My Bundle Of Joy: Part Four

~ beetleypete

This is the fourth part of a fiction serial, in 735 words.

The person who bought our flat didn’t even come and look at it. In fact they didn’t even live in the country, and had bought it purely as a rental investment, so the agent told us. Full asking price, no haggling, and only awaiting legal stuff and a survey. That gave us a possible moving date of six to eight weeks, and as soon as he got home from work the next evening, Olly started stacking up all the books ready for packing.

My mum was less than delighted when I told her that we would be moving almost thirty miles from her, and ended the call earlier than usual, claiming to have to get dinner ready to serve. My comment that both her and dad had cars and could easily drive over to see us hadn’t gone down well. She had snapped back with what I suppose she considered to be a warning. “Wait until you are at your wit’s end with a baby, and need some help. It’s going to take me well over an hour to drive to that part of town”.

That night in bed, we both had something serious to talk about. Olly grinned. “Ladies first”. I wanted to make sure that he was okay about knowing the sex during the second scan. It had suddenly become important to me, though I had no real explanation as to why. He gave in so easily, I wondered what it was he wanted to say. For a split second, I had a terrible feeling he was going to say he was leaving me. That must have had something to do with the hormone changes I had been warned about.

But it was nothing so dramatic, though still reasonably serious.

He wanted to talk about marriage, and surnames. We had always thought marriage was unnecesary. If you love someone, and are committed to them, why the need for some socially-acceptable formalisation? Besides, we knew enough couples who had been divorced already, and national divorce rates were approaching fifty percent. I went back over that old ground in reply, and he nodded as I reminded him of everything we had said four or more years ago. Then he wanted to know what the baby’s surname would be, when it came time to register the birth. Would it be his, Woodman? That wasn’t his father’s name of course, but his mother’s maiden name.

I could tell from his expression and tone that this was important to him. I cast my mind ahead to arriving at school with a child that had a different surname to mine. My surname was Mackie, a legacy of my paternal grandfather originally coming from Scotland. I had few memories of him past a wizened-looking, rather scary man who had a hacking cough every time I ever saw him. Olly was leaning forward like a Heron about to take a fish. He obviously wanted an answer. I settled for the best I could come up with when I was ready to get some sleep. I agreed to hyphenate it, Mackie-Woodman.

It was obvious from the way he turned over and switched off the lamp that this hadn’t been the answer he had been hoping for.

Not long before the second scan, I started to notice a few changes. Some tenderness and fullness in my boobs, though I wasn’t sure if that was psychological. And even though I had not had anything like the morning sickness everyone told me to expect, I was getting hungrier and eating a lot more. The think I disliked most was an occasional bad taste in my mouth, and what felt like velvet covering my teeth. I started to take more calcium supplements, and stopped drinking so much fruit juice.

Then my hair started to get oily and lank. I was never that vain about my looks, in all honesty, but I had always liked my hair. Now it began to look as if I had dipped my head in the deep-fat fryer before leaving for work. And I convinced myself it was getting thinner too. I would end up as a bald mum with foul breath and velvety teeth, I had no doubt.

The cheerful woman doing the ultrasound scan was from Northern Ireland, judging by her accent. She turned the screen around so we could see, and beamed a dazzling smile.

“It’s a wee gurly”.

46 thoughts on “My Bundle Of Joy: Part Four”

  6. (1) Rather than Mackie-Woodman, how about Wackie-Moodman? (She’s wacky; he’s moody.)
    (2) A baby boy should always get a sir-name. Never miss-name a baby boy.
    (3) Never dip your head in a deep-fat fryer. Try the ice bucket challenge instead.
    (4) Who needs Viagra? Just take calcium supplements to guarantee a boner!
    (5) I love foreshadowing in a story. Angela will indeed “end up as a bald mum with foul breath and velvety teeth.” She’ll be a mum only a baby could love.

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  7. When I was pregnant, my husband was 100% sure it will a girl. He was so excited that he only discussed girl baby names. In a country where people die for a son, I had to ask him if he will be disappointed with a boy. He never answered. Thank God, it’s a girl.

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  9. Olly was leaning forward like a heron about to take a fish. “Down, boy! The fishing’s terrible in bed.”

    It was obvious from the way he turned over and switched off the lamp that this hadn’t been the answer he had been hoping for. “I just came to bed looking for fishing tips, dammit!”

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  12. I love It. So true about the hair lol Being from Northern Ireland I laughed at “wee gurly”. I don’t use the term ‘gurly’ but the term ‘wee’ is put in front of almost everything if you come from certain parts of our wee country 😉

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    2. I once lived with a nurse who came from Belfast. (A Shankill Proddy)
      She would have pronouced it something sounding like ‘gurrul’. 🙂
      (Glad I got the hair thing right, Siobhain.)
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Wel
        The tender boobs got me! Hahaha
        So believable
        –
        And could also feel the emotion when the mom was upset about the 30 mile distance
        –
        Reminded me of when we lived in Denver and my mother n law was across town – it took 60 to 70 minutes in traffic and so it really was not like I had help! I could relate to the way she was disappointed because she knew about the distance inconvenience and factor it wouod play

        _- you also grabbed a njce culture detail with Hutu g the place unseen and for an investment –
        Said a lot about different real
        Estate Purchases and all that

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