CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
(part five)

November 26 – 5:00 PM

“You don’t want the baby,” Honey’s therapist said.

“No. No. I want the baby,” Honey said. “I just don’t know how it will work. I mean, I can barely take care of myself. Steve bathes me, helps me go to the bathroom…. How am I going to care for a baby? When I can’t ….”

“Even care for yourself?”

“Yeah,” Honey said. “I don’t mind living at the Castle. I mean everyone’s really great. Nice. MJ loves it there. He feels like I’m safe because everyone will help. But… I need to care for myself, my baby, my life. And… I can’t.”

“You have a job. You pay your own bills. You….”

“I pay some of my bills,” Honey said. “Jake and the insurance company pick up the tab for most of it. MJ’s salary goes to his brother and sister, or most of it anyway.”

Honey fell silent.

“You were talking about the baby,” her therapist said.

“I feel stupid. I almost died. I easily could have died. And now there’s this new life… inside of me… and….”

“I think it’s very normal to feel overwhelmed. Most mothers feel that way.”

“Mother,” Honey snorted. “Even the word is foreign.”

“You can abort the baby, Honey. The doctor said you might be better off to wait. It’s only been a short time since… your injury.”

“Since my life was tipped upside down? I was going to go to college this Fall. I was going to work and go to college. Live in my little apartment.”

“Instead, you married a man you’ve loved since you were a young child. Remember, you thought you’d never see MJ again. You live with your brother in an almost fantasy house filled with love and support. You have lots of friends and work you like. And now you’re going to have a baby.”

“And this.” Honey gestured to her legs.

“What’s got your goat, Honey?” Her therapist pointed to Honey’s legs. “You’ve told me over and over again that your injury was the best thing that happened to you.”

“My sister’s trial is coming up,” Honey said.

“You have to testify soon.”

“I have to testify to everything.”

“Everything?”

“Oh you know, what our childhood was like. My lovely sister’s defense is that she didn’t know any better because she was abused.”

“Was she?”

“She did most of the abusing. She says that this was a one time event.”

“Which it’s not.”

“No. No. She’s always been like that. They’re hoping the jury will believe me over her. But no one’s every believed me over her.”

“That’s a lot of pressure.”

“Pressure? Yeah. Makes me wish I was never born.”

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow….