The School Gates by Nicola May

Author:Nicola May
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
ISBN: 0956832326
Published: 2012-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

– Chapter Fourteen –

‘P Day tomorrow isn’t it?’ Mark announced over breakfast.

‘Yes.’ Dana couldn’t actually believe that Mark, being a typical man, had actually remembered the date.

‘Do you feel any different?’

‘Boobs are a bit sore and I’m feeling a bit tired, but nothing different to usual really.’ Dana played it down. She actually did feel a little bit nauseous this morning and the excitement was welling inside of her. She couldn’t wait to confirm her pregnancy. She had enjoyed every little twinge she had felt with Tommy. Such was the love she had felt for her unborn child, she had even delighted in seeing her slim tummy expanding day by day.

Mark got up, stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. He kissed her on the neck.

‘I just know that you are.’

‘Yuk.’ Tommy dropped his spoon in to his cereal bowl with a loud clink. ‘Why don’t you get a room.’ And with that he got up and skulked to his bedroom, leaving both Dana and Mark open-mouthed.

***

The next morning, Dana awoke at 5.a.m. Later, reliving this moment over and over in her head, she could scarcely believe she had actually managed to get to sleep. Deep down, she just knew she was pregnant and the test was merely a formality.

She thought back to when she did the test for Tommy. It had been such wrong timing but she had been so in love with Mark, that she knew that whatever happened, everything would be OK.

IVF was a funny phenomenon. There were no surprises. Everything was regimented. You knew the day of conception exactly. You knew the precise day to do the test. There could be no surprises on your due date.

She opened the white box that was already set on the side of the sink and pulled out one of the two tests. She had ummed and aahed about getting just one test but it was only an extra pound for a second go so she thought she might as well – just in case she couldn’t wait until the correct day of testing.

She reread the instructions, held the stick in the warm stream of strong early morning pee, pulled up her knickers and began the longest wait a woman ever has to face.

These days there wasn’t even the uncertainty of a faint blue line. No need to hold the white plastic wand of fate up to the light, no need to wait just a minute more to see if the line got darker, the longer you left it. No, these days the words NOT PREGNANT screamed out from the test. Relief if that was the desired state. Devastation if it wasn’t.

Dana sat on the side of the bath. She felt numb. She felt sick. She felt desperate. All that anticipation. All that excitement. She has been so sure that she was expecting a girl. They had even chosen a name – Scarlet Elizabeth.

Her sobbing was as loud as the pain in her heart.

‘Oh darling,’ Mark opened the door, knelt down and nestled his wife’s head to his chest.

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