Paradeisia: Origin of Paradise

So this night when they had slipped into bed, they were happy. She had a decent-sized baby bump; fourteen weeks. All was well.

  Wesley spun around to where Sienna was pointing, expecting to face an intruder, but there was no one there.

  "Please look!  He could be alive on the bed!" she screamed. Turning back to her, he saw that she had knocked a vase off the tile surrounding the bathtub. His heart sank with a sudden realization: her stomach was conspicuously flat.

  There was no intruder. She had lost the baby.

  He couldn't believe it, after all they had been through. As he stepped back toward the bed, he thought about the last maternity checkup. Doctor Kingsley said everything was progressing just fine. That was four days ago.

  So what happened?

  Wesley approached the bed and was sick at the sight of a little lump under the white comforter.

  It definitely wasn't moving. Then again, he didn't expect it to be; he was pretty sure a baby couldn't survive a miscarriage at fourteen weeks. The duvet was draped off the side of the mattress and was dripping blood.  Wesley had never felt so sickened in all his life. He didn't want to uncover the lump in the covers.  He didn't want to see their baby like this.  He wondered if it would be best just to call 911.

  "Wes?" Sienna cried weakly.  "Is he...  Is he alive?"

  Wesley closed his eyes and jerked the cover off the lump. Slowly, his stomach in a knot, he allowed his eyelids to open.

  It was a wad in the sheet.

  The baby was not there. The lump under the duvet was nothing but a sheet wad.

  Wesley checked the path back to the bathroom again.  There was no fetus on the floor, only blood.  He checked through all the covers, searched under the bed.  Nothing.  He went back to the bathroom and looked at his wife's surroundings.  The fetus wasn't there.  He opened the lid of the toilet, just in case.

  "What are you doing?" his wife asked.

  "It's gone.  There's no fetus."

  "Don't call him a fetus."

  "Did you go anywhere else but the bathroom?"

  "No, I...  I came right here," she was pale and looked weak. Then she gasped, clutching her stomach, where the baby bulge had clearly disappeared.

  “Bad pain?” Wesley asked.

  She nodded, her eyes squeezed shut.

  "I'm calling 911," Wesley said, concerned that she had lost so much blood.

  But as he walked out into the living room to retrieve his phone, something told him that he should also be worried by the fact that their baby had totally and completely vanished.

   

  International House of Bacon

  Her cell rang from her apron where she stood at the server's station. The blonde pocketed the lousy tip she had just counted, wiped the sticky syrup off her hands, and dashed around a corner. “Hi,” she answered.

  “Aubrey, it's Maggie.”

  “I'm at work—what's up?”

  “You know the job I told you might open up eventually if you were really really really lucky?”

  “Uh, yeah... You told me yesterday.”

  “It's available! If you make it to La Guardia in an hour, you'll get an interview!”

  “An hour? I couldn't possibly make it that fast. I don't even have my resume ready.” That's what Aubrey said, but her heartbeat accelerated with hopeful anticipation.

  “That's okay! I'll send a limo for you—don't worry!”

  “A limo? I'm in my uniform! And besides, I couldn't wing an interview for that job! I don't even have any experience!”

  “I'm sending a limo now. Just get in and I'll take care of everything else.”

  Aubrey stepped forward from behind the corner and gazed at the floor of the busy restaurant. She had dreamed of leaving this world of bacon and pancakes for a long time; in fact, pretty much from the moment she arrived.

  “Brie, you there?”

  “Yeah, I'm—” Aubrey could see the black form of a limousine pulling up outside the frosted glass. “Maggie, the limo's already here.”

  “Already?” Maggie voice sounded a little anxious, “Wow! The driverless ones are so fast these days! Hurry and get in or you might miss it!”

  Uncertainly: “Maggie...”

  “Hurry!”

  “Maggie.”

  “Aubrey Vela, I'm older and I've lived way longer than you, so listen. Most people only get one chance to change their lives forever. This is your chance. Get in the car.”

  She paused a moment, pondering her choice and trying to calm her nerves. Finally, she said “OK. I'll be there.”

  Although her heartbeat was fluttering with excitement, her stomach was queasy as she slipped her phone back into her apron and walked slowly past the piles of plates...the screaming kids...the pots of coffee...and out the door.