Chapter 8

From early afternoon until the wee ours of the morning Marianne seldom left her bed. A constant stream of men, some young, some old, many single but most married rotated into and out of her bedroom. Her father and mother who, at first, had either left the apartment or retired to their own bedroom when Marianne was entertaining, now simply sat at the small kitchen table and counted the profits while the sounds of intercourse wafted from their daughter's bedroom.

The local police stopped by to investigate when some neighbors complained of the traffic into and out of the apartment and the passionate noises emanating therefrom. But a half hour with Marianne in which both officers partook of her charms at the same time, and the complaints were ignored.

What could not be ignored was Marianne. She began to experience nausea, dizziness and light headedness. Her breasts became extremely tender. She seemed tired most of the time and had frequent headaches. Add to those symptoms the fact that she had missed her period and the conclusion was undeniable.

"You've gone and gotten yourself pregnant?" roared her father.

"I'm sorry, Daddy."

"As well you should be! Here we've got a great thing going and you've got to go and screw it all up!"

Marianne hung her head.

"So what do we do?" asked the mother.

"Have it taken care of. The two docs in town are no help. I remember when the Johnson girl got herself knocked up. Neither of them would do it. She ended up having to go over to Millersburg; some kind of clinic."

"How soon?"

"The sooner the better. The quicker she has it done, the quicker we get her back here and in business again. And by God you get yourself on the pill, girl!"

"Yes, Daddy."

Two days later Marianne was on a bus bound for Millersburg. This was only her second trip outside her hometown. The first had been a school field trip to visit a museum. But that had been with a bus full of other students and teachers. Now she was alone, the money in her pocket to pay for the abortion. Her father had given her specific instructions on how to get to the clinic, but Marianne was nonetheless frightened to be on her own.

When the bus pulled in to the Millersburg bus stop, the wide eyed young woman got off and began the twelve block walk to the clinic. Along the way she was amazed at the size and height of the buildings. Back home there were no buildings over three stories and most of them quite modest in size. Here the buildings seemed to tower over her and the other sights and sounds of city traffic and the hustle-bustle of the city were both awesome and a bit scary.

Unable to resist a little window shopping, Marianne gazed at the array of clothes and other products displayed behind the huge windows of the various stores. Gradually, the further she walked, the business district evolved into fast food restaurants and gasoline stations of the outlying areas. At last she found the modest sized building she was looking for. She was puzzled as she approached by the half dozen or so people carrying signs of protest, chanting and hurling insults.

"You go in there," said an older bearded man who looked as if he hadn't bathed in some time, "and you're going straight to hell!"

"Don't do this!" shouted a portly woman carrying a sign. "You don't want to be a murderer!"

Stunned, Marianne was questioning whether she could run this gauntlet when a nurse who had been looking out the front window rushed out to her.

"Honey, do you want to come in?" she asked.

Marianne nodded and the woman put her arm around Marianne's waist and helped her through the rantings and confusion.

"My name's Arlene," she said as they finally closed the door behind them leaving the demonstrators behind while the kindly eyed woman ushered her into a small conference room.

"Hi, I'm Marianne."

"Well, Marianne, how can we help you?"

"I... I'm..."

"Pregnant?"

The young widow nodded.

"Married?"

"I'm a widow."

"Home test or doctor?"

"What?"

"Did you determine you were pregnant with a home test or did a doctor diagnose your condition?"

"Uh, neither. My daddy said I was."

"How did he know?"

"I told him and Mama about missing my period, the sickness each morning and how I seemed to be tired a lot."

The nurse noticed the hesitancy in the young woman's voice.

"Honey, is your dad the father?"

"I... I don't know."

"Ummmmm. Well, the first thing we've got to do is test you to make sure."

A few minutes later Arlene gave Marianne a brochure as she took the small pregnancy tester from her. "Now, while we wait for the results here is a brochure which explains your options, in case your test does turn out to be positive."

Marianne read through the brochure which outlined adoption and single parenthood as well as abortion.

Arlene returned and examined the tester. "Well, honey you are pregnant. Now the question is, what do you want to do?"

"My Daddy said I should ask for an abortion."

"Is that what you want?"

Marianne never even considered anything else. Her father had decreed what she was to do. There simply was no other option.

"... Yes.""

"Are you sure? We can talk about some of these options if you want."