Young Adult / We Are Expecting
Tammy called today bursting with news; “We’re expecting!” she exclaimed, after she asked how things were going in my life; I honestly do not know how she held the news for the first fifteen minutes of conversation that revolved completely around me and what was going on in my life, maybe some people are actually less self-centered than I am. I was excited for her and we immediately started discussing the new nursery, clothes, I wasn’t sure at all what I would wear to the birthing of a new baby, and names for the baby, most of the names I chose were names that I thought to be power names or different versions of my own name, names like Woodrina, my would be stage name if I ever did drag, for the record, not all gay men do drag or have the desire to do so, the last time I did drag was for the Miss Ugly contest my senior year in high school. I strongly felt the baby should be named after me or some form of my name since I was Tammy’s “at work husband” and drinking buddy. At that moment it dawned on me, no more Malibu and pineapple for Tammy, I lost my drinking buddy; I supposed it was okay since she was pretty much a light-weight anyway. It was almost as if it was Tammy and I having the baby, Joe was not on my mind as much as Tammy and her new baby growing inside of her. I was very happy for Tammy; I love my friends and want them to find their happiness in life and having a baby would complete their family till they were ready to have another baby.
The conversation finally turned to Joe, after we completely exhausted the conversation that revolved more around me and the baby than it did Joe. Joe would himself be like a small child in a candy store whether it was a boy or a girl; I was hoping for a girl for Tammy’s sake, except for the fact she would probably become a tomboy before too long and I was hoping for a boy for Joe’s sake and thinking that at least it would not be a girl in a football uniform demanding to play football for the University of Georgia. I thought maybe it will be twins, one of each, but I would not want to wish that on either one of them, but at the same time it would be very cool. Joe is a Bulldog, Tammy is a Tiger, and I am a Gator; the three of us are going to have so many colors going on that the poor child will become color blind.
After I hung-up with Tammy I was still a little buzzed and reeling from the news, but as it sank-in so did the reality of the chain of events that were about to start. I went through this so many times with friends in the past; friends get married, your social life slows down, you have kids and it comes to a halt until the kids are grown. I could not believe that I was suddenly becoming very depressed at the prospect of possibly losing touch with my friends. I tried to shake off the depression, but it was too overwhelming. I decided a run might help me to clear my head so I could put everything into perspective.
I called my friend and running partner, Greg, he jumped at the opportunity to go for a run; to think that everyone at Hilton knew me as “the human hamster” because I was always running on the treadmill trying to keep my gut off when I was traveling all over the country; Greg was even more of an avid runner than I was and he did not really need to run, he just enjoyed doing it because it felt good. Greg arrived fifteen minutes later, I quickly ran out onto the sidewalk next to him, mirroring his stride, perhaps another reason we made such good running partners. Once we reached Herschel we picked up our pace, neither one of us said much more than the usual greetings. As we crossed the bridge into Ortega I began to tell Greg about my phone call with Tammy and the news of her pregnancy; Greg sighed, not a good sign, he then began to tell me about how he lost touch with some of his friends after they started families. However, he then told me how much he adored his other friends’ children; he assured me that true friends will stay in-touch and make you a part of the extraordinary event.
Everything that Greg said made sense to me, but it did not completely clear my mind of any concern. I did not want to over-analyze the situation so I let it go and accepted his words of wisdom. I picked up that pace without realizing it, I was racing for a finish line that was not there. Greg picked up the pace as well and just grinned as he matched my stride. We did not speak much more, except the occasional comment about other passing runners, the weather, and various other routine events in our lives. I am not sure why, but just being with Greg and running was making me feel better. We usually ran together early in the morning, but rarely ran in the evenings, it was nice running in the evening and feeling the tension drain from my body, but it also reminded me I should probably be spending my spare time in the evenings in the gym instead of splurging on fattening dinner with friends.
As we rounded the corner back onto Saint Johns Avenue I realized we completed our six-mile run; the time flew by quickly with Greg at my side, making me feel better as he always did. When we arrived back at my place we popped the cork on a bottle of wine Greg brought over the previous week. After a few glasses of wine on the balcony, a great sunset over the river and a lot of silence, Greg rose from his chair taking my glass. I sat there still wondering what I was going to do if Tammy and Joe became too busy in their “new” life with their “new” family. Greg returned and reached out his hand, I put my hand in his and he pulled me to my feet, pulling me close to him and wrapping me in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his waist and squeezed hard as I kissed him on the cheek. Greg was such a good friend and always there when I needed him and I was there for him as well when he was going through some recent growing pains. I wished that Greg was open to meeting my other friends, but due to his job he could not be “out” to anyone; he was still not comfortable enough to share himself completely with anyone as a gay man. Greg assured me that Tammy and Joe would most likely love to keep me as a part of their growing family.
Greg and I popped in a video and finished the last of the wine, right out of the bottle. We laughed as we thought about what we were doing, drinking a good wine from a bottle like commoners, the gay community would have us exiled if they only knew. When the wine was gone and the movie was over Greg put his arm around me and reassured me everything would be fine and even better with a new baby to play with and a new kid that I would grow to love and probably be a role model for. We got up from the couch and went to the balcony, the moon on the river glistened and the lights on the Ortega bridge across the way danced on the water. We stood there for a minute, our arms around each other. Greg squeezed my shoulders and I squeezed back as we turned to walk toward the door. As I opened the door to let Greg out he leaned in again and kissed me on the cheek, then smiled as he said “If only you were gay I would marry you.” I laughed at the irony of it, of course I was gay and Greg knew it, so was he, but it became a silly joke between us that if we were gay we would be the perfect couple. Perhaps we would be the perfect couple, but maybe the fact we never talked about being a couple or actually dating is what kept us so close to each other.
After Greg left I thought back on the days events and realized that maybe the friends in the past and became parents lost touch maybe because they were not the close friends I perceived them to be. Maybe true friendships do survive children and continue to grow in a new direction and maybe even in a better way. I would have a new god-child in less than seven months, a new baby to play with, buy things for, and spoil before sending him or her back home to my dear friends. I enjoyed helping raise my nieces and nephew, I enjoyed taking them to the park, movies, sporting events, and roller skating, etc. It would be great to have a good excuse to go to kid movies once again instead of having to wait for it to come to Blockbuster. We were all going to be alright, maybe even better than we were before.
Over the next few weeks I found myself shopping through the baby clothes, picking out little outfits that I thought would be cute. I also visited several stores in the mall looking for a gator cheerleader or football outfit, not knowing whether we were having a boy or a girl. I found some cute outfits, but fought the temptation to buy them just yet, Tammy would soon know the sex of “our” new baby and I could begin shopping for real. Of course I was bracing myself for a war with Joe when it came to what college colors the new baby would be sporting, but knowing Tammy I knew she would be diplomatic about it. I thought about how much fun it would be to baby sit the new baby. I began to recall how much fun it was taking my nieces and nephews to the movies when they were kids, how I spoiled them as babies with all the best toys and clothes.
I often took my niece and nephew shopping with me when I went to the grocery store and was so proud when people would tell me how cute they were, I’m so glad they were not born ugly. I have always been told there is no such thing as an ugly baby, but working in retail and seeing hundreds of people and their babies every day, I have seen some ugly babies. My friend Alice and I were coming back from lunch one day and walked by a grandmother holding a baby, at least I assumed she was the grandmother, I love babies and could resist sneaking a peak at the baby she was cradling in her arms; I almost fell over a fixture as I stumbled backward away from the baby, gasping for breath. The baby was close resemblance to a pug puppy, its eyes were bulging from its head like a black gold fish, its face was all wrinkled like it was soaking in water for a week. I don’t mean to sound mean, but that was definitely an ugly baby. Not learning from my mistake, Alice decided to sneak a peak as well, I watched as all expression and color fell from her face. She looked at me and gasped, I was standing a safe distance away in case the child decided to start speaking in tongues and send a demon of some sort after us. I have to say, the grandmother loved that baby all the same, God bless her, somebody loved her. As Alice and I walked away, still in shock and bewildered at what we saw we did not speak a word, just stared at the floor, we were completely speechless. I would have been very curious to see what the parents looked like; I wondered if the child was a victim of a birth defect or something else wrong with it. My heart became heavy later in the day, I felt sorry for the baby and hoped that it would somehow become a beautiful little girl and begged forgiveness of myself for being so critical and shallow.
With all of the talk about virility and reproducing at Samantha’s wedding I couldn’t help but wonder when she would be announcing her pregnancy. I hoped it might be a while since she was still a newly wed and with a lot of self-discovery ahead of her, as well as adjustment to being a “wife” instead of just Samantha. I can only imagine what it is like to suddenly become as another person where you are no longer yourself, but instead you are a couple and referred to as such. People no longer refer to you by your first name they refer to you as someone’s wife and/or husband. I think it would take a while to adjust to that and then you become mommy and you are then referred to as someone’s mother when it is daycare or school, but at dinner parties and adult social gatherings you are still referred to as someone’s wife. Women take on so many identities and roles in their lifetime, you have to appreciate how they change without even seeming to flinch.
We would soon have a new baby, the regular dinners would now involve a bottle, eventually a kid’s meal with a sippy cut and before you know it we will be attending the graduation and then wedding of the new addition. Our lives would somewhat change for forever, but our friendship and bond would continue to grow over the years as we watched together as our lives changed and the focus of our conversations went from drinking and dating, to our children and spouses. I am still the single one of the group and may remain single forever, who knows, but either way, I have a great family in my friends and for now that is enough for me, just to know I will always have a place to call home and a family to share when I need one.
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as a whole, i thought this piece was really nice. its cute, and heart warming, really. something i could totally see in some sort of publication. the only thing I have any real complaint about is that it kind of took me a while to figure out how the characters relate to each other—who exactly the main character was and their relation to tammy (i mean, besides friends…how do they know each other? are they old friends?) unless you have another part of this that is meant to go in the beginning, then i’d suggest sort of beefing it up a bit in terms of character development.
(just as one tiny little sidenote… till isnt really a word. you’ve used it a few times where i thhink you mean to say “untill”.)
other than that, i really have no complaints. well written and i like the story. well done! and keep writing!
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Hi,
I don’t think that this belongs in the Young Adult section. The work spouse subject was intriguing, and the expectant mother scenario is very relatable. All of the feeling involved definitely made it worth the read. I think this would do better in Novel treatment though.
The way you switched person perspective was a little confusing. Keep going though. I think you have a good start.
:)
JD
Your character is good. He is believable. I think you need to work on sounding more professional, if you know what I mean. I didn’t notice too many spelling or grammar mistakes. I do like the way you write, your character talks just like a normal person should. Some authors try to make their character to unique that it just isn’t realistic. Good job!
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