“Have a good day, honey!” Pete leaned over and kissed Mary’s forehead before he grabbed his backpack and headed out the door.

Mary loved it when he did that, it made her feel so safe and happy.

Sighing, she lifted her laptop lid and opened her email program, sipping her coffee while checking her first few emails, all of which managed to raise a different urgent issue that she’d need to focus on today. It was hard to pull her mind together, though, because today was the day.

THE day.

The day where the doctor was supposed to call with her test results. The ones that would tell her and Pete if they really did have a hope of having a baby.

Mary settled back in her chair, daydreaming for a moment. About what it would be like, having a baby around the house again. All the babyproofing that would need to be done. All the little clothes, and outfits, and myriad pieces of furniture that she and Pete would need to assemble together. She smiled as she imagined the struggles that would ensue, the two of them huddled over a set of instructions written completely in cartoons, trying to find the next Piece A that goes into Slot B.

The problem was, that Mary was old. Well, she felt old, some days. She celebrated her forty-third birthday last year, and there were days she felt every minute of them. Pete would get irritated when she said stuff like that. She believed partly he didn’t believe it and partly he didn’t want to believe it.

They had married when she was already forty years old. His first marriage, and her…well, not her first. He had never had the chance to have a baby, and she desperately wanted to give him one.

Which brings us to today, when she’s waiting for the tests she had done during her last doctor’s visit, to see if it was even possible.

Trying not to let her hopes get too far up, while still trying to think positively, was practically impossible.

Lost in thought, she almost didn’t notice when her phone started buzzing. Swallowing against the butterflies suddenly erupting in her stomach, she answered.

“Mary? This is Dr. Kapinski.” Was that a note of excitement in her voice? Happiness? “I have your test results from the other day. Do you have a minute?”

“Hi, Dr. Kapinski! Yes, I’ve been looking forward to your call.” Maybe it was sympathy. Mary’s butterflies were beating harder and harder.

“So I have your lab results here, and I looked them over this morning.” there was a pause, and a shuffling of papers. Mary thought she was going to die of strangulation by stomach butterflies.

“I’m sorry, Mary.” Her voice was gentle. “It doesn’t look like it will happen without intervention.” Mary gazed off into the distance as she half-listened to Dr. Kapinski talk about her egg counts, and the difficulties of getting pregnant after 35, and rattle off terms like AMH levels, and IVF, and HSG and a bunch of other things that she didn’t really understand. In her mind’s eye, all she could see was images of cribs and baby clothes, and cartoony furniture instructions, disintegrating and fading from view.

Dr. Kapinski was saying that there were still options, like adoption and fertility treatments. Mary let her wind down, then thanked her for calling and said she’d book a follow-up appointment soon. She thumbed the disconnect button and sat there for a while, staring into space, eyes burning.

Her brain was whirling, reshuffling everything she’d been planning for the last months and years. How to break the news to Pete; how to find something else that might fill the void in both their hearts. How to evaluate their options; how this would change their hopes and dreams.

One thing was for sure: they needed to make some decisions.

Another Cursive Verses post, granted a few days later than I’d like. I chose prompt #1 from this week’s prompts: Your character learns something that changes his/her whole life. I hope you enjoyed!