Life, Love
and Revelations
By
Stacey Mitchell
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 Stacey Mitchell
All Rights Reserved
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A Pregnant Silence
Sandra rolled up her sleeves and plunged her hands into the hot soapy water. Get the washing up out of the way, do a few other bits and pieces around the house and then the rest of her day off could be spent having a lovely lunch and an afternoon shopping with her sister Lucy. As she washed the plates, Sandra reflected on how long it had been since she had last seen Lucy – they talked on the phone every so often, but mainly texted and emailed. They hadn’t actually seen each other face to face for months. Lucy was busy when Sandra was free, Sandra was busy when Lucy was free… Sadly, that’s nothing strange these days with everyone leading such hectic lives, thought Sandra.
At that moment the phone rang. Sandra sighed. These things always happened at the most inconvenient times, and if this call was anything like the other calls she had been getting recently, there would be no one at the other end anyway. It didn’t bother her really, there was always someone calling from some company or another trying to sell something. It was just a pain, having to stop what you were doing to answer a pointless phone call.
Nevertheless, Sandra shook the drips from her hands, dried them quickly and tossed the towel over one shoulder so she could grab the phone before it stopped ringing.
“Hello?” she said.
Nothing.
Okay, give whoever it is ten more seconds, she thought.
“Hello? Is anybody there?”
There was a click, and then the line went dead.
Sandra tutted and dialled 1471, getting the same response as ever; the caller withheld their number. Should she be keeping track of these calls? At what point did it class as a nuisance? Sandra shook her head - there was no point making a big deal out of this. Realistically, no one would be trying to make her life miserable, or scare her. It would just be a call centre somewhere that had her number on a contact list but were having trouble getting through properly. Or at a push, it could be some kids having a laugh.
At the thought of being the object of a child’s practical joke, Sandra sighed. She took the calendar from the hook on the wall and sat at the kitchen table, placing it in front of her. She didn’t even really need to look at it as the date she was thinking of was imprinted in her head. She had quite literally been counting the days. It had been precisely 11 months and 23 days since she and her husband Michael had actively started trying for a baby, and the disappointment they had faced so far each month was getting worse and worse. They were so desperate to have a baby, and although the thought was slowly spreading through their minds, neither wanted to acknowledge that there could be something more to their monthly setback.
Sandra had been determined to put a brave face on things, and as yet she hadn’t told her parents that they would hopefully soon be grandparents – it was intended to be a wonderful surprise. Only Lucy knew. They were similar in both age and personality, and had shared everything throughout their childhood and teenage years: makeup, clothes, music, secrets. As far as Sandra could tell, the only major difference in their personalities was the way they felt about children. Sandra was very maternal and thought every child was a precious gift. Lucy on the other hand couldn’t tolerate any children whatsoever, regarding them to be noisy, smelly and generally irritating. She and her husband Darren were quite happy with their child-free marriage, and as far as Sandra knew, they intended to keep it that way.
The phone rang again, jerking Sandra back to reality. She reached across the table to where she had put the phone down before.
“Hello?” she said.
There was a muffled noise at the other end of the line, almost like someone sniffing, but no one spoke.
Sandra raised her eyebrows and chewed the inside of her bottom lip, trying to keep her voice civil. “Are you going to speak, or shall I just get back to the washing up?”
The person at the other end made another noise, sounding as if they were clearing their throat. Then a click, and again the line went dead.
Sandra went back to the washing up, thinking it might be best to mention how bad the calls were getting to Michael. Next time it rings, she thought, I’ll let it go to the answering machine. They can leave a blank message if that’s what they feel like doing! So she carried on with her pre-lunch chores, and it was actually another hour before the phone rang again.
By this time, Sandra was getting ready to meet Lucy. The phone ringing made her jump while she was applying her mascara, and consequently she poked herself in the eye with her mascara wand.
“Right,” she growled. “That’s it!”
She stomped down the stairs and just as she got to the bottom she heard a faint voice coming out of the speaker on the answering machine.
“Sandra?” came the whisper. “Please pick up. I’ve something important to tell you.”
Sandra was shocked – that weak voice sounded a lot like Lucy, and it sounded like something awful had happened. Her sister had never sounded so upset. Sandra dived for the phone, fumbling to find the button to answer the call.
“Lucy?!” she gasped. “Are you okay?”
Lucy sighed, a loud and heavy exhalation. “I’m okay. I suppose firstly I need to apologise for all these phone calls.” Her voice sounded thick, as if she had been crying.
“What do you mean?” Sandra frowned. “This is the first time I’ve spoken to you in a while.”
“Yeah I know, but its my fault you’ve been getting so many silent phone calls recently. I haven’t the courage to say what I need to, but I have to talk to you before we meet up today.”
“Lucy, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?” Sandra’s heart felt like it was trying to pound its way out of her chest.
“I’m… I’m… pregnant.” Lucy’s voice broke as she spoke, and the last word came out as a barely audible whisper.
Sandra’s eyes began to prickle, filling with hot tears. She couldn’t speak. She sat down at the kitchen table, and stared down at the grain in the wood, her eyes following the swirls of the pattern.
“Sandra, I’m so sorry,” sobbed Lucy, sounding to Sandra as if she were a million miles away. “Please don’t hate me.”
All of a sudden Sandra felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of icy water over her and she snapped out of her trance. She cleared her throat. “Lucy,” she began, amazed with herself at how calm she sounded, “I have to know – was it planned or was it an accident?” She was 99% sure she already knew the answer, but she had to ask.
“It was an accident. It must have been a complete fluke as we always take precautions.”
Sandra couldn’t decide if that was better or worse. It was obviously reassuring that her sister hadn’t been plotting behind her back to get pregnant when she knew Sandra was having trouble in that respect, but then on the other hand was anything crueller than nature? It seemed so unfair that the maternal one of the two of them should struggle so much and still get nowhere, whereas the other, who couldn’t stand children, could take all the precautions in the world and still become pregnant.