Christina King woke up late to the sound of her neighbor mowing his
lawn. She glanced over at the clock which read, 10:57 am. It was Saturday, and
dread filled her soul. She has a doctor’s appointment at noon, but not one she
was looking forward to. Christina suddenly had the urge to hurl.
She scrambled to
get out of bed so that she wouldn’t have to clean her bed sheets and just
barely make it to the toilet. As she emptied her stomach, she held her own hair
back. Christina collapsed on the floor when she was done, and she breathed in between
sobs. She mustered as much courage as she could to get herself up.
Demetri had left
for work early in the morning for his shift at McDonalds. As Christina grabbed
a box of Toasted Holes and milk, she remembered the conversation she and Demetri
had the other night.
“We can’t have a
baby, Chrissy!” he yelled, “We can’t afford it!”
“What am I supposed
to do, then? Huh!?” she replied.
After several
minutes of arguing, it was decided that it would be most efficient to abort the
child – a decision Christina didn’t approve of.
Christina looked
down at her bowl of cereal and found it was too bitter. She grabbed for some
sugar and dumped some in. She looked at the clock. She had forty minutes to get
to the clinic and it took five minutes to get there. Christina didn’t know what
to do for the amount of extra time.
So, she just sat
there. Staring at her cereal.
“I’m sorry,” she
whispered to her unborn child as the clock approached 11:55am. “I love you. I
don’t want to do this, but I must.” Christina got up, dumped the remainder of
her cereal, and walked out the door.
Her car was in
the parking lot. She had two minutes before her appointment, but she couldn’t
get herself to go inside. Christina quickly prayed, “If You don’t want me to do
this, then stop me.” She got out of the car.
Or, at least she
tried to. As she opened the door, it slammed into another woman.
“I’m so sorry!”
Christina exclaimed.
“No, no, no,” the
woman said, doubled over in pain, “You’re alright.” When the woman was able to
straighten up, she introduced herself. “My name’s Rose, you?”
“Christina.” She
shook Rose’s hand. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m
fine,” she replied.
“Are you here for
an appointment?” Christina asked, gesturing to the Planned Parenthood clinic.
“Oh, no,” Rose
replied. “I’m here with a Pro-Life group called Created Equal. I actually came
over here to talk with you.”
“Oh,” Christina
exclaimed in surprise. “Well,” she looked at her phone. It was two minutes past
noon. “I’ve already missed my appointment. So, I guess you succeeded.”
“Are you planning
to reschedule?”
“Well,” Christina
hesitated. She didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t want Rose to eat up more of
her time. “Yes, I do plan on rescheduling.”
“Why are you getting
an abortion?” she asked.
Christina shook
her head in disbelief. “Because my boyfriend and I can’t afford to support a
child.”
“Have you
considered putting the child up for adoption?”
Christina shook
her head again. “It’s too complicated.”
“We can help with
that,” Rose stated. “We have resources. We can get you set up.”
“Okay.”
