Rebecca’s Knots
The July mid-day light glared on the silky waterfall in
front of the Phoenix Art Museum. Rebecca
was taking advantage of the new “children’s corner” event at the museum with
the hope that playing with other children would offer Samantha some calming
moments.. Usually an affectionate child,
lately her two year old was becoming something of diva. Rebecca imagined that
Samantha sensed something odd was happening as Mommy’s belly bump continued its
daily balloon-sized expansion. A second
child was on the way, and although Rebecca considered herself an affectionate
mother with Samantha, she wasn’t gleeful about number two coming along so
quickly after number one. It was that
damn trip to the White Mountains that did it: sitting under the golden aspen
trees last fall rippling through the canyons.
Mike had coaxed her into a spontaneous moment and, since she was breast
feeding, she thought that would give her the coital cover she needed. It hadn’t.
So when she learned she was pregnant, she consulted the three glass
angels on her bookshelf for guidance: should
she make an appointment for a pre-natal check-up with her GYN or go to Planned
Parenthood to terminate this mistake?
The angels had nodded and danced in the midnight moon glow and Rebecca
wasn’t sure how to interpret their responses.
She waited a few days and then the realization came to her that a
mistake or not, she could do nothing more or less than go with this baby. But she told her doctor “once you deliver, I
want you to tie up those tubes into the tightest knots your tools can
twist.” He had laughed and they made the
pact he would keep. As for Mike, aspen
trees were off-limits until both children were out of diapers and she had re-started
her degree in art history.
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