Temporary Secretary

Part 66

4 October 1981

7:00pm Sunday

-----

It was an evening like any other. The night had wound down, and you were laid in bed.

As it was Sunday, you had Paul to yourself. You had a nice day together, even though you couldn't push so much anymore.

You'd walked through Hyde park, with it being so close. Though it was October now, it was a sunny day, and didn't need to wear your overcoat. Frankly, you were sure it would not button up, and you were afraid to try.

You also went to the market, picking up some things.

You didn't have an LP player in the bedroom, though Paul held a handheld radio on his lap.

He was rested beside you, seemingly spacing out, just as you were.

You shut your eyes. You were laid on your side, facing him.

It was still early. You tended to fall asleep early nowadays. It wasn't uncommon to get 12 hours a night. If you drifted off now, you'd likely be able to kiss him goodbye when he left for work.

You did tend to be extra tired if you were out too long during the day. It was silly to be tired from what you'd been out doing. Though, you knew it was good for you to be active.

It was both easier and harder to fall asleep. You were just as easily exhausted and prone to dozing off as you were that spring, though now you had a creature inside you, very apparent, also trying to get comfortable. It pushed at your bladder, twisted, nudging and shoving you from the inside. It'd push on your organs, shove your ribs when you were trying to drift off.

Resting your eyes, you were a touch wary of properly falling under.

For one thing, you were having some odd dreams. Nearly every night, some strange scenario. Vivid ones, that felt like they were really happening.

A good example... that one you'd had a month back, which was unsettling in it's own right. That one seemed to take real life months and months.

Since then they'd become more commonplace. You'd used to have dreams here and there, but only remembered them once in a blue moon. Nowadays it seemed like a nightly affair, a different horror in store for you every night.

A commonplace scenario was giving birth to the strangest things.

On Wednesday, it'd been a horrid creature.

It was a delivery room, complete with medical equipment and a hospital bed, yet somehow outside in a sunny field.

The devices kept sinking into the grass, and the nurses were having trouble, needing to pull them out, run to the next piece of equipment and back.

Bees and butterflies kept buzzing around your head whilst you were trying to give birth, a terrible annoyance in addition to the terrible pain. You were trying to concentrate, and this wasn't making it better.

It stopped being butterflies, or ladybirds, the only kind of bug you liked. It was now flies, mosquitos, and winged beetles. There was nothing you detested more than bugs, you absolutely despised them when they flew toward you, or crept along the wall.

You kept attempting to brush them off, getting neurotic with it. You kept twitching and shaking them off your arms, coming off like a lunatic, surely.

You couldn't focus on pushing, getting those things off. You hated bugs and were beginning to get very uneasy, restless.

Paul had also been there, in hospital scrubs holding a balloon. You couldn't remember the color, nor were the details concrete, but the text upon it read "It's a ?"