Chapter 19
The following morning, Noah calls Doctor Marsh. After the usual chatter about his progress, he asks her to remove Rover’s ties from his wrist. She hesitates, an uncertain edge creeping into the tone of her voice.
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“I don’t need him – it – any more. I’m feeling much better, and I haven’t fainted in months.”
“But what if you - Noah, we know about Gwen.”
“Know – know what? What’s she got to do with it? You never said I couldn’t see someone.”
“It’s not that. Quite the contrary. We’re very happy, but we don’t – She hasn’t told you?”
“Told me what? Doctor Marsh? Told me what?”
“Sorry. You should speak to her, Noah.”
<call terminated>
Noah raps on the door to Gwen’s apartment, enjoying the freedom of movement that his right wrist now experiences. The timber veneer rattles beneath his hand; the panel sounds hollow at its core. He suddenly feels very old fashioned, and quite lost. He presses his thumb to the intercom and hears a soft voice inside announce his arrival. After a short pause, the door slides open. Inside, Gwen is squatting under her bunk. A blanket is draped around her shoulders and she is hunched over her keyboard. She taps a key as he enters and terminates the pool of light that illuminated her thin features.
“Hi, Noah. I wasn’t - ” She stops when she sees him hesitate at the door. “What is it?” A look that he can only assume is fear settles across her face.
“You know?”
“Know what?” He realises that his fists are clenched, his fingers worrying silently against one another. A lead weight sits in the bottom of his stomach.
“I’m so sorry – really, I am. I had to talk to someone – so I told Darryl. I didn’t know who else to speak to… I had nowhere else to go. I was just so worried. And I thought that with him working for the hosp-”
“Worried about what? What is it?”
“Noah, I’m pregnant.”
YOU ARE READING
The Fall of Man
General FictionSo much for an easy way to go. After thirty nine long years, each squandered day chained inexorably and uneventfully to the next, this is how it ends. How appropriate. Blinking back tears, Joanna shakes out another handful of pills into the palm of...
