Pregnant

I dreamed my friend E____ and I were sitting on the couch in her living room, and her landlady, who for reasons of legality I will only refer to as The Hedgehog, was sitting on a recliner. The conversation lulled, and I noticed that E____ was looking a little out of sorts. She looked like the cat that swallowed the canary, except it didn't seem that the canary was done singing just yet. I could almost picture an intact little bird inside her belly making chirping noises, and I half expected her to start burping up feathers.

I could see that something was burdening her. As she sat there, wrapped in a pink blanket, with this sort of queasy, smug look on her face that seemed to be masking an ocean of anxiety, I stared intently at her face, trying to get a read on her emotional state. The corners of her mouth couldn't seem to decide whether to make a smile or a grimace, and she was wearing some smudged black lip liner which, in addition to accentuating whatever emotions might be present, gave her the faint appearance of a mustachioed French chef.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"I'm pregnant!" she blurted out.

The Hedgehog looked up from her reading. I took a deep breath and pondered how to respond. My first thought was "how could this  have happened?" I mean, I knew how that sort of thing worked, but it seemed like one of the critical components was missing, namely, a partner. 

I was emotionally conflicted. I wanted to be there for my friend, but there was a little hurt, a little envy, a lot of shock and a fair amount of general confusion, as my mind raced with unasked questions:

Who was the guy? Was it a one time thing? Was it worth it?  Did you enjoy the experience? 

I really wanted to interrogate her, to get to the good stuff, the nitty-gritty, but this was my friend, not some serial TV drama or news story. Empathy won out, and I kept these questions to myself.

All I could think of to say was, "I didn't know you were seeing anyone?" 

"I'm not," she said. 

I didn't press her for details, though my curiosity was killing me. Again, I didn't know how to respond, so I put my hand on her shoulder and said, "Well, that's...Pregnant...Wow! This is good news!" Then I thought about it for a minute and added, "Isn't it? Are you...going to keep it?"

She looked at me with hurt in her innocent eyes, "I don't know," she said. "You know I have that painful condition that effects my cycle. I don't know if I even can."

I gave her a hug and probably said a few generic, comforting things, I don't know. I just sat there with her and told her, not so much in words but just by my presence, that I would be there for her. We'd get her through this together, and she didn't have anything to worry about. 

The Hedgehog went back to her reading, and we sat there in an awkward silence, each us wrapped up in our own thoughts.