Josie's Chronicle

Chapter One: Murphy's Law

Josie saw the folder on her desk long before she got to it. She shook her head, that fuckin' Danny man! I wanna punch him in his head! The thought caused her to chuckle to herself, she'd always said that he didn't have any balls, so kicking him in the place they should have been was useless.
   She took a deep breath and walked closer to her desk, That bitch! She thought to herself, he'd had the nerve to put a smiley face on it!
She'd never felt this much dislike for anyone in her adult life. It went against her Christian principles. To this thought, she laughed out loud.
   "Girl, that baby's got you all loopy! When is he supposed to be here anyway? It's like you been pregnant forever!" Alexis said from behind her. They were work buddies, meaning they rarely, if ever, saw or talked to each other outside of work.
   Josie didn't respond because now she was opening the folder. It was an interview with a woman who believed she was a  descendant of slaves. "Ain't we all?" She said out loud. "Ain't we all what? Alexis said now standing closer than Josie wanted her to.
"Descendants of slaves," she said, looking Alexis square in the face. Alexis didn't respond, Josie frowned, she wanted, no needed an argument.
   "Can I touch your belly? Is he moving around in there?" Alexis asked almost in a whisper. Josie moved closer and took the woman's hand placing it on her belly. Oddly, he responded by doing some kind of flip and kicking beneath their hands. Alexis giggled. "I'm going to miss the little guy." She said sadly.
  "Are you certain you want to give him up?"
Josie sat down, "I'm certain. It's the very nature of surrogacy. You carry it, birth it, and give it to its mother. Which is why we truly don't know the sex, so we should just use a gender neutral nickname when referring to my belly-boarder." Both women laughed.
   "What do the parents call him/her/it?" Alexis had now perched herself on the edge of Josie's desk.
  " They just say things like sweet baby, little one, etc. They want to see its eyes and well, you know."
Alexis shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
 
Josie put the folder in her desk drawer. She knew that the assignment had been given to Danny, er, Mr. Seawell, and he'd chosen to palm it off on her. It was as he'd said many times, shit rolls down hill. It was her intention to show him that it can also go uphill if it's thrown hard enough.

Josie put in for her maternity leave to begin two weeks before the interview had been scheduled. She decided not to even do the leg work required before any interview or story, "leg work" the phrase made her legs hurt even more than they truly did. This seemed to be happening much sooner than she'd imagined. She still had six weeks until the due date.
  Pressing send on the computer caused little Charlie, her pet name for the baby, to give her a kick of agreement.

She knew Charlie didn't care for Danny either. Opening the drawer, Josie picked up the baby rattle she'd picked out at the 20 and below shop near her home. It would be her only gift to Charlie, as per the agreement. A familiar twinge told her she needed to go to the bathroom. She dropped the rattle into her bag and pushed away from her desk. The pain in her right hip told her she'd stood up too quickly. The liquid running down her thighs told her she'd waited too long to go to the bathroom. She took a step back and reached for the phone, knowing Alexis would help her to the bathroom. The last thing  Josie remembered hearing was Alexis screaming and a searing pain in her side.