Pregnant Without a Cause

Chapter Ten, Episode 32

David knew vague outlines of the rumors about the baby's father. The Zam rumor was rather old. David had heard yesterday that the father was a well-known basketball player from another school. He felt a nudge in his ribs.

Fiona looked up at him from her chair. "Well?" 

"Well what?"

"Don't you have anything to say?" she whined impatiently. "Sure." David, baffled, gave it a stab. "Congratulations."

Fiona held her hands up as if balancing pies. "Congrats! To who?"

David still wondered what she was getting at. "To whoever needs it! Congratulations, Callie, on the baby. Congratulations, Zamaria, on the—the non-fatherhood, I guess."

Zam looked stiff and offended. "For the record, I never made a claim. That was a rumor started somewhere."

Fiona leaned toward Zam. "Yeah. On a blog post. Oh, that's right! Your blog post!" 

Zam shook his head. "That was never on there."

Fiona raised her voice to command attention, as if everyone wasn't already watching her. "The real father remains unknown to most of us." She gave David a meaningful look.

Callie raised a finger, ready to say something.

"What!" It hit David suddenly, like a left hook from nowhere. An uncontrolled laugh burst out of him. "Me? You're joking! Holy... That's unbelievable. Who ever said?"

The cameras had swung onto David now, and everyone stared at him, but nobody answered his desperate question.

"Callie!" David laughed at the absurdity of it. "You can tell them."

Callie stood up and faced the camera to David's left. Uncertain, the other girls all stood, and faced the camera.

"No, no!" Callie motioned them back into their seats. "No, David is not the father. I have said all I am going to say about that." Then she locked eyes on the very tan TV guy standing behind the one cameraman. "Am I on this show? Am I paid to be on this show?"

The tan guy shook his head. 

"Then stop. All of this."

The tan guy stared up at the corner of the ceiling, as if his response were written up there. Before he could speak, from somewhere back in the house came a heavy, animal growl, and a large man with a shaved head pushed his way out of the hall, past Jock and into the room.

"Jayziz Chroist! What is all this?" The large man wore wrinkled bermudas, a sagging white tee shirt, and a baffledexpression.

Callie said, "You must be Chaz."

"Chase, sweetheart. Did I wake up in the wrong house?"

The cameras were still going, but now they'd swung off David to greet the new player.

"You filming in here? Not a porno, is it?"

David didn't know who this guy was, only that his dazed coolness and strange accent got the cameras and eyes off him.

Callie laughed. "Sorry we woke you."

Pretty much everyone in the room had their jaws down and their eyebrows up. David had not really thought about whose house it was. He had assumed it was Callie's, though looking around now, the Family Guy poster above the couch, and the mixture of Chinese and Mexican style lamps and wall hangings had the tossed together look of his brother's apartment.

The tan TV guy smiled at the strange man. "So, Chase, how long have you known, uh, Callie?"

"Who's Callie? And who might you be, standing in my sal-on, asking me questions?"

"They're just leaving," said Callie.

"Hold on. Not on my account. I mean, after all, I'm up now, so, carry on. Sorry about the attire. I'll just grab something from the fridge... ." He eased his way through the people and balloons with aplomb, as if all this was just another day at the house. He disappeared for a minute, and everyone in the living room muttered something to his orher neighbor.

David leaned over to Fiona. He had to know. "Why did you say I was the father?"

 "You're not? Are you sure?"

"Positive!" He hissed at her.

Chase appeared again, holding a plastic cup. "Oh, say, is that juice? Mind if I just..." He poured a healthy dollop into the cup.

"So Chase," said Jock. "Where're you from?" "Brisbun."

"And how did you get to Phoenix?"

"Royal Australian Nyvy, Commodore." He gave a salute that seemed casual, but had a certain snap of authenticity. Casting a longing glance to the cake, he returned to the kitchen, leaving David amazed. To say the navy brought him to Phoenix was to say nothing at all. Because, hello, Phoenix is pretty far from an ocean. But no one else seemed to notice or care.

The party had broken down, with people milling around. All of Callie's friends were now edging toward the cameras, swishing their hair in little tosses, and pinching their jeans and tops unconsciously, pulling the up down and the tight loose. As soon as Chase reappeared, one of the cameras trained on him, and he broke into a grin.

Callie led David to a corner by the front door. "Why?" she jabbed a finger at him..

She was asking the wrong person, and Fiona had disappeared. "I had nothing to do..."

"How did you get a hold of Jock?"

He blinked back his surprise. "Get a hold of what?"

"The TV show." She pointed at the cameraman who was shooting into the kitchen, where some raucous laughter bubbled up.

"Why would I contact the TV show? Not to mention, how?" 

She looked at him intently for a moment. "You're right."

David could see Callie's mother through the glass door out on the patio, talking to the gray-haired man. She did not look pleased. The Australian could be heard in the kitchen, going on with sparkling astonishment about the cake shaped like a diapered bottom.

Callie was also gazing at the scene. "Then why are you here?"

He looked around for Fiona but didn't see her. "Fiona invited me. Does she really think that I... it's just too weird. You and I hardly know each other." He bowed. "David Ross."

She smiled. Reluctantly, but she smiled. "I know why she invited you. She thinks I have or had a crush on you. But that doesn't explain why you came."

David felt warm. "I came because I was invited. I feel like I know you, even though we've hardly ever talked or anything. I think about you. I like your smile. When I get to see your smile, which isn't much."

"My smile's not much?" 

"Often! I don't see it often."

"And when you say you think about me, you mean you wonder why she had a baby, who's the father, how's she ever going to have a life with someone else after that."

David stepped in closer, forcing her to look up at him. "No. Not that. What I wonder is, who's Callie Scharf? In and of herself. That's all. It's plenty to keep me occupied."