Chapter 8: Laura

The next day, we had breakfast together and Percy went to work. He told me we’d talk more later.

I went to see a doctor. The results confirmed I was almost five weeks pregnant. I couldn’t tell what emotion was the strongest for me. I didn’t know if was terror, disbelief, or happiness.

It was time to face my parents and deliver the good news. I was dreading how they would react to my pregnancy, given my parent’s view on legitimate and illegitimate ways of having children.

While I was driving to their place, I tried to find the right words to tell them about the baby.

What about this? ‘Mom ... Dad ... I’m pregnant, and the father is the man you despised last night.’

Maybe like this? ‘Good news! Remember you always wanted a grandchild? Guess what? I’m pregnant. You hated the father, but you’ll get over it.”

Or, maybe I could just say: ‘Guess what? I’m fucked and pregnant.’

I rested my hand on my stomach and rubbed my thumb back and forth. “We are going to be okay,” I whispered to my tummy.

Of course, things rarely work as you planned them. As soon as my mother let me in she started lashing me out.

“Laura, how dare you bring that man into our house?” my mother blurted out. “You can’t be serious about him.”

“I thought you’d both like to know the father of my baby,” I blurted out.

Smooth, wasn’t it?

Both of my parents stared at me with their mouths opened, probably in shock.

My mother recovered first, her reaction was an irate scream.

“How could you do this to me!”

It wasn’t posed as a question, but I was prepared to answer it.

“Of course, you think everything is about you, Mother! Have you ever thought about someone else except yourself?”

My mother looked at me as if I had gone crazy. She opened her mouth to say something, but then changed her mind and looked at my father.

“I can’t believe it! I just can’t believe it! Harold, say something! Are you going to let your daughter talk to me like that?”

She looked at Dad as if she actually expected him to fix it. “You say sorry to your mother immediately, Laura.”

“I didn’t do or say anything wrong. She is the one who should apologize to me,” I looked at my father, defying him to say otherwise.

“How could you be so careless, Laura? You’re 27 years old! Stop acting like a rebellious teenager,” my father finally sighed. “What a mess!”

“Percy asked me to marry him,” I told them.

My father nodded, Mom looked, if possible, even more distressed.

“You can’t mean to marry this ... guy,” she said ‘guy’ with disgust. Somehow she made it sound like ‘shit’. “It’s bad enough that he got you into this situation. It would be stupid to compound the mistake by tying yourself to this ... this low-class bad seed. This guy is not good for you, you need to get rid of him!”

She looked at my father again, and told him, “Harold, call our lawyer. Offer him more money, and a confidentiality agreement, of course.”

I looked at my parents, “I haven’t known my boyfriend for long, but I do know for certain that when Percy does something, he does it wholeheartedly. The other thing I know is that I am pregnant and Percy is the father. If any of you think I’m going to stand here and let you pay him off so that your grandchild grows up without his or her father, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Mom did not attempt to hide her contempt. “I didn’t raise you to make these kinds of mistakes! What are the Hamiltons going to think about us?”

“You didn’t raise me at all, mother. Nana Francine did. And fuck the Hamiltons and their arrogant asses too!”

Mother’s eyes widened, and her face grew red. For a moment, I thought she was going to have a heart attack. Then she started pacing back and forth, cursing me and my boyfriend.

“Percy is not low-class and he’s not a bad seed,” I declared. “He is a kind, generous, caring person. Any woman would be proud to call him her husband and give birth to his baby. And I-I love him.”