You Stole My Heart

Part 7: One More, For A Friend

January 16, 1973.

Time, 9:11 am in the morning.

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The rain splashed on the roof, it was a gray morning with a cold gust of wind and rain.

I woke up first, stretched and shook Roger up. He groaned into his pillow, said something unintelligible. "Wake up honey, we have to go." I whispered.

Roger turned on his left side and threw the blanket over his head. I sighed and got up first, I let Roger sleep for a while. I brush my teeth in the bathroom. It got a little heavier every day, the pregnancy. I still felt good, but I had a lot of binge eating.

When I finished brushing my teeth I had already dressed and walked to the kitchen for a sandwich with cheese. I made 5 because my stomach kept rumbling.

I looked at the clock. It was already 9:30 in the morning. I walked over to Roger in amazement. I took the blanket off his head and stroked his beautiful golden long hair. "Get out of bed now, hey, today is the big day." I whispered again. Roger opened his eyes and sighed very hard with a loud snore.  "What time is it?" Roger asked in a hoarse morning voice.

I looked at the clock, "9:35 AM, are you coming now?" I asked. Roger rubbed his hair and got out of bed. His hair looked like a wild crow's nest.  I climbed onto the bed and brushed Roger's hair.

Roger spread his arms in the air and stretched, you could hear his bones cracking. He took off his pajama pants and put on his normal clothes.

An hour later it was time to leave, first to the midwife and then to the recording studio. It turned out to be a long day..

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We had arrived at the midwife. "Please come in, Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Taylor."  An elderly lady was at the door, she wanted to show us what our miracle looks like.

I was lying on the couch with the sweater up, Roger was sitting next to me holding my hand tight.

"I can already see the head!" The midwife said, pointing her finger at the screen. Roger smiled and rubbed my hand. "Ahhh" I sighed. "Hello little luck!" I whispered.

The midwife went over my stomach with a device. "Shall we try to hear the heart?" She asked. Roger and I looked at each other. "Very gladly!" I said. The midwife picked up another device.  "Now we are going to pay close attention.." She said, looking very close to the screen to see or hear the heart beat.

At first we heard my heartbeat beating very hard, but when the midwife placed the device under my stomach, we heard a very small heart beat. "Did you hear that Roger?" I said as tears sprang up. Roger stroked my hair, "It's still alive, how wonderful!" Roger said happily.

"I'm now going to take an ultrasound image of the inside of your uterus." The midwife told. She pressed a button, we first heard a loud beep. She got up from her chair and went to the printer.  Roger squeezed my hand. "How happy I am, An!" Roger said. I wiped away another tear.  "Me too, sweetie, me too!"

The midwife returned with 5 photos in her hands. "Look, these are for you. If you keep them with you every week, we can see how fast the baby is growing every week." She told. I took the pictures, took my sweater down and looked at it.

I thanked the midwife, we shook her hand and left the building. On the way to the recording studio. "Look how small!" I said when I was at the front door. Roger looked at the picture.  "Very small, it is so cute!"

We were in the car. Roger yawned and started the engine, turning on the radio carefully, well, carefully, suddenly loud music came on. We were both shocked.  "Ah!" I screamed. Roger looked scared, "Sorry Antonia, I'm sorry I didn't mean to!"  Roger whined. - "Honey, it doesn't matter it can happen!" I laughed so hard.