Sweet Lantern

Chapter 30

Alice

The waiting room is cold and impersonal. I shiver and feel the goosebumps popping up along my arms and legs. Darry sees me and wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. I can't seem to kick this cold, or stomach bug, or whatever this is, so he forced me to come today, "just to make sure everything is OK", he had told me.

I don't like coming to the doctor. They always give obvious answers and then pump you full of unnecessary medicines. Time and rest are the best healers, in my opinion. But I could see the concern weighing on him, especially this past week. Everything I ate came back up, if not immediately, shortly after. I've lost some weight and I have had no energy at all.

"Mrs. Williams?" the lady at the door, holding the manila folder calls into the waiting room.

We stand up together, Darry's arm still around me and he guides me to the door, like I'm this fragile thing that could break at any moment. When we're in the room, the nurse hands me a cup and asks me to fill it halfway and put it into the little silver window inside the bathroom.

I stand up and ask where the nearest restroom is, happy to have this be the first assignment of the appointment. I have been using the bathroom like crazy lately, and today is no exception.

I half walk, half jog to the bathroom "down the hall to the right, first door" just how the nurse had told me.

Ahhhh! I fill the cup halfway and then have to quickly move it out of the way so I can continue to empty my bladder.

I put the weird little cup with the orange lid into the silver cabinet and wash my hands. I go back to the room to sit and wait with Darry for what feels like an eternity. A different woman comes into the room to take my temperature and blood pressure. The room is not a big room, in fact, it's kind of tiny. There's a cabinet with a sink in it, a single green chair, and this table bed thing that's covered in an annoying white crinkly paper, that we're now both sitting on.

Darry has his back pushed all the way against the wall, my head is on his lap, my knees pulled tightly to my chest. He lays his arm over my body, trying to comfort me.

Just as I'm starting to fall asleep, there's a soft knock, followed by a head poking through the crack of the door. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Williams?" He says, opening the door the rest of the way, stepping into the room. I sit up straight and put my hand under Darry's on top of his leg.

He's an older gray-haired man, dressed in dark gray slacks and a black button up shirt with a white lab coat over it. I see that he's now holding the manila folder that the nurse had been carrying around earlier.

"How are you feeling today? Any nausea? Dizziness?" he asks, pulling the green chair in front of us and taking a seat.

"I'm ok, just very tired. I haven't been sick yet today, though. Then again, I haven't eaten anything either, afraid it would just come back up."

"Well, Mrs. Williams, Mr. Williams, you're pregnant. That's why you've been feeling this way. When was your last period? Do you know?" We talk for a while longer about missed periods and the chaos of the wedding throwing me off my count, we talk symptoms and what to expect now. All the while my head is spinning. I just got married. I'm only 18 years old. I haven't graduated! I can't be pregnant. And nine weeks?! Already? That would mean that I was already pregnant when we got married. That means, oh my gosh... we got pregnant on the roof outside of my bedroom, our first time together, when he first asked me to marry him.

When the doctor leaves the room, I feel Darry's hand on my chin. He gently lifts my face and I turn to look at him. "Babe? Are you OK? Are you the slightest bit happy about this news?"

"I'm not unhappy about it, Darry. I'm just shocked, I guess. Do you realize..." I start to ask but he finishes the thought for me, "That we got pregnant our first time? Yeah, I do." he says, a small grin spreading across his face. "I like to get things right the first time", he says with a cocky grin and I reach up to slap him on the arm.

"Alice, I know this is a surprise. I know all the thoughts racing through your head right now too. How will you finish school? What will everyone think? We're too young. And there's probably a ton more doubts running through that beautiful head of yours, but please listen to me. This is us. That baby in there, that's our love for each other. This was meant to happen, Alley. And the first time, no trying!" he tries to joke again to lift my spirits.

"In all seriousness though, if you're worried about anyone's opinion, they do not have to know when it happened, it's not too far off from our wedding date, no one has to know. It's no one else's business anyway, babe. We knew we were getting married at the time, it's no big deal. I know our moms will help us if we need it and we will figure out graduation and all of that as it comes. Babe? We're having a baby!!" He says, jumping down from the bed-table thingy we've been sitting on. He puts his hands on my knees and leans into to look me in the eyes, "I love you. And I love our kid."

His excitement is contagious and soon I'm smiling and letting the idea of a baby sink in and happiness take over. The whole ride back to our house, we're talking boy or girl, names we like and don't like, wondering how our families will react.

When he pulls down our driveway, I see our moms sitting on the front porch of my parents' house. Darry stops at their house instead of driving around and continuing down the drive to our house.

He puts the car in park and opens his door, barely stepping out of the car, leaned against the driver's door, he looks at the women sitting there and says, "Get everyone together, please, we need a family meeting in five, right here is fine."

He drives around to our house and parks the car, coming around to open my door and help me out. "You ready for this?"

I nod and he takes my hand, leading me down the gravel drive around to the front of my parents' house. When we get to the porch, both of our moms are sitting back down, Robby and Beth and on the porch swing together, their phones in front of them, as usual, and our dads are walking out of the barn, coming toward us.

I sit on the front porch step and my mom reaches down to pat my shoulder, a strange look on her face.

Darry's standing at the bottom of the steps when our dads get to us, he's trying to hide his excitement, I can tell, but he's anxious and can't stop pacing. My dad is wiping his hands with a rag, and Darry's dad is watching Darry pace, a look of amusement in his eyes. "Alright, we're all here, son, what is it?"

Darry can't stand it anymore, he blurts, "We're having a baby!", a huge smile across his face. "She's pregnant, that's why she's been so sick." I can hear the relief and the joy in his voice. He must have been much more worried about me than he had let on.

Our families are on their feet in seconds, surrounding us and hugging our necks. "A baby?!" Darry's mom squeals. I think Beth and Robby even looked up at us for a second or two, but that could've just been my eyes playing tricks on me. My mom leans down, calm and cool and whispers in my ear, "I knew you were. Congratulations, baby girl." She hugs my shoulders and when I look up at her, she winks, sitting back down in the rocking chair behind me.

She knew? Why didn't she say anything?

Our dads are congratulating each other and making Grandpa jokes between the two of them. They both pat Darry on the back and tell him "Congrats, boy. Welcome to the club." Like he's just made some major feat and now he can be part of the men's club or something.

"We have to celebrate!" Mrs. Williams exclaims, clapping her hands. That's where Darry gets his excitability, I think to myself and smile.

"I agree. What do you all say about dinner at the steakhouse, on me?" Mr. Williams asks.

Everyone agrees, happily and we all get up to go get ready.

When we walk through the door, Darry drops down to his knees in front of my belly and places both hands on either side of my hips. He brings his lips to my belly and kisses me. "I don't know if you can hear me in there or not little one, but I'm your daddy and I can't wait to meet you. I promise to be the best daddy there ever was, I won't let you down. I love you already my little peanut", he says and kisses my belly again. The tears are falling from my eyes before he's back on his feet, wiping and kissing them away.