Mr. Tan

Chapter 41: The Grey Area

It was now February and close to Valentine's Day, Earl's birthday and he would be turning 42. I was a bit worried cause I've missed my period for two months and there are some mornings where I feel nauseated. It was Monday and I drove to an Addison's Drug Store after school to buy an at home pregnancy test and a few other things. While at Addison's I bought some dog treats for Duke, my home pregnancy test of course, a teen magazine and a pack of watermelon bubblegum. Addison's was a 15 minute drive away from Sunnydale Mobile Home Estate, so I pulled up in front of our trailer. I didn't see Earl's car parked on the gravel driveway, good he's not home yet. I grabbed my orange plastic bag and the rest of my belongings from the passenger's seat and went inside. Duke happily greeted me with a wagging tail as soon as I walked inside. After I gave him a beef flavored treat and walked to the bathroom, taking my "Baby Boomer" pregnancy test with me. I pulled down my solid black leggings, lifted up my baggy dark red sweat shirt and sat down on the toilet. After I carefully read the instructions, I peed on the little stick after pressing down on the little blue activate button. The instructions said that the results will show within 30 minutes, blue dot means "negative" while a red dot means "positive". I had a rough draft for a story thesis I had to write for Creative Writing, that would take more than 30 minutes. I'll get started on that while waiting for my pregnancy test results. I kept the little stick wrapped up in clear plastic wrap on the night stand in my room. I also made sure to throw away the box it came in into the waste basket in my room, so Earl wouldn't find it. Earl has been in nothing but a wonderful mood since he found out that he will be united with his estranged daughter. If I was pregnant, I don't know how he'd feel about it and I didn't want to fuck up his good mood. Around 6:00 in the evening, Earl came into the front door carrying a grease stained brown paper bag. I was sitting on the couch with Duke curled up on the floor by my feet. I was flipping through channels with the remote control.

"Hey, babe", he greeted as he walked passed me towards the kitchen.

"How was work?", I asked.

"You know, same ol' , same ol", he said, placing the brown paper bag on the kitchen table.

He came into the living room and sat on the couch next to me. He bent down and gave Duke a friendly rub on his head, as Duke barked excitedly.

"What's in the bag?", I asked.

"Dinner", Earl replied, tamales and sweet n' spicy beef chili from a lil' place near Rhett's Auto Body Shop called "Big Mamma's Tamales N' More". I figured I'd give the place a try.

"That sounds good", I replied, obviously sounding distracted.

"Baby, you okay?", asked Earl, putting his arm around my shoulder.

"I got something to tell you", I said, looking him straight in the eyes.