Prego-a-Go-Go
(Book 2 Toni Brown)
M.E. Purfield
Published by Trash Books at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 M.E. Purfield
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Also by M.E. Purfield
jesus freakz + buddha punx
Breaking Felini
Party Girl Crashes the Rapture
The Toni Brown Novellas:
Munki Moo Moo
Prego-A-Go-Go
Collections:
In Heaven/Let Down
Radical Adults Lick Goodhead Style & Others
EPISODE 1
When I sat up in bed, my mind spun and nausea filled my stomach. I went to the bathroom to wash my face, to wake myself up, but the puke came out instead. As I sat on the floor with that horrid taste of belly acid in my mouth, I started to feel better. I kneeled at the toilet and caught my breath as the sweat dry on my face. I heard Mom moving around in the kitchen downstairs. She probably didn’t hear me or she would have come up.
I got myself together and went back to the bedroom to dress for school. As I slipped on a bra I noticed that my belly was bigger. Like a slight bump.
“Weird.”
The last month I spent on the road to Munki Moo Moo I barely ate at all. How did I gain weight? I placed my hands on the fat pad and noticed that it felt solid, long and perpendicular, like someone put a rolled up rag under the skin. I didn’t worry about it. So what if I gained a few pounds. It was not like I had anyone to look good for. But still...it was weird that I just noticed it today and not earlier since I’d been back home.
Dressed for school in jeans and a short sleeve black button shirt, I found Mom in the kitchen. She sat at the table, drank coffee, and read the Big Arcadia Press. She left a bowl of cereal, a glass of milk, and orange juice at my place setting.
“Morning, sweetie.”
“Morning, Mom.”
I kissed her cheek - still showing my appreciation that she’s back home even though she never knew she was gone - and then poured a cup of coffee.
She lowered the paper and asked, “Are you feeling okay?”
“A little icky, but okay.”
“You didn’t throw up did you?”
“A little.”
“C’mere.” She waved me over, in full mom mode.
I did, my coffee in hand.
“Mom, I’m fine.”
She felt my forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”
“Because I’m fine.”
I sat down and ate, shoveling the cereal in my mouth.
“You should stay home today.”
“I’d rather not,” I said. Today is my first day back since leaving Munki Moo Moo AKA The Gorilla Cattle in New York. I needed my mundane life ASAP. “Besides, you’d just get me to work. Probably clean all the rooms early.”
“Ha ha,” Mom said. “While we’re on the subject; I placed a new ad in the paper. I really need to get someone to help out. You’re going to be busy.”
“Oh?”
“Uh, SATs. College.”
“Oh, right.”
“Gee, Toni.”
“Oh, Mom. Don’t worry. I want to go to college.”
“I know, sweetie.”
I just had no idea how.
***
My first day back was great. As I rode the bus to school, I didn’t see one Hood or experienced one kind of strange occurrence. It was like the whole Munki Moo Moo incident never happened. When I entered the school, the kids and teachers ignored me just as always. But what I liked best about my day was that when I opened my locker I found my books inside, not a black, windy void calling my name or a blue-haired baby with freaky eyes.
The smile was so strong on my face that the nausea didn’t bother me so much. Not that I didn’t throw up. I puked again in the bathroom during forth period.
On the way home, the bus passed a new construction site next to a strip mall on Beach Ave. A few trucks unloaded steel beams over a new concrete foundation. Men in suits and hardhats holding plans stood to the side and supervised. Signs on the wire mesh fence surrounding the site announced the name of the construction company and Coming Soon: The Gorilla Cattle.
I was expecting that. Mandanny followed through with his promise to build one in Big Arcadia. I didn’t know how to feel about it at that moment. When I first heard it on the news I was kind of scared that Mandanny would come after me to extract some kind of revenge for screwing him over. But then again, he might leave me alone. Gaa went home though the rainbow tornado; I had nothing he wanted. He should stay out of my way.
Unless he was holding a grudge.
***
I had a bad dream about Gaa. We were in the swirling rainbow, floating on air. She didn’t have that sweet baby face framed in blue hair. Her features were creased in anger...no, rage. She pulled me close by my shirt and opened her mouth. A large orange snake slithered out past her vicious teeth and glided down my throat. I struggled and screamed and the snake nested into my belly.
I woke up and puked.
***
I looked five months pregnant. But was I pregnant? As far as I knew I was a virgin. And I mean ‘as far as I knew’ because I was sure that there were things that happened during my adventures with Gaa that I didn’t remember.
I had to be sure. I decided to go to the clinic on the South part of town. I once heard a girl from school say that she went there for an abortion and they didn’t ask her about parental consent.
Downstairs at breakfast, Mom eyed me over her coffee. I was sure that she couldn’t see my belly. I spent a good time picking out baggie pants and a loose shirt in order to hide the bulge. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it. I was a skinny black girl and an eight-pound baby in my belly would surely be hard to hide.
“Toni, you feeling any better?” Mom asked.
I ate a bagel and coffee.
“Yeah. Pretty good.”
“Thought I heard you throwing up this morning.”
“Um, no. I was in the bathroom but I wasn’t throwing up, that was the other direction.”
“Toni! Don’t be gross.”
“Well, you asked.”
She dropped my health after that and told me about the losers she had interviewed yesterday. Finding help to run the motel seemed hopeless.
***
After school I went to the Big Arcadia Clinic. It was a small, one level building a few miles from the beach. It was surrounded by a few acres of land and the occasional tree, almost like it was hiding from the rest of the world.
I went inside and told the nurse at the front desk my suspicions. She kept a blank face and had me fill out some forms on a clipboard. She reminded me that all my information would be kept confidential and that I could use an alias.
After filling out the forms with my personal information and medical history, I waited a few hours in the waiting room. All the other patients – from the homeless girl to the yuppy woman in a suit – kept their eyes focused on a magazine at their lap or on the white tiled floor.
Just as I was about to die from boredom, the nurse showed me to an exam room down a quiet hall of doors. She told me to change into one of the gowns and wait.
“The doctor will be right with you,” she said
‘Be right with you’ translated into another hour. Her name was Dr. Mendez. She seemed nice except for her tired, cold, and distant attitude that peeved me. She probably had to act that way considering all the people she saw all day. She did smile once and a while, as if to calm me down. My legs couldn’t stop moving side to side.