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“Thank you.”
“You’re free to go! Emily at the front desk will schedule your next appointment.” She smiles, handing me a loose sheet of paper. I move to step off the exam table but stop when I hear her clear her throat. “Before you leave, I just wanted to say that something similar happened to me. One of the names from the list is Sophia. I highly suggest making an appointment with her. You wont regret it.”
Nodding, I continue off the table.
When I get back to the waiting room, Ghost is nowhere to be seen.
The young girl at the front desk smiles brightly as I approach. “Your friend stepped into Dr. Murphy’s office, they will be right out.”
After making an appointment for two weeks from now, I sit in the same spot as before to wait for Ghost, flipping through the different informational packets as I wait.
PEBBLES
Wild Things
“We’re going to make a pit stop on our way home,” Ghost says, breaking the silence as he weaves the SUV through the city traffic.
I nod absentmindedly as I continue looking over all the information Dr. Murphy provided me. I didn’t realize how many aspects of daily life are changed just because of pregnancy!
Thank goodness I haven’t had the emotional or mental strength to do any of my skincare because two of the products I use are actually contraindicated in pregnancy. I can’t eat sushi or lunchmeat, and I can’t even take an Advil for a headache. I’m grateful to be reading this sooner rather than later.
I’m flipping through the list of recommended vitamins when the lurch of the car due to a speed bump causes me to look up at the shopping mall we just pulled into.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
If Ghost notices I just spoke to him for the first time in two weeks, he doesn’t mention it.
“Bookstore. Dr. Murphy said there are a few books you should look into. She specifically gave me the name of one for being pregnant with twins,” he says while pulling into a parking spot in front of Barnes & Noble.
I follow Ghost around the store lined with rows and rows of books. He stops to ask an employee where to find the parenting aisle, and we’re led to a section beside a large children’s area.
Ghost scours the shelves for the twin book recommended by Dr. Murphy as I wander into the colorful section filled with children’s books, games, and toys. My eyes water as they settle on a book from my childhood. Nostalgia bubbles up through my chest as I run my fingers along the soft cover.
My dad used to read this book to me every night that he could. It’s a tale of a wild boy named Max who falls asleep and, in his dream, he tames all of the wild things.
The memory of my big mean biker dad laying in my bed every night to read me this specific book guides my hand as I pick up the book from the shelf. I hold it to my chest as I continue through the rows of bookshelves towards the pregnancy section.
“Pebbles?” Ghost calls from my left.
“I’m over here.”
Ghost rounds the aisle as I’m bent over, pulling out a book I recognize from the list. He takes it from me, handing me the book Dr. Murphy must have told him about. He has another book tucked in his arm and adds mine to the top.
SeeingTwins 101on the front of the book forces a breath out of my lips. It’s one thing to see that I’m having twins on the screen, but it’s another to actually think about having not one, buttwobabies sucking the life out of me. No pressure or anything. I notice a slight tremble in my hand as I pull the book from the shelf.
“Here’s another one on your list,” Ghost calls as he pulls another from the shelf, adding it to his stack. He takes the one from me, noticing thatWhere the Wild Things Areis still in my hands.
He chuckles, nodding to the book. “I remember, when you were probably three or four, our dads were out on a run. Your mom left you at the clubhouse and you wouldn’t stop crying. You kept walking around, dragging that damn book behind you. Ringer and I took turns reading it over and over until you fell asleep.”
I smile to myself, the wild thing on the cover reminding me of my dad again.
“I could probably recite the damn thing in my sleep,” Ghost says. We speak simultaneously, saying, “The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth,”causing us both to laugh in the midst of the quiet bookstore.
I wipe tears from the corners of my eyes and then tuck the book back against my chest.
“I assume you’re going to buy it?” Ghost smiles, nodding to the book.
“Absolutely,” is all I can manage to say before he leads me to the checkout.
