by Livia Grant
* * * * *
Crystal had already explained what their visit was about when she made the appointment so Dr Marcus didn’t keep them waiting.
“Come in ladies,” he said. “Unless you’d like to come in on your own, Carol.”
Carol immediately grabbed Crystal’s hand. “No, that’s fine. I want Crystal to come.”
“So, I hear you two are planning another addition,” Marcus said.
Carol beamed. It was a subject that made her smile, mostly, unless there was a pile of spinach on her plate or she was about to be dragged up a big hill on a long walk. “Yes we are.”
“Well that’s just great. Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll organize any necessary paperwork you need from me.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Crystal said.
“So sit up here young lady and we’ll see about your blood first.”
“You don’t need to take much do you?”
“No, but it won’t matter. Just relax and close your eyes and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Carol shut her eyes as directed but wasn’t able to keep them that way. When she did open them, Dr Marcus was about to insert the needle. “No!”
“What’s wrong?” The needle was poised.
“Look how thick that thing is! It’s not gonna be nothing.”
“I swear if you stay calm it won’t be more than a little sting.”
“Carol.” Crystal’s voice was stern but she pulled the chair she’d been sitting on up beside her. “Hold my hand and look at me.”
She did but when there was silence, curiosity got the better of her. “Hey.” Crystal tapped Carol’s hand. “I said look at me.”
“I’m trying.”
“Trust me.”
Carol held tight to Crystal’s hand and didn’t take her eyes off her face for even a second. She did feel a stab, then it felt a little weird but before she knew it, Marcus was sticking a bandaid on. “You’re finished?”
“All done,” the friendly doctor said. “Except for your shot.”
“There’s no except where needles are concerned,” Carol said, pulling her arm way out of Marcus’ reach. “I changed my mind. I want to have the shot next week. This is enough for one day.”
“If you put off the shot, then you have to wait another whole month until you can try the first time.”
Carol had always liked Dr Marcus but that smooth voice now was pissing her off. There was nothing she hated to hear more when she was being irrational than the voice of reason.
“Come on, Carol, we’re doing this now.”
“We’re not doing this. Apparently I’m doing it or having it done to me.”
“This is what you want, your dream. Surely you aren’t going to give up your dream over a little shot,” Crystal said.
“I’m not giving it up. I just want to pause. Not for a whole week, what if we put it off just for a couple of days?”
“And give you time to work yourself up even more? We’re here now and we’re going to get this over with.”
“This arm’s too sore and I need the other one to,” she looked at Crystal, “cook and clean and stuff.”
“It’s okay, Carol,” Dr Marcus said. “I don’t need your arm.”
“Good. Oh what?” Crystal was helping her to stand and she knew where this was heading. “Um, my arm is feeling better. It’s just fine.”
“Not to worry, Carol,” a calm voice said.
She could see out of the corner of her eye when she turned that Dr Marcus was prepping the needle. Meantime, Crystal had her pinned to the padded table thing that they laughably called a bed. She clung to her pants desperately but Crys managed to get them down on one side just long enough for the doctor to jab her high on one cheek. There was that disgusting smell of the alcohol they rubbed on just before they got you. “Owww.” She wanted to jump up and down but Crystal held her in place.
“Done,” Crystal said, rubbing her bottom to soothe her when the doctor turned around.
“Really this time?”
“Really. Go, and don’t forget to keep up with your healthy schedule.”
“How can I forget, Doc? My memory is right beside me.”
* * * * *
The food was bad and the yoga was ridiculous, but Carol had to admit she’d never felt in better shape. She’d taken to jogging around to her friends’ houses instead of driving when they had coffee. Or they had coffee and she had decaffeinated swill. More times than not though, she just had water or juice. It was funny how you could actually get used to drinking water. At first her body had craved caffeine making it more difficult than ever to stay out of trouble. She had though mostly. The thing that had touched her heart though was her friends support as she reached Jen’s house they were all waiting. “You don’t all have to do this,” she said.
“We want to, don’t we girls?”
“Of course we do,” Erin said. She opened up her trunk and added Carol’s yoga mat to the others. “Crystal has to work, we’re not going to let you go alone.”
“Wow, Sienna, you ditched your shoes.”
“See how much I love you.”
The trip into Boulder was fun with lots of dancing to the stereo and lots of pregnancy stories. Pregnancy stories that helped her feel excited now rather than bored and left out.
“So how long does this class last for?” Sienna asked.
“About half an hour. It’s only a beginner class so it shouldn’t be too hard,” Carol said. “Wouldn’t you have been more comfortable in sweats though? I don’t know if you’re going to be able to bend in the pants.”
Sienna smoothed down her material of her linen pants. I have something to get changed into in my bag.”
“In there?” Jen pointed to the purse that sat on her friend’s lap.
“It’s a leotard. It doesn’t take up much room.”
“This isn’t a ballet class.” Carol grinned. “This is some women and some of their partners getting some exercise and apparently relaxation.”
“Well you better be able to get changed fast because we’re running late,” Erin said.
“I can,” Sienna said.
* * * * *
The girls were all sitting on the rolled out yoga mats along with the rest of the class and there was still no sign of Sienna. They’d been held up with introductions and she hadn’t had a chance to get changed when they first got there.
“Carol, will your friend be much longer? We’re really going to have to start.”
“I’ll go check on her,” Jen said.
* * * * *
“Stupid thing,” Sienna grumbled, trying desperately to pull the long red hair that had gotten itself tangled in the zipper of her full body leotard.
“What’s wrong, hon?” Jen asked through the cubicle door.
“I’m stuck.”
“Open the door and I’ll help you.”
“No, I nearly have it.”
“They want to start. Just open the door and let me in.”
There was silence for a minute and then the door squeaked open.
“Okay, show it to me. Oh, Sienna, you really should tie your hair up.”
“This is information that would have been better before I tried to pull on this skin tight thing.”
Jen giggled and pulled her friend over to a chair where she could sit and get a better look in the light. She yanked the lycra closer to her but at the same time managed to expose a large amount of Sienna’s thong clad bottom. “Oh my God!” Jen said.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh we are going to talk about it. Big time.” Jen freed the hair from the zipper and had her clothed again in no time at all. “We better go back but we are having a talk about this on the way home.”
“I guess there’d be no point asking you to keep this between us.”
Jen scoffed. “Would you? This is news of a gigantic proportion.”
“How do you know it wasn’t for pleasure?”
“I know the markings of a switching when I see it.”
“Maybe I like being switched.”
“Sure you do.” Jen swung open the bathroom door and they reentered the room.
* * * * *
“Here they are,” the instructor said. “I thought I was going to have to send someone else in.”
“Sorry,” Sienna said. Her face was flaming.
“Nice get up,” Carol said with a grin.
Sienna sat on her mat that had been placed for her behind Carol’s. “I don’t own sweats,” Sienna said.
“Just joking,” Carol said. “What’s up with her?” she mouthed to Jen.
Jen grinned.
“What?” Carol mouthed again.
“Ladies, we are supposed to be entering the first relaxation phase,” the woman at the head of the class said almost in a calming voice but one that held just a little irritation.
“Sorry,” Carol said. The woman nodded her forgiveness.
“Lay on your backs. We are going to relax and lengthen the lower spine and release the tensions from your body.”
The woman’s calm voice was back. Carol did as she chanted and spread her legs and faced her palms to the ceiling.
“Breathe deeply a few times.”
“Place your hand on your abdomen and feeeeeeel,” she said. “As you inhale, your abdomen goes up and when you exhale, your abdomen goes down.”
All good, Carol thought. Breathing was easy and relaxing. This person was so much better than the one that she and Crystal had at the night class the week before. This was easy.
“Place your legs together, heels touching, toes pointed to the sky.”
No problem, she could point her toes and breath at the same time.
“Bend your leg,” the voice said. “Push your knee into your chest, thus stretching your buttocks and lengthening your spine.”
Carol looked sideways and could see Jen smiling. That’s when it all went wrong. Her belly started to shake, she pressed her lips together to keep from laughing and she hung onto her leg for grim death. It was immature she knew, but it was also funny. There was something about the word buttocks.
“Lower your leg and raise your other leg. Hang on to your knee and push into in to your chest. You will feel your leg against your abdomen as you inhale.”
Then it happened. There was a noise behind them. Sienna in her pretty pink ballerina outfit had farted. Carol collapsed with a fit of the giggles and the others were right behind her, even Sienna.
“Just relax,” the voice said, once again laced with impatience.
Carol had to give it to the woman, she stayed calm regardless while she instructed them in how to fold themselves like pastries into weird and uncomfortable poses. Finally they were laying flat again in the corpse pose, how apt.
“Let your breaths flow slowly and bring your knees to your chest. Roll to one side in the fetal position, and finally you may bring yourself to a gentle sitting position.”
As they rolled up their mats, Jen leaned over. “Sienna got switched!” she hissed.
“Well, well, well,” Carol said with a grin. “Kept that one to herself. I wonder what changed in their house.”
“We’re gonna find out.”
Sienna had disappeared to the bathroom to change back into her clothes.
“Spill,” Carol said. The three women were waiting for Sienna to vacate the stall.
“This isn’t the place.”
“There’s no one here,” Jen said.
“At least tell us what you did.”
Sienna’s face flushed. “It’s that club.”
“The men’s club?”
“Seems Brock found the need to share with Toby what we got up to on our visit to the bank.”
“Uh oh,” Carol said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, I’m not blaming anyone. I was the one that thought it would be a good idea to be a doctor. Then it was my idea to say the fax was a joke.”
“So he cut a switch?” Jen asked.
“He made me cut a switch, and I swear that was the most embarrassing experience I’ve ever had.”
“Oh Sienna the switch is the worst,” Carol said. “That’s some initiation.”
“Huh? Well, you’re one of us now. There’s no going back.”
“Yeah, I think you might be right.”
Chapter 9
“Well pretty girl, you did it,” Crystal said. “I think we’re about ready to have us a baby. How do you feel?”
“Nervous, excited, nervous. What if I just don’t fall pregnant?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. You know you’ve done everything necessary to get your body ready. Now it’s time to leave it to nature, sort of.”
Carol nodded. “In a perfect world I’ll get pregnant the first time.”
“Yep.” Crystal hoped to heaven that would happen but the truth was it could take a lot longer than that. “We’ll arrange to have the sperm delivered Monday to Dr Marcus. He’s happy to store it until your temperature is right, which hopefully should be by the end of the week.”
“When should we tell Bri?”
“There isn’t anything to tell her yet. Let’s leave it until we know there’s a baby on the way.” Crystal didn’t think there was any reason to tell their daughter until there was something concrete to tell her. She was going to be over the moon excited but if it didn’t happen straight away, it would be hard enough for Carol without Bri asking a million questions. “I almost forgot. I have a present for you.”
“Ooh, I love presents.”
Crystal ran to the kitchen and pulled a gift bag out of one of the cabinets. “You brought me food?”
“No, silly. I just hid it in there. I was waiting for exactly the right time and this is it.”
Carol opened the bag and grinned. “An ovulation kit?”
“Top of the line. This hopefully will give us an edge.” She watched as Carol got the box out of the bag and read the instructions.
“What if I get the smiley face and we’re not ready?”
“We will be ready. I already rang and checked with the sperm bank. All they need is authorization from Dr Marcus and they can ship the next day.”
“So this is really going to happen,” Carol said.
“It really is.”
“Have I told you how much I love you lately?”
Crystal grinned. “I love you too.”
* * * * *
“So, you just go and pick up the tank from the doctor’s office and then you take it home and then, you know, you use it?” Sienna asked.
“There’s a little more to it than that,” Carol said. “I have this kit that I had to start using at the start of my cycle.”
“An ovulation kit.”
Sienna said, “I’m familiar.”
“You used one?” Carol asked. She realized that she must sound pretty self-centered at times. It never occurred to her that any of her friends would have had trouble conceiving.
“I did. It took us a little while to get pregnant. The ovulation kit really helped.”
“So did you get twins from some kind of fertility drug?” Erin asked.
“No, just lucky.” Sienna grinned. “Although when they were tiny, I didn’t always think so. There were a few weeks there when I thought we’d go insane. No sleep, not a little sleep, none. One woke and the other slept, then we’d just go back to bed and the other one would wake up.”
“How long did it take to get them on the same schedule?” Jen asked.
“Like I said, a few weeks. They eventually settled and so did we,” Sienna said. “So where are you up to?”
“No smiley face yet, which is probably just as well because our sperm got held up and hasn’t been delivered yet.”
“A smiley face?” Jen laughed.
“I know it sounds dorky but hey, if it smiles at me I’ll be smiling back,” Carol said. “I just know this is it. I have a feeling in my gut. Call it beginner’s luck or whatever, I
just know that in six weeks or so I’m going to be holding a positive pregnancy test.”
“So this gut feeling, does it have any idea whether you’ll be having a boy or a girl?”
“Or whether you’re having more than one?” Sienna asked.
“Um, no, to both questions. That couldn’t really happen could it? I mean, I know it could but the likelihood of it happening is slim, right?”
Sienna shrugged. “Who knows. Happened to me.”
“I hadn’t really planned on having more than one.”
“She’s just teasing,” Erin said with a giggle. “It could happen but it isn’t very likely.”
“Besides,” Jen said. “If it did, you would love them both to bits.”
“Yeah it’d be fine,” Sienna said. “Besides, you might get one of each.”
“Let’s talk about your switching again. I think I want all the gory details. The part where you cried and danced up and down to get rid of the sting.”
“I didn’t tell you I did that.”
“No? Must have been wishful thinking.” Carol tossed a cushion at her friends head. “You know what. I want cake. I deserve a bit of a celebration.”
“Yes you do. A treat never hurt anyone.”
* * * * *
“I had cake today,” Carol said when Crystal walked through the door.
“Did you just?” Crystal asked. “Well I’m sure a piece of cake won’t hurt you. It’s what you do most of the time that counts.”
“I had two pieces actually and a hot chocolate.”
Crystal laughed. “I know I said I wanted you to be honest with me but I didn’t mean you had to tell me every little thing.”
“I was celebrating, but then I came home and I thought, what am I celebrating? Nothing’s happened yet. I used the thingy after lunch and it still isn’t showing any LH surge. Then I was pleased about that because we don’t have our sperm yet and I thought, what if it did show a spike and I was fertile and the sperm didn’t come? Where is our sperm? I need to know that the sperm is going to be close by if we need it. It’s making me really anxious not to know.” Carol knew she was rambling but she didn’t seem to be able to stop.
