Veteran of the US navy, joined the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical workers) as an apprentice, became a Journeyman Electrician. Benjamin loves his Harley and his family.
"Pregnant!" Saying the word made an impish grin slowly spread over Shauna's face. She listens a few more seconds and hangs up the phone. She begins jumping up and down towards me with her pigtails bouncing. Shouting under her breath in a compressed squeak, "Oh my God, oh my God, Tony.”
She cups my ear so only I can hear.
“we're going to have a baby.”
We dance around in a circle getting louder and louder until we are laughing hysterically.
Her mom screams for us to shut up and settle down.
We run outside to the bench under the willow tree. "I'll bet it's going to be a boy," I say, rocking an imaginary baby.
"Well, I'm hoping it's a girl, so there," says Shauna, taking my hand
She looks into my eyes, "Tony, I love you. We are the cause of a new life entering this world."
"I love you too—and they say thirteen is too young to know what love is."
"Yeah, but I'll be fourteen in ten months."
"And I'll be fourteen in seven."
Shauna's face turns serious, "they'll never let us near our baby if they find out what we did, and I don't want someone else taking care of it. We can't tell anybody about this. Swear it!"
"Okay, my mouth is glued."
She puts her hand on my cheek, looks at me with those doe eyes and whispers, "Daddy."
I do the same to her and say, "Mommy".
We start laughing out-of-control again and wind up dancing around the trunk of the willow. In a while, we land back on the bench, still giggling into each other's eyes. Later, we go back into the house letting the screen door slam.
Shauna's mom hollers, “Shauna, what time do you have to baby-sit for Mrs. Murphy?”
"She said to be there at six.”
Shauna whispers to me “Can you believe, the Murphys warned me again about sneaking you in. God, it's been months since they came home early and caught us pigging-out on all their goodies. Don't they ever forget anything?”
Loudly she says, "Mom, did you hear about Mrs. Murphy being pregnant again?”
“Oh my Lord, what are they going to do with another one? Looks to me like you'll be able to baby-sit for life the way she's going.”
# # #
Mrs. Murphy's sister came to stay with her a week before the baby was born, and is still there three weeks after. We're dying to see the new baby and to score a few treats from the pantry. The past four weeks have left us goodie deprived.
A few days later, my cell rings . . .
"Oink, Oink," Shauna shouts to me, “the sister's gone home and took all the bigger kids with her, Mrs. Murphy wants me there at eight. Guess what? She went grocery shopping today. God, we'll finely get to see the baby and raid some major goodies too."
A few minutes after eight, before the Murphys are even out of the driveway, Shauna lets me in the back door. We run to the baby's bassinet and look down at our baby girl. The one we caused to be born when we poked tiny needle holes in the condoms we found when snooping in the bedroom drawers.
Our baby coos at the attention we're giving her.
Before we take the bassinet and head for the TV (and the munchies), I look knowingly at Shauna, "Nothing like a planned pregnancy, huh Mommy?"
“Not to mention job-security,” she grins.
