Reap the Wind by Joel Burcat

Author:Joel Burcat [Burcat, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Keisha

Keisha lay in her hospital bed, ignoring the TV which she’d muted, and mentally blocking out the noise from the storm raging outside. Finding reassurance from the sound coming from the fetal monitor, she focused on herself. Her body was swollen from her face to her toes. Three months earlier she had to pry her rings from her fingers. She knew Josh would have to cut them off if she’d waited another few days. At that time, he said he would buy her an engagement ring, but she said it was “too soon.” He said if they waited much longer it would be “too late.” They both laughed.

Mostly, she focused her thoughts on her belly and the baby developing ever so slowly inside her. Keisha urged her daughter, she was convinced it was a girl, to grow. Keisha’s mother had told her she was only six and a half pounds when she was born. That seemed like a reasonable weight and as long as her baby weighed that much, Keisha was sure she’d be okay. Not that he spent much time looking at it, but once Josh had shown her some Jewish text, maybe from the Talmud, which said every blade of grass on earth had an angel hovering over it that whispered to it: “grow.” Right now, she hoped there was an angel hovering over her baby, whispering, “grow.”

As she lay in the hospital bed, she spent a few moments thinking about Josh and a lot of time thinking about Anthony. She’d just finished her education degree at St. Joseph’s University in Philly’s Wynnefield section and was a rookie teacher at Gompers Elementary School. She’d met Anthony at a party, and he’d bragged that he was in medical school at Thomas Jefferson University. At first, she thought he was full of himself—and he was—but he was handsome and sweet, and she managed to overlook his arrogance. One date led to another and a month later she moved into his apartment in Philly’s hip Manayunk section.

Keisha’s family was middle-class, but Anthony came from a wealthy family in Cheltenham, a suburb north of Philly. Both of his parents were doctors and he’d gone to private school his entire life. She wasn’t ready to settle down but enjoyed living with him. Sometimes his attitude got in the way of their relationship, and she was never sure he respected her career choice. But when she was offered a prestigious job as an elementary school teacher at Friends Select School in center city, he urged her to take it. She did and never regretted it.

They were together for almost two years. Long enough for all her relatives to meet him and all of her friends to urge her to marry him. She thought she might be ready to get married but wasn’t sure he was. Besides, he hadn’t asked, and she was traditional enough that she didn’t ask him.

Life with Anthony was an adventure. When he wasn’t crazy-busy studying, they managed weekend escapes. He had money and always paid, even though she told him she would pay her way.

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