Tuesday 19 June 2012

50: Pink Warning Lights


Jenny was convinced her baby would be a girl by the way her bump was carrying, the direction a ring on a thread span and because her left boob was bigger than the right one.  She wasn’t sure whether it might always have been so, but it definitely was now and that meant a girl according to her husband’s grandmother.

At first she’d managed to resist the urge to buy only pink clothes and stuck to white and lemon, but now there were just a couple of weeks left she had bought dresses, skirts and tights covered in pink flowers of all shades.  Tom tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen, convinced that she was right.

One evening he tried again.  “Jen, we need to talk about the baby.”

“Do we darling?  Have you chosen your names from that list I left you,” Jen asked.

“No, not yet.  I like Martha and maybe Lily.”  He paused.  “What about Daniel?  That was my grandfather’s name so maybe we could think about using that for a boy.”

Jen said nothing for a few minutes.  “Daniel is a lovely name, but we’re having a girl, Tom.  Maybe we should keep Daniel for next time.”

“How can you be so sure?” Tom said.  “At the scan they said they couldn’t tell because of how the baby was lying that day.  What if it is a boy and all your predictions have got it wrong?”

“Don’t you want a girl?” said Jenny.  “You want a boy to carry on your name?”

Tom got up and walked over to Jenny, then put his arm around her.  “Sweetheart, you know I don’t mind what we have as long and he or she is healthy and so are you.  I just don’t want you to be disappointed if it does turn out to be a boy when you have your heart so set on a girl.”

“I just know it is a girl,” she said.  “I can feel it.  And she’s lying very differently than Emma’s bump and she knows from the scan that it hers is definitely a boy.”  Jenny rubbed her swollen belly gently, feeling the baby move inside her in response.

“Promise me you won’t mind if it isn’t a girl, Jen.  I hope it is, really I do.  But on the slight chance my Grandma might have got her boobs the wrong way round, will you try to keep an open mind?  Please, for me?”

Jenny sighed and smiled up at her husband.  “OK then.  Lily if she’s a girl, Daniel if she’s a boy.”  She nudged him in the ribs.  “Imagine, if it was one of each,” she said.

Inspired by “Warning over pink ecstasy drug”


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