Chapter 21

Joe drove her, once again, to Richard's house on the Saturday. He stayed with her. He was beginning to miss Ms Lehmann. The thought that he wouldn't see her again was hard to cope with. He needed a diversion to take his mind off her.

Lisa went for her ultra-sound. She had mixed emotions as she watched Richard squirt the jelly on her bare midriff. Richard moved the probe over her as he scrutinised the TV monitor. He moved closer and murmured, "Yes, I think there is something!" Moving the probe more slowly, he clicked on a dark area and froze the picture. "There! A definite show. One of the eggs has embedded for certain."

Continuing, he strained his eyes and then paused. Going back over the same area, he froze the picture again. A smaller shadow was in evidence. "Lisa, that could also be a foetus. Its very small, but promising, nevertheless. You could have taken both eggs! We'll be more certain tomorrow. I'll scan you again before you leave"

Lisa wiped her belly with a tissue and swung her legs over the side of the examination table. "Shit!" she murmured, "Two bloody great lambs growing in me." She had a mental picture of her in three months time. She was bent backwards holding a huge swollen stomach. With everyone thinking she was going to have two small Labrador puppies. Instead, she could be having two Merino lambs! And still months to go... Shit! How would she deal with that situation. Dogs were only supposed to take 2 months to develop.

A thought occurred to her. What exactly did a Merino sheep look like. She knew nothing at all. She asked Richard after lunch. "Er, Richard. Have you ever bred Merino sheep during your career?"

"Why, yes." He answered, "In fact I have some frozen Merino embryos in the lab. I've never allowed them to be implanted as I haven't had a ewe that is physically strong enough to cope with them."

"You've got lots of ewes in the paddock. What's wrong with them?" She pressed.

"Merino's are the prize creatures of the sheep world, Lisa. They produce the biggest specimens of sheep in the world. My ewes are too weak to bear them."

Lisa needed to know more. "Just how big are the lambs when they're born?"

Richard paused and thought, "From memory, they are about twenty percent larger than others. Say, 12 to 14 pounds at birth"

12 to 14 pounds at birth!!!!!! Lisa excused herself and returned to her room. Multiplying the figures by two, she had a chance of growing between 24 and 28 pounds of animal in her womb. What had she done! She began to imagine the birth. Lying on her bed, she pulled up her legs to simulate labour. "Twit!" she laughed, "You can't give birth with your knickers still on!" And reaching down she removed her panties and continued to imagine the birth. She pictured a 14 pound lamb dilating her cervix... "Push, Lisa!" Richard would be saying, "there's a good girl"