His Pregnancy Ultimatum

‘Nothing some home-cooked food and a good night’s sleep won’t cure.’ The brisk tone was accompanied by a competent smile.

Alice was the ultimate earth mother, taking pride in producing wholesome hearty meals, home-baked cookies and bread, charity bakes. She sewed, stitched, crocheted, knitted, and took pottery classes. It didn’t stop there, for she also took art, sculpted, and set oils on canvas. She served on her son’s school committee, ran as president of the parent-teacher association, and excelled in organisation of all things.

Ask Alice was an invisible bandana her sister wore with pride, for helping had become a mission in life. It made up for the five years of Alice’s marriage during which her husband conditioned her to believe she served little purpose and possessed no self-worth.

Mia took in the familiar sight beyond the windscreen. Old buildings merged with new, dull, well-worn red brick jumbled together with renovated terrace houses, newly lacquered ornamental iron railings vying with broken wood palings. An endearingly eclectic mix that marked inner-city suburbia.

Traffic, as usual, maintained a hectic pace in a never-ending river of vehicles jostling for position in a bid to catch the next set of lights and minimise road time.

City smells, combining aged buildings, fuel fumes, summer heat. Trees with spreading branches bordering a green-grassed park, and, above, a cloudless blue sky.

Mia turned her attention to her sister.

‘How’s my favourite nephew?’

‘Great. Matt is doing well in school, enjoyed a terrific soccer season, and is heavily into tennis for summer,’ Alice enthused. ‘He’s studying piano, guitar, and is a whiz at chess. He began martial arts classes this year.’

Maternal love was unconditional, and Alice believed in the ‘busy mind, active body’ theory…totally. Fortunately her son was an enthusiastic advocate who viewed each new venture as a conquerable challenge.

‘I can’t wait to spend time with him.’ They shared a mutual affection that dispensed with the generation gap, a love of sports, action movies, books. Pals, she accorded fondly, and hoped the friendship part of their relationship would never change.

‘He has plans,’ Alice warned, and Mia offered a wry smile.

‘Uh-huh. I take it para-gliding, bungee-jumping and all other dangerous activities are a definite no-no?’

Alice made a sound that was part sigh, part groan.

‘Don’t,’ she warned. ‘Even in jest.’

Traffic was heavy as they crossed the harbour bridge, and only began to ease as they cleared the inner northern suburbs.

There were coves with moored craft, a marina, and heavy greenery hugging the elevated rock-face where luxurious homes perched high sharing magnificent views of the inner harbour and city.

Sun-dappled water, stunning architecture…a place where she’d been born and spent her formative years. Excelled and survived, loved and been betrayed, only to emerge as a strong, determined young woman whose focus became unwavering in pursuit of her goal.

Except for one little blip that had the power to change her life for ever.

Alice’s home was situated in a wide tree-lined street, a solid double-brick structure with medium-size rooms her sister redecorated with considerable flair at regular intervals.

Externally it was similar to many houses in the established suburb, but indoors it held an air of homeliness that was both inviting and relaxing.

‘Coffee, tea, or something cold?’ Alice queried as she preceded Mia down the hallway.

‘Tea would be great.’ There was only one guest room, which she occupied during university vacations, and she deposited her bag, released her knapsack, then she quickly freshened up before joining her sister in the kitchen.

Aromatic tea steamed from two cups, and there was a selection of home-made cookies set out on a plate.

‘We have an hour before I need to go collect Matt from school,’ Alice declared, indicating a chair opposite. ‘So…out with it.’

She could prevaricate, brush off her sister’s intuitive questioning, or at least delay giving an answer until…when? Tonight, when Matt was asleep? Tomorrow? There was never going to be a good time.

‘I’m pregnant.’ No lead up, just the basic fact. Yet the very starkness of her announcement caused acute anxiety as to Alice’s reaction, for Mia’s stance on pre-marital sex was a shared, well-known fact.

Together, they’d laughed about it, exchanged views, pursued the ‘fors’ and ‘againsts’, whether saving oneself for the right man and marriage didn’t belong way back in the previous century! ‘What if the sex turns out to be…well, less than anticipated? How will you know if you have nothing to compare it with?’ Alice had teased.

Now, there was a tremendous sense of vulnerability along with the anxiety. Everything she’d believed in, all that she’d held dear in her emotional heart, was laid bare, and open to criticism.

It was bad enough she’d resorted to self-castigation every day…every waking hour, since that fateful night.

‘Just…I’m pregnant? That’s it?’ Alice demanded, aghast.

Mia closed her eyes, then opened them again. Dear heaven, what was the matter with her? ‘I need to fill you in,’ she managed ruefully, and caught her sister’s intent expression.

‘In spades. No detail spared. And it would help to know whether I’m to congratulate, commiserate, console, or rejoice with you.’

Her stomach executed a somersault, then went into free fall. ‘Commiserate,’ she admitted, and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

‘You weren’t—?’ Shock and anger meshed with a fighting spirit second to none. ‘It wasn’t—?’

‘No,’ she reassured at once, her own shock a visible entity. ‘Nothing like that.’

Alice leaned forward and covered her sister’s hand with her own. ‘So—what happened?’

The genuine concern evident in her sister’s expression almost moved her to tears, and she shook her head in self-chastisement of the emotional roller coaster she’d been riding for the past few weeks. One minute she’d be fine, the next a teary mess.

Where did she start? ‘Who,’ she corrected wryly. Oh, yes, it was definitely who.

‘I assume he’s to die for,’ Alice opined with a faintly wicked smile. ‘Considering he managed to persuade you to discard every one of your preconceived convictions about sex before marriage?’

His image came sharply into focus, haunting, taunting her with what they’d shared together. The excitement, the ecstasy…and her wantonness to experience it again, and again. A willing pupil beneath a skilled lover’s touch, she reflected.

‘Incredible,’ she said simply, aware of the warmth flooding her cheeks as she held her sister’s gaze.

‘Off the planet, huh?’ Alice’s grin was replaced with curiosity and a degree of mild reproof. ‘You didn’t tell me you were with anyone.’

Alice’s surprise was understandable, given they spoke on the phone each week and resorted to email almost every day.

‘I’m not.’

Her sister’s eyes narrowed fractionally. ‘If you don’t give me the rundown…the total rundown,’ she endorsed, ‘I’ll be forced to take dire action!’

Mia managed a faint smile. ‘The short version won’t wash?’

‘Don’t even think about it!’

There was nothing else for it but to start at the beginning…something she should have done at the onset, instead of dropping a verbal bombshell in her sister’s lap.

‘I was supposed to meet a friend at an evening function.’ A night out had seemed a good idea at the time, following weeks of intense study. It had also provided the opportunity to dress up…a marked change from wearing the usual university garb of jeans and tee shirt. ‘She didn’t show,’ Mia went on to explain. ‘When I checked my cellphone there was a text message to say she’d become suddenly ill.’ She effected a faint shrug. ‘I didn’t know anyone there, and I was about to leave when I noticed a fellow guest standing alone on the other side of the room.’