I got into my car, set up my GPS, and saw that the doctor's office was about 5 minutes away.
I turned on the radio but didn't really hear the music.
When I got there, Nora was already waiting outside.
"Hey. Let's go."
I followed her inside, and I sat in a chair while she got checked in.
First Sonogram
Nora
I gave Lisa, the receptionist, my insurance card so that she could make a copy. She gave me a huge clipboard in return so that I could take a little survey.
A little blue pen with a daisy taped to the top was attached to the clipboard with a length of yarn.
"The nurse will be with you shortly. You can wait with your husband in the waiting room."
Husband.
I didn't know how insurance worked. I didn't even know if Chris had bothered to get insurance for his company, because I knew that he worked for himself. I had PPO insurance from my school, and it was enough to pay for a doctor's visit now. My family was nowhere near as wealthy as the Kings were, but we did okay. My father wasn't much of one, but if providing money for what I needed were the only measure of fatherhood, he'd win.
I sat down next to Chris. I checked things off, feeling very self-conscious. We were married, but he was probably learning more about me from the boxes that I checked and the family history I noted on this form that he'd ever learn from me. It's not like we talked a lot. I didn't know all that much about Chris.
"Nora? Is there a Nora?"
I stood up, knocking the clipboard to the floor in my haste to get away from Chris. My face heated up as I bent to pick up the clipboard.
"I'm Nora."
"Will your husband be coming back with us?"
My husband? Right, Chris. He was rubbing the back of his neck. The OBGYN's office was all about lady parts.
"Do you want to come back with me, Chris?"
"Yeah."
He stood up. He was so tall that he blocked the light behind him, appearing as a dark silhouette.
"Come on."
The nurse brought us to the back. She took my vitals, and she weighed me. I burned with shame, but Chris did his best impression of someone who wasn't listening.
She asked me questions about my habits, and I answered them to the best of my ability. I wished I hadn't prohibited Chris from using his phone. Going to the doctor with someone I barely knew was one of the most humiliating experiences of my entire life.
When the nurse was done, she told me, "The doctor will be in soon."
I heard them talking in the hallway. Chris put his hand on mine. "It'll be okay." He kissed the back of my hand. "I can't wait to see you on your back again." He winked at me.
My face was in flames when the doctor opened the door.
"Hello. How are you doing today, Nora?"
"I'm great, Dr. Watson." I shook his hand. "This is my husband, Chris." Chris shook Dr. Watson's hand, too.
"What brings you here today, Nora?"
"I think I'm pregnant."
"What symptoms do you have?"
"A little weight gain, and I've been barfing for the past few mornings. I used a home pregnancy test, but I want confirmation."
"Have you been trying to have a child, Mr. and Mrs. King?"
Chris choked a little. "No."
"No, we haven't been trying to have a kid."
"Oh, I see … a Disneyland baby."
"I beg your pardon?" What was that?
"A honeymoon baby, when you just get so carried away."
My face felt hot again, and Chris was blushing, too.
"I … um … we … yes."
"It's perfectly fine. In this age of family planning, plenty of people have kids that they weren't planning on having. We can do a quick test with some of your blood, or we can do a very fast sonogram to check if you have someone in there." The doctor touched my little bump.
"Let's just do a quick sonogram."
"Lift your shirt, please, and lay back on the bed." The doctor patted the big bed.
I hopped up, and the doctor made it so that I was at a 45 degree angle. She had a bunch of gel, and I gasped a little when she put it on my stomach.
"Yes, sorry, the gel is a little cold." The doctor pulled out a little attachment, and rubbed it around on my stomach. The doctor was staring at the screen, and Chris and I were look at it, too.
There was a little thing moving around on the screen.
"It looks like an alien," Chris said.
"Chris!" I cried. "Why would you say that?"
"It does."
The doctor laughed. "The baby doesn't look like too much at this stage. But your baby looks just fine. If you want, we can all hear the baby's heartbeat." The doctor turned up a dial, and we heard the baby's little hummingbird heart inside of the room.
All of us were quiet for a moment. Our baby was a real person.
"Would you like a picture to take home?"
"Yes, please." I didn't know if I could believe the evidence of my eyes and ears. I knew that I'd look at this picture over and over again. The doctor gave me the snapshot, and I saw my little peanut in my stomach. The doctor gave me a paper towel to wipe away some of the goo, and then I lowered my shirt. I felt shy in front of Chris, but it wasn't anything that he hadn't seen before.
I went out to the front and paid my copay. Then, Chris and I went out to our cars. There was a bench near the parking garage, and Chris tugged my wrist so that I sat down next to him.
"You have my baby. What do you want to do?"
"I'm not sure." I bit my lip. "I didn't know for sure, and now that we do … "
I took the little sonogram picture out of my purse. "I have a little one."
"Yup."
"Can I have some time to think about it?"
"Sure. How about we have breakfast together tomorrow? Let's sleep on it."
I nodded. "Yeah. I can meet you at the diner near my house at 8 AM tomorrow morning."
"Sounds good to me. I'll clear my schedule. You're the most important thing for me right now." His big hand squeezed my shoulder, and he turned away.
On the Run
Nora
A wave of terror washed over me. I knew that I had no plans to see him for breakfast tomorrow.
I had class, but somehow it seemed that my accidental pregnancy was more important than going to class.
I needed to get away. There was a little resort in the mountains that I had gone to when I wanted to get away from LA. I guessed that I'd head there.
I called in sick to the university, and I sent emails to my professors that I was sick and needed to get all the course materials. They sent me their Powerpoint presentations. I'd read them while I was away at the tiny resort.
It didn't take me too long to drive there. Outside of LA, the traffic cleared up a lot. So then I drove on the winding mountain roads to the tiny resort that nobody knew about but me. Even Laila didn't know about my secret place.
I got a room and passed out. Pregnancy was making me tired.
* * *
The next morning, I went down to the dining room for a little breakfast. The thought of eating bacon made my stomach turn, but I knew that I could eat some toast and maybe a little fruit.
There were only a few people in the dining room. I guessed that most people just got room service.
There was a guy wearing a suit in the corner reading a paper. There were three empty tables near him, and I snagged a chair with my fruit plate. I was drinking my glass of apple juice when I heard Chris say, "Hello."
I sprayed apple juice everywhere. The glass slipped from my hand, and it poured all over the carpet.
I watched as Chris brought the newspaper down.
"What are you doing here?"
"Did you think that you could run and hide so easily? You know that I have whatever resources I want in order to find you."
"But nobody knows where I am."
He raised one eyebrow, and I flushed. "Except for you."
"You have a cell phone. It's the best tracking device devised by man."
"I don't even have a signal half the time out here. I have to make calls over Wi-Fi if I don't want them to be dropped."
He shrugged. "I'm not really constrained by those limitations." If Chris hadn't been constrained before, why hadn't he looked for me for the first three months after we got married? But I was grateful for the space that he'd left me nonetheless; I'd needed to make a decision on my own without any pressure from him. If he was in the room, he just assumed that he could make all the decisions.
"I guess."
I used my napkin to wipe myself up. Someone on the hotel staff had an ultra-absorbent micro-fiber towel on the ground, soaking up my spilled apple juice. I felt like a huge klutz.
"I'm so sorry," I told the young waitress. She couldn't be older than 20.
"It's fine, ma'am. All done." She sprayed something on the carpet and was gone.
"What are you even doing here?"
"You said that we'd have breakfast. I guess that we're just going to do it somewhere else."
I shook my head. "You found me in a half instant. Why didn't you do this when we were first married?"