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Prologue
“O
H MY GOD! OH… OH… Oh… Jesus! Holy he- Jesus… oh… oh…,” Chelsea ‘Chess’ Winters chanted in between pained whimpers and gasping breaths. “Whoever is up there… listen. Listen here. I’m sorry, okay. I’m sorry.”
For the last two hours or so, she’d been chanting variations of the same words as she paced the hospital’s lengthy hallway over and over again.
“Are you listening, God? I’m freaking sorry,” she chanted on. ‘It’s my fault. I should-”
A sudden stabbing pain forced her to stop talking, stop walking, and open her mouth in a silent scream.
When the pain receded to a bearable ache, she took in a deep, shaky breath then resumed walking and singing.
“It’s my fault. I should’ve read the Bible more. I should’ve let those Jehovah’s Witnesses into my apartment last week,” Chess sang. “I should’ve kept my legs closed. I shouldn’t have cheated in last year’s exam. I’m sorry, okay. So you can stop now. I don’t need th… Oh my God… ah… ah… ah…!”
Another bout of pain forced her to pause again.
Everything in her body ached; her back, her stomach, her thighs, her teeth, her head... even her knuckles. Tendrils of her curly hair clung to her sweaty forehead and the sides of her face. The green hospital gown she was wearing stuck to her sweaty body like a bad odor. She wanted to sit. She wanted to stand. She wanted to walk. She wanted to crawl. She wanted to lie down on the cold, dirty floor, and just give up.
“I swear I will never have sex again,” she chanted on. “I’ll be a nun. As soon as I’m out of here, I’m taking a vow of celibacy and- oooooooh!”
Her chants turned into wails that reverberated through the maternity wing of St. Francis Hospital. She supported herself on the wall nearby as ripple after ripple of excruciating pain pulsed through her body. The nurses passing by barely glanced at her. They were so used to this kind of drama that they weren’t rattled by the crazy woman haunting their hallways.
As soon as the pain retreated again, Chess began singing, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When the going gets tough… oooh… the tough get going…”
The singing would’ve been tolerable if Chess had a singing voice. But she didn’t. Squawking geese had more musical talent than she did. Add in the pained shrilling in between words, and she sounded like a cat getting strangled. It was no wonder that everyone who passed by her winced and gave her an annoyed look.
But Chess didn’t give a damn. As far as she was concerned, they could put down their complaints on paper then shove that paper up their ass. They weren’t the ones whose insides were being torn apart by a miniature human.
“Chess,” a voice called behind her. “Are you okay?”
Chess turned to see her seventeen-year-old sister, Senia, walking towards her. Instantly, her pain was overshadowed by guilt. Senia was still in high school, and her exams were coming up. She shouldn’t have had to be here. This was stupid Tazeem’s job.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Chess lied. A second later, pain shuttled in as if to punish her for the lie, and she whimpered.
Senia immediately rushed to her. She tried to grab hold of Chess’s arm, but Chess shook off her hand.
“Please don’t touch me,” Chess gasped. She had one hand on the top of her head, and the other hand beneath her protruding belly. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”
Bloody hell! It felt like this baby was about to drop out of her at any moment and splatter on the floor along with all her internal organs.
Once the wave passed, Chess turned back to Senia. “Have you called him?”
Senia made a face. “Yes, but he’s not answering the phone.”
“Give me that.” Chess held her hand out for the phone. Once her sister handed the gadget over, she dialed Tazeem’s number. It rang for a while then she was sent to voicemail.
You jerk!Chess kissed her teeth.Pick up your phone.
It rang for some time then again, she ended up in his voicemail.
“This bastard better be lying in a hospital bed or in a casket,” Chess muttered angrily as she dialed again. “He’d better be dead, because only a dead man would send me to voicemail right now.”
This was ridiculous. Why wasn’t this man here? He was supposed to be beside her, regretting their choice to have a baby out of wedlock just as much as she was regretting it. He was supposed to be here so she could cuss him out for convincing her that pulling out was a viable birth control method. If he thought that she was giving birth to his baby without him here to get his fingers squeezed to death, then he needed to think again.
With the phone still planted to her ear and Senia on her heels, Chess walked back to the pre-birth section. There were several women there. Some were moaning while lying on their beds. Others were seated and panting. Some were pacing the room, singing, screaming… and generally being in labor.
Chess handed her phone back to Senia, then searched the room. Most of the women here were in various stages of pain and had someone supporting them. However, there was a man seated alone on the bed at the furthest corner of the room, playing with his phone. He was probably here supporting some poor, pregnant woman. However, since the woman in question was nowhere to be seen, he became Chess’s target. Chess made a beeline for him.
