FINDING OUT, PEE STICKS & THERE'S DAD
It was a Friday.
I remember that because my wife Lizeth and I had discussed opening a bottle of wine and relaxing at home after a hectic week. I had food ready, wine chilled and our date night was about to begin.
She felt...funny as she described it. Like she might be pregnant.
I shrugged and said, "Okay honey, hit the stick." After several moments in the recent past where she felt "funny," we had purchased pregnancy kits. One still had a pee-free stick waiting for usage.
Off she went, I waited, I think with the TV on.
Out she came slowly. Holding the pee-stick.
Her eyes were wide. Her mouth was open.
I may have asked her what had happened but I knew. Somehow, even before I had gotten home, I had known.
It had been a long road, a tough one that was full of fear and doubt before things had gotten this far. Doctors, specialists and hormonal battles - and it all was coming down to a stick.
She showed me the lines. I looked at them. And I noticed the pee but I knew not to ruin the moment.
The stick said she was pregnant.
###
The next day Lizeth had a doctor's appointment. I had a meeting I could not miss. I exited as soon as I could to meet up with my wife and her sister who had come down for a visit. I raced down streets, caught green lights (more like orange because they were so yellow going to red) and thought of my potential fatherhood.
My potential fatherhood – all based on the oracle pee-stick.
And in an instant, I had lived its entire life. My unborn child was born, in school, an old person with grandkids, graduating high school, learning how to drive, learning to walk, getting married, coloring outside the lines, eating glue, interviewing for their first job and so on.
It was like a freight train full of experiences running over me. My child's life was a full one and it rode in on a locomotive that ran over me as the tracks underneath it.
I called my brother Jaime and in rapid fire succession told him of my child's life.
My brother paused and told me to breathe.
###
Arriving at the doctor's office, everyone smiled and let me in. I felt a type of stumbling stupor as I watched myself walk through hallways and into the examination room.
I opened the door to the examination room and the doctor said, "There's Dad."
And I looked to my wife and she was smiling and tearing up simultaneously. Gleefully, she said we were expecting.
Suddenly, the world became something I was watching rather than experiencing.
We went to a local sandwich shop. It was known for great prices and even greater sandwiches.
Once again, it hit me. A child. A life that I would have direct influence on guiding.
And I kid you not, the air got thin and hot and my head drifted and my body became something I was nearly looking at rather than looking for within.
The elderly lady working the register looked at us and said, "Someone should get him a chair, he looks like he's about to pass out."
She was right about the sandwich and right about me. Quickly I leaned against the glass display case. I bent forward a bit and breathed deep and slow. I also wondered about that piece of cherry pie on sale. It looked good.
And as I ate my sandwich and pie later on, I wondered if the baby would like cherry pie.