After three months of trying, it didn’t look like Cal and I would be adding to our family any time soon, so we altered our plans for the nursery. I found a painting of swirls at the University Gallery by an art student I knew, and it really did something for me, so I bought it, and together Cal and I painted the erstwhile nursery some complementary colors befitting the painting.

“But don’t think we’re giving up,” I informed Cal, and he said, “Of course not,” and right away we put not giving up into practice.

The practicing was so intense I almost went through the wall.

We left the Swirl painting propped against one wall or another for a few weeks, but finally I decided it was time for something more permanent. I got Cal to help me with the hanging. But then I thought, “What if we want to have the Swirl on the other wall?” I didn’t want us to limit ourselves, so I met up with my art student friend and she said she could make me another painting almost identical to the first. “Like twins,” she said. I asked how long it would take. “One day to paint, five days to dry,” she said. A week later, again with Cal’s help, I hung the second Swirl. I was so excited! “I’m wet enough,” I told Cal. “For fuck’s sake put it in already.” After that Cal was suitably attentive to my needs.

In fact, he was so attentive that the very next month Ta Da!

We speculated that the Swirl paintings had something to do with our good luck, and after some discussion we decided maybe twins would be more than we could handle, so we donated one of the paintings to my maternity nurse at the clinic.

As for the original Swirl, eventually we’ll probably move it to our bedroom, but for now we’re keeping it in the nursery.