"White lilies" - a short story

She looked down her hands. Her fingertips were red and raw. It was the result of biting them for the most of the afternoon. She had tried taking long breaths to calm down. It didn’t work.
Her face, however seemed composed, it was almost as if she had expected that one day it would come to this…..

Two months ago, the moment she saw the little positive sign on the little thermometer-shaped tube, she knew that the unthinkable had happened. The little’+’ took its own time to develop ….it seemed to be teasing her...and then when it finally took shape she realized that the plus sign had just changed her life.

The right thing to do was to tell him, after all, wasn’t he the one who had decided that just because he had a terrible fight with his wife, he had the right to barge in her apartment at any time just as he pleased. And it was one such night that set off the present chain of events.

After a week of anxiousness and uncertainty, she finally told him. His instantaneous reaction was to throw his glass onto the wall where it shattered, spreading scotch and water on her carpet. His reaction unnerved her. For some time now, she had held a faint glimmer of hope that he would perhaps be happy. Now she realized how foolish she was , hadn’t she known him well enough ?

But he could be counted upon to be extremely efficient. It was he who decided on ‘Women Now’, which according to him, could be trusted upon to “do a neat job – it will be as simple as getting your teeth cleaned”. He also impressed upon her the fact that post-session, they sent to the patient’s home a bouquet of white lilies with chocolate. He was particularly impressed by the idea of chocolates.

During the week before her session, she could only think of little baby rattles and the sweet smell of baby powder. She was being silly. She tried to sleep at night, and after bursts of fitfull sleep, her pillow would be damp in the morning.

The next week, at Women Now, she sat in her bed, strangely calm. She closed her eyes and prayed for the child that would she would never know.

She sat up in her bed at home that evening; he was sitting beside her and he was telling her how brave she had been, all the while munching on some assorted chocolate that had just arrived in a parcel. His phone began to ring. It was his wife. “Sweetie, Ill just be back” he said as he pocketed a chocolate wrapped in red paper and walked to the hall

She looked down her hands. Her fingertips were red and raw. It was the result of biting them for the most of the afternoon. She had tried taking long breaths to calm down. It didn’t work.
Her face, however seemed composed, it was almost as if she had expected that one day it would come to this…. She picked up the bouquet of white lilies lying beside her and held it against her cheek. It felt so soft…she thought as a tear drop flowed on to a petal.


- Shinta