by Megan Ziese
She could get through the insemination process because Irene would be her pillar. Things couldn’t have been better.
Soldier's Women
Chapter Two
Two months Later
Irene was over at Sera’s house paying her a visit, when the phone rang.
Sera, not expecting any calls, wondered briefly who it was. She made her way over to the table where the phone sat and picked it up.
“Hello.”
“Hello,” came an unfamiliar woman’s voice. “I’m Darlene from Dr. Yules’ office. Is this Sera?”
“Yes, this is Sera.”
“I was calling to inform you that the results are back. Two of the fetuses are doing just fine.”
Sera felt relief rush to her head. She hadn’t tried to focus on negative possibilities but it was something she knew she’d have to keep in mind. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted to hear those words since she’d been inseminated until she’d gotten the good news. “That’s fantastic! Thanks for calling.”
“You’re welcome. Don’t forget your next appointment is scheduled for next Monday.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“Have a good day.”
“You too.”
Sera hung up the phone and turned to Irene.
Irene looked at her expectantly. She’d heard half of the conversation and was sure it had something to do with the pregnancy.
Sera went and sat down beside Irene on the couch and took her hands in her own.
“They said that there two fetuses are doing well.”
Irene felt a rush of excitement. She didn’t want to display too much of it though, just in case anything happened. There was still a lot of pregnancy left.
“Why don’t we celebrate the good news by going shopping?” Irene suggested. “I’ve been wanting to look at baby things for quite some time now.”
Irene was so thrilled, Sera couldn’t help be get caught up in her enthusiasm, even though she was still worried that there was the possibility that she wouldn’t be able to carry the babies to term. She didn’t want to think about that now. Neither one of them ever discussed that possibility, although they both knew it was a very real one. She wasn’t a young woman anymore, and artificial insemination wasn’t a guarantee.
They got up and grabbed their purses and headed for the door. They stepped outside and got into Irene’s car parked out on the street.
Irene drove the two of them to a shopping plaza downtown, and they got out and went into several baby stores. The first store they went into was filled with a variety of toys for boys and girls and some very nice clothing as well.
Irene picked up a soft stuffed fuzzy football from a display that featured various local and national teams. She turned to Sera, stroking the football.
“I’ll just bet you’ll have a boy!” She paused, looking down at Sera’s stomach. “You look like you’re carrying that baby low.”
Sera laughed. She was barely pregnant and already Irene was making predictions. And she knew that they both knew she barely had a baby bump. It would be a while before they would be able to tell whether she was carrying the baby low or high. And she thought that determining the sex by how you carried the baby was probably just an old wives tale.
“I don’t know, Irene, there’s a fifty-fifty chance I’ll have a girl.”
They both laughed.
She tried to imagine what a baby of hers would look like.
Irene had spent hours showing her photos of the Savage boys when they were babies and toddlers. They had been so adorable. Each of them had been tow-headed until they were about five and then their hair had become darker and darker shades of brown.
Because she was a blonde and Nigel, the baby’s father, had been when he was young, she wondered if there was more of a possibility that the baby would be. She didn’t actually have a preference for a boy or a girl. She would just be thankful if both babies made it. It would be so ideal to just be pregnant once and have two babies, then she wouldn’t have to get pregnant again, if she didn’t want to, because they’d have someone to play with. Whatever happened, she was sure she would think her baby was the most beautiful or handsome baby in the world.
That thought made her recall something Irene had said about Nigel. When he was born, because he was her first and her hips hadn’t spread enough, the shape of his head was a little strange. Irene hadn’t noticed. She saw him and had eyes for no one else. Nigel’s father however, couldn’t help but notice and made a deal out of pointing it out to Irene. He had told her that the baby looked like he had an alien head. Irene had laughed at such nonsense, she had told her, because there was nothing in the world wrong with Nigel.
She wondered if she would have the same blind adoration of her child as Irene had had for all of hers. She stepped away from the football display that Irene was still admiring to another that was overflowing with yellow flowers, pink ribbons, and little girl’s gowns. She picked up a long flowing white christening gown, complete with a cap embroidered with delicate flowers.
“Isn’t this precious?” Sera asked Irene.
She stroked the soft ribbon laced through the cap before she laid the garment back where she had found it. Turning to Irene, she became all seriousness.
“You know, I’ll be happy whether I have a boy or a girl,” Sera admitted truthfully.
The only thing she worried and wanted more than anything, was for the baby to come out complete and healthy. There was nothing more important than being healthy, and she worried about the baby having all of its fingers and toes and everything else in working order. Irene had assured her plenty of times that the constant worries over the baby were what every first time mother experienced. But for Sera, the first time mother, it was hard to let mere words lay her very powerful fears to rest.
Irene beamed at Sera’s comment. She wasn’t worried about whether the baby was a boy or a girl, either. The only thing she thought about was how she could hardly wait till it arrived. And she knew they were in for a long wait. That was the hard part about knowing exactly when the baby was conceived, you knew it would take about nine months from that date. When she had been young, she had never found out right away, but, of course, their situation was entirely different.
They left the store and strolled down the sidewalk to enter another. They made their way through each and every different baby attire and toy shop that downtown had to offer in a matter of hours.
When they left the last of the baby clothing shops, Sera said, “I don’t think I really want to buy anything until I’m sure what I’m going to have.”
What she left unsaid was the fact that, at four months, when she would find out the sex of the baby or babies, she would feel more hopeful that they would make it to full term. She was scared of getting attached and then loosing them. She tried not to stress about it much, there was no need to be pessimistic, but the fact was never far from her mind, a fact highlighted by the number of eggs the doctor had implanted that already hadn’t made it.
“I guess you’re right. I’m just so anxious to buy the baby things, it’s hard to wait,” Irene agreed.
Sera smiled at Irene. She missed her own mother. She was glad Irene was there, she was a wonderful woman, with many admirable qualities including the way she made her feel comfortable, but it hurt that her own parents had never gotten the chance to have grandchildren, although she knew they wouldn’t have been thrilled like Irene. The childhood Nigel experienced and the one she’d had were vastly different. He had been very lucky to have a mother that enjoyed motherhood so much.
Her own parents loved her but were more work oriented. They spent most of their time furthering business interests instead of making room for quality family time. To them, that was the most important thing they could do because it was through their hard work that their family flourished. And, they felt like they should lead her by example.
Life was work, and she had better get used to it while she was young.
There was no point in spoiling her and then trying to shove her out into the real world. How could they expect her to do well if they didn’t start her work ethic from the beginning? It had always been a hard pill to swallow, but, when she was young, she had never realized there was any other way. After she had gotten older, she realized that plenty of people she met had had wonderful childhoods running around doing absolutely nothing in their backyard or laying around and watching TV. during their summer vacations with their friends from school and still managed to grow up to accomplish a great deal.
As they stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the last toy store in the plaza, Irene spotted a maternity store that had a huge sale sign out front, just a short distance away.
“Oh, look at that, Sera. That maternity clothing store, We’re Expecting You, is having a forty percent off sale for mother’s day. We should go take a look around in there.”
“Why not,” Sera agreed. She hoped she wouldn’t get gigantic while she was pregnant, but she knew that she also couldn’t expect to wear all of her normal clothes. She didn’t wear everything skin tight, but her jeans wouldn’t allow for a lot of growth around her middle. She purposefully wore her clothes fitted so that she wouldn’t eat herself into the next pants size.
That made her think about the fact that there were still two eggs. What if both of them made it? She would be so lucky to have two children at one time. Of course, it would be extremely hard at first, not only because she’d never had a child and didn’t know anything about taking care of a baby, but because she would have double the trouble.
Since getting pregnant, she had begun to notice other women with infants and small children and the way they interacted together. It was nothing like how her parents had treated her. She had never really been allowed to go out with her parents very much. Most of their outings had been business related. But when they did go out together as a family, she had been expected to be very quiet and composed, the perfect little lady. She looked back on it now and wondered if she had been the unknowing example of their iron will to strangers that met them. Here, do you see my daughter? Do you see how well I trained her?
They passed a woman who had her daughter in a contraption that looked like a chest harness with a leash attached. She tried not to stare, but she couldn’t help turning back after a few minutes and trying to get another look.
She stopped Irene in the street and discreetly brought her attention to the woman and child that had kept going down the street behind them.
“What in the world would make someone want to put something on their child like that?” she whispered.
Irene’s face scrunched in displeasure.
“I don’t really approve of those myself, but, until you have a child, honey, you don’t really know what it is like. Sure, you can ask questions, and people can tell you about their experiences, but you don’t really know. Yes, you can imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes, but until you fill them, there’s no true knowing.
When Nigel was young, I went shopping in a department store for a new outfit for a wedding that was coming up. He was very young, only about two years old. He was a very active boy but very quiet.
I only looked away for a moment to check a price tag, and when I looked back he was gone. I became frantic. I began to run through the store. I stopped other customers and asked them if they had seen my son. I called his name over and over again, my voice cracking with the fear that was beginning to overwhelm me.
You can’t really know the worry, the horrible things that ran through my mind when I realized he wasn’t beside me, that he was gone. I felt like the worst mother in the world. All sorts of scenarios ran through my mind. Where could he have gone? How could he have gotten away from me so quickly without me even seeing him? Why didn’t he answer when I called him? Was he even in the store anymore? Should I run outside of the store and look for him there? What if someone had taken him? What if someone had snatched my baby, taken him away to do lord only knows what to him? I would never see him again. And I would have to live with the fact that I had let it happen, that something horrible had happened to my child because of me.
And, slowly, as I kept calling out his name and scouring the racks of clothing looking for him, I began to feel my heart sink until I thought I wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore, the tears coming so fast I could hardly see.
It was when I made my way back to where I had lost him and looked around at the store at the other people who didn’t care a thing in the world about my son and whether he was gone forever that I became so weak that I fell to the floor in my despair.
Seconds later, Nigel jumped out of a clothing rack behind me yelling ‘Boo. I scared you Mommy’.
I wanted to beat him within an inch of his life, but all I had the strength to do was hold him tightly to my chest and cry.
I thought I had lost him that day. And when he was back in my arms, I knew that I never wanted to feel that way again.”
* * * *
Nigel couldn’t believe the relief he felt to finally be back in town. It was like a great weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. As his train neared the station in his hometown, he thought about how he and Sgt. Wilmont had barely escaped the last mission with their lives. Looking death straight in the eyes was a very sobering thing.
And, they would be dead, both of them, if not for the sympathetic farmer that had found them dehydrated and half dead from blood loss in that shallow depression they had taken shelter in. Well, it had been the farmer’s dog that had found them, but, nevertheless, the farmer had taken pity on them when he found his dog trying to eat them. He had taken them into his home and nursed them back to health, quite a feat considering the living conditions in that territory. He would never be able to repay the kindness the man had shown them. He had tried to repay him with money, but it had seemed like such an empty gift, so petty next to what he had been given, life.
Time had passed so slowly when he had been recovering. Every day had seemed like an eternity. And as he and Wilmont had gotten better, well enough to sit up in their sick beds, it had been agonizing waiting for the day that they would recover enough to make it out of there. It had felt like it would last forever. He had felt guilty that he had resented being there so much, but he couldn’t help wanting to get back home. It was all he had thought about, and he’d had plenty of time for thinking while he’d lain in a bed for months on end.
Had the enemy found them, though, they would’ve killed them immediately or died under torture in a filthy prison. Facts like those had given him a lot to think about. He had always thought he had a charmed life, been fatalistic about the possibility of dying in service. That wasn’t something he was alright with anymore.
Trying to dispel the negative turn his thoughts had taken, he shifted his focus. He had been given a second chance, and now he was going to live life to the fullest. Taking a deep breath, he relished the sweet air, like the first taste of freedom for a wrongly imprisoned man. It didn’t stink of gunpowder and death. He didn’t hear men screaming in agony. He didn’t have to sleep with one eye open. He was back, back in the United States, back in his hometown. There was nothing he could have been more thankful for. And, with debriefing behind him, he could now start a new life.
Stepping off of the train and onto the platform, he quickly spotted the rental car he had reserved. After getting the keys from the rental car attendant, he made his way to the car. Opening the driver’s side door, he tossed his one piece of luggage into the passenger seat and got in to drive. He smiled for the first time since leaving home so long ago.
Needless to say, when he had showed up back at Fort Braggs, his commanding officers had been surprised to see him alive. During debriefing, they had informed him that a funeral service had been held in his memory and for the rest of the troop that had died that day.
Realizing that not only the military but his entire family thought he was dead, he was wracked with guilt at what his mother must have g
one through. But, now that he was home, he would make it up to her because now that his term of service was over, he had decided not to re-enlist. The duty he had felt that he owed to his country was paid in full. He was going to settle down, find a woman to love and marry, and give his mother those grandchildren she had always wanted.
While driving downtown on his way to his mother’s house, he saw a car that looked like his mothers parked on the side of the street. Searching the sidewalks, he spotted his mother walking with a foxy looking younger woman. What was his mother doing downtown? Who was that amazing woman she was with? He only caught a glimpse of his mother’s companion, but what he saw intrigued him, long blonde hair, long legs, and a sexy sway of hips.
He had been headed to the house to surprise his mother, but since he had spotted her, he didn’t think he could go to her house and wait for her there. He decided to stop and surprise her there. He was far too excited to wait. He had to see her immediately, and, besides, if he stopped now, he would get the chance to meet the lovely woman in her company. After all, it had been a long time since he had seen a beautiful woman. He’d had to stare at Sgt. Wilmont’s mug for months.
Going around the block, he parked and headed for the shop he’d seen his mother and the woman with her enter, the one with the big mother’s day sale sign out front.
As he entered the shop, he didn’t notice what kind of shop it was, figuring it was just some kind of women’s clothing store.
Soldier's Women
Chapter Three
The two women didn’t notice Nigel when he walked in. It gave him the chance to get a better look at the woman who had accompanied his mother into the store. He was floored. When he’d driven by in his rental, he’d only caught a glimpse. He was immediately thankful he’d decided to stop.
His libido instantly went into hyper-drive as he took in the delicate features of her heart shaped face. Her lips were a soft pink, her skin pale but slightly flushed. Her hair was a golden blonde and long enough it touched her shoulders. His breath caught in his throat when she turned more fully in his direction, talking to his mother. Her eyes were a sea green. He imagined himself getting lost in those depths or lost in that luscious body of hers. She wasn’t skinny, she was curvy, her pert breasts the perfect size for his hands. He wondered how it would feel to test the weight of them in his hands.