keys from her purse, and Kenneth vaguely wondered why she looked so familiar, but refocused on Lyssa, when she moaned and lifted her hand to her head. "Don't move, Lyssa. You hit your head, and were out for a bit. I've called an ambulance. You landed pretty hard, and probably want to make sure the baby is okay."
Lyssa hummed her agreement, then winced when she started shivering. "I'm cold."
"I bet. You're laying on a sheet of pure ice, in the middle of a snow storm, with no jacket. Where is your jacket?"
"In my truck. It wasn't snowing when I went inside, and it's so bulky, I don't like to wear it unless I have to. I had to buy it three sizes too big to make sure it would fit all winter," Lyssa replied weakly.
"Which truck is yours?"
"Same one I was driving before you left. It's in the last spot in this row. My keys are in my purse. Will you go get it for me?"
Kenneth shook his head. "I don't want to leave you alone."
"You didn't have any trouble with that six months ago," Lyssa said, letting the bitterness leach into her voice.
"I didn't know about this, six months ago. Why didn't you call me?" Kenneth asked, gesturing at Lyssa's belly.
"With what phone number? It's not like we were really great friends. What we had was stress relief and a bit too much alcohol. I had no clue how to get a hold of you. The few people I asked, informed me that if you'd wanted me to have your number, you would have given it to me, and they wouldn't give it to me unless you said it was okay," Lyssa replied.
"Oh."
"Oh? That's all you have to say?"
"Well, I've always been pretty anal about protecting my privacy, and my friends know it. They probably figured I'd be pretty pissed if they just handed out my phone number to someone they knew wasn't in my inner circle. I wish they had, though." Kenneth said, frustration heating his tone of voice. "I wouldn't have left you. Or at least not until we'd talked and figured out what was best for all of us."
"Well, you're back now, and once we get checked out and I get something to at least dull this headache I've got brewing, we'll make plans to sit down and talk," Lyssa said, starting to shiver harder. "Why are you back anyway? Didn't you have a good job lined up for you in Colorado?"
"Yeah. It was only supposed to last until my folks needed me to come back and run the B and B for them. Dad had a heart attack a few weeks back, and they decided it was time to retire, so they've packed up and are moving to Florida. Dad says he's tired of the mountains, and Mom says she's tired of being cold, but I know it's just because they miss Florida. They both grew up there, and I was raised there for quite a while, too, until the B and B they ran there was destroyed by a hurricane. They decided it was too much to try to rebuild there and risk getting trashed again, so they moved it up here." Kenneth inwardly shook his head and was wondering why he was talking so much to her, then decided it must just be to keep her awake, in case she had a concussion.
The older woman came back with a down-filled sleeping bag, that they carefully wrapped around Lyssa, trying to tuck it in around her without moving her too much. Kenneth kept talking to her, telling her about growing up in a B and B, some of the strange guests that came in that were particularly memorable, until the ambulance showed up.
They quickly got a neck brace on her, then strapped to a back board, before loading her onto the gurney and into the back of the ambulance, where Kenneth followed. He half expected to get kicked out, but discovered one of the EMT's was a good friend, and after a couple of significant glances between Lyssa and Kenneth, was allowed to stay.
The trip to the hospital was quick, despite the icy roads and thickening snow. Lyssa was taken back immediately, while Kenneth was told to wait for a bit. He paced the hallways for just over three hours before he was called back by a nurse. Lyssa was settled comfortably in a bed, covered with several blankets, the cords of several different monitors linking her to machines at her side. A quiet beeping filled the air, following the numbers flashing on a small screen.
"How are you? Is the baby okay?" Kenneth asked, quietly.
"I've got a headache, but other than that, I'm fine. As for the baby, you can see it's okay," Lyssa replied, gesturing at the complicated seeming machinery.
"How can you tell?" Kenneth asked, looking it over, trying to decipher the various screens and readouts.
"This first one is the baby's heart rate, and according to the nurses, it's exactly where it's supposed to be, and I can feel it moving like mad, which is always a good sign. They want to monitor me for another hour or so, then I can go home," Lyssa replied, gesturing at the correct numbers. "The paper that's feeding out is to see if I'm having any contractions. If I don't have any contractions, I can go. If I start having contractions then they'll move me over to the maternity wing, and keep me until I stop or until I have the baby."
"How long until it's really safe for you to have it?" Kenneth asked.
Lyssa gave him a scathing look. "We both know exactly when I conceived, and it takes nine months to bake a baby, so another twelve weeks or so, and the bun will be done. Worst case scenario, the baby could possibly survive if I have it tonight. The longer it's in here, the better, of course, but babies born this early have been saved with very few developmental delays or disabilities."
"You seem to know a lot about this," Kenneth said.
"Well, since I am the one carrying the kiddo, it sort of makes sense for me to study up on what's going on, and to have contingency plans in place. I've got a couple of good books you can borrow if you want to read up on it a bit, too." Lyssa offered, shifting in the bed, reaching for a large plastic mug of water sitting on the table next to her. She took several long swallows from the straw and sighed.
"Should you be drinking anything?" Kenneth asked.
"Yeah. I need to drink as much water as possible, because dehydration can cause contractions. The only problem with that, is the more water I drink, the more I have to hit the bathroom, of course. It's been a long time since I've been able to sleep through the night," Lyssa said ruefully, rubbing her belly. Kenneth grinned.
"Are you going to be able to just go home, or do you have to have someone stay with you?"
"I've got a roommate. I'll call him to come get me. He can take me to get my truck tomorrow," Lyssa said, ignoring the frown Kenneth cast her way.
"You have a guy roommate?"
"Yeah. I put the ad in the paper about a month after I found out I was pregnant, so I could start saving money. He's the only one that answered that was fine with my decision to have the baby at home, with a midwife. The women I interviewed were either freaked out about it, or grossed out, and didn't want to have anything like that happening in their house. John was the only one that seemed okay with it, probably because he's just a few weeks away from graduating with his medical degree." Lyssa said, taking another drink of water.
"John McMasters?" Kenneth asked, a strange tone tinting his voice.
"Yes, why?"
"Your full name is Melyssa?"
"Melyssa Grant, yeah. Why?" Lyssa asked, wary.
~Debra~
Yes, why? You are not going to leave us hanging are you?lol
Seriously! Leaving us hanging...good strategy! I am definitely intrigued and want to read more. My only cc at the moment is point of view. You switch the point of view from Lyssa to Kenneth after she slips and it's kind of confusing. As the reader, I want the story to continue in her point of view at least for the moment...but of course that's just my two cents =) I hope you'll share more!
Thanks
Rambling thoughts
- debra_benge
on Oct. 27, 2009 at 10:33 AM