Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Twelve

"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." ~Carl Jung

With one arm around Zarah's back, Harvey held her and helped her as they walked back to the Corvette. Once he got her tucked safely inside, they sat quietly and motionless for a while in the parking lot of the Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center ER. Zarah had gotten seven stitches in her foot to close the wound from her injury, and the doctor said it would be fine in a day or two, as long as she stayed off of it as much as possible.

When Harvey told the doctor she'd been nauseous and had thrown up earlier, the physician insisted on doing a pregnancy test. That's how they found out she wasn't pregnant. God hadn't intervened to change their family planning schedule, and any secret hopes they might have had for an unexpected miracle had now been crushed.

Watching Harvey staring into darkness through the windshield, Zarah broke through the silence. "It's not the right time anyway," she said.

"No, you're right. It's not. I'm getting ready to go to Europe for nearly a month."

"And I have those interviews. In Pennsylvania."

"So it's not the right time. But still."

Looking at him, she placed her hand on his. "It would have been a nice surprise. But this way, we get to do it like we planned. I want the nasty hormones out of my system so we can conceive our baby in ..."

"An all-natural environment." He looked at her, then turned away before looking at her again. He smiled, then gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Yeah," he said. "But. It would have been a nice surprise."

When tears started stinging at her eyes, she blinked them back. "Okay. You win." She wiped away a lone tear. "I was planning to wait until you got back from Europe to tell you, but I'm telling you now. We'll do it. This year. It'll be my wedding gift. To you, and to us." She gave him her broadest, happiest, most heartfelt smile.

"What?"

"It was the look on your face. When the doctor told us? It convinced me—without a doubt. I don't have to wait until I get my doctorate. We can go ahead and get pregnant. I'll go off the pill when you leave for France. And when you get back? We'll start trying."

"Are you sure?" He seemed happy but concerned. "Because it could happen right away. Even before the wedding."

"I know. But it's okay. I'll deal with Mama if it happens. It'll be okay. After all, we are getting married."

He pulled her to him and hugged her tight. "Let's do it now," he said. Legally. Tonight or tomorrow morning. Let's just go get married. We could drive up to Tishomingo County. Why not just go on and do it? Now."

She laughed and pulled loose from their embrace. "Harvey. We are not eloping to Iuka, Mississippi." She felt sure he was kidding and serious at the same time. They were both journalists and Mississippi history buffs, so they both knew that before blood tests became a mandate in Tishomingo County in 1958, Iuka was the town known as the "in" place for eloping couples and others that didn't want to wait to get married.

"Why not? We could just go and do it. Somewhere unexpected and off the radar for us, before I leave for Europe and before you leave for Pennsylvania. We don't have to wait. We could drive up there, get married, and still have the wedding in November for our families."

When it hit her he was more serious than kidding, she knew she had to put an end to his idea. "No. We're not doing that. It's 2010, we have plenty of time to get our blood tests, and I'm not pregnant. I've dreamed about my wedding day all my life, and I want it to be special. I want it to give me butterflies. I want to get dressed up while feeling all nervous and jittery and scared. I want goosebumps on my arms when I meet you at the altar, and I want only one magical day to remember. One magical day when I married the man I will always love."