A Bump in the Road -- Watty Awards 2011 --

Chapter 8: Family Planning ( & please VOTE VOTE VOTE!)

Hooowaaaaahh, heeeeeeeee, heeeeeeeeeeeeee was the sound joseph opened the apartment door to that evening. He could not, however find the source of the noise until he walked over to the living room area and looked down.

The noise was coming from the pregnant woman on the floor attempting the lotus pose, legs crossed, one arm around her stomach and the other stretched above her head.

Rolling onto her side like the doctor suggested to help the vertigo, she flashed him a naughty smile as she arched her back to seductively reveal the tattoo on the small of her lower back.

 Getting up from the floor on her hands and knees, Nicole grabbed for the edge of the glass coffee table like she did after every yoga-kegelic session. But in the time that had passed since she’d last done the exercises, she’d grown larger and was no longer able to bend over without having her belly hit her legs. 

It’s only been 3 weeks since the ultrasound, surely she cannot have grown so fast Nicole said huffing and puffing in her efforts to rise and finally accepting joseph’s proffered hand. 

Lightheaded from the exertion and from the proximity to her lover, Nicole pressed herself into joseph’s arms.

Suddenly her stomach growled, she looked up a little guiltily and joseph laughed and hugged her tighter: “Tu est faim encore? C’est toujours comme ca maintenant, n’est ce pas? I guess it’s time to feed mama. Nicole opened her mouth to say something but her stomach growled even more loudly ansering for her. What does the baby think of pasta? 

A little while later, laid out on the couch with an empty plate beside her Nicole rubbed her belly contentedly: “I love you Joseph Redford, I want to do some very dirty things to you, you beautiful Italian boy who remembers his nonas cooking.

She had the most beautiful rosary, Joseph reminisced. She wore it every day as long as she lived after my grandfather gave it to her on her wedding day. Is that the one I saw her wearing the photos? Nicole asked as she remembered the huge leather volume they had flipped through during one of their evenings spent together in front of the fireplace before she knew she was pregnant.

 Yes, he said, his eyes focused on her but his mind was 30 years back in the past when he had sat on his grandmothers lap, licking cannoli cream off a wooden spoon while she had gone through the rosary. It was a fine, delicate rose gold chain with carved ivory icons and in the middle of the golden crucifix was a 2 carat yellowy pink diamond.

 Joseph was seated at one end of the couch with one leg crossed easily over the other and Nicole on the other side had  her legs sprawled out across the length of the couch that she once had taken up less rom of. She used to have been the gung-ho leader of her small group of friends from college and had never turned down the opportunity to head out to the clubs in a pair of glittery heels with her girlfriends.

But now she had decided that just sitting curled in josephs arms in the glow of the fire was the perfect way to spend her evenings. Drowsy from the meal and the warmth of the fire Nicole was completely content and at peace where she lay. I’m feeling her move so much more now Joe, she murmured running her hands over her midsection and scratching absentmindedly. But damn they do not tell you how freakin’ itchy it is when your skin stretches like this.

Joseph laughed at her feisty orneriness and resumed massaging her feet from the other end of the couch where they lay in his lap. It’s like a weird alien is inside...oh!- the both of them gasped at the same time.

Nicole had rolled up her top to expose her belly so she could scratch better and what they both saw was a tiny rippling nudge of movement across the soft white expanse of her growing abdomen.