Page 82 of The Summer of ’98

“Damn, girl,” he hollered as I held an outfit in front of me. “Filling out there a little, huh, Ellie? Maybe lay off the donuts.”

“Noah, shut the hell up,” Leroy snapped.

He leaned on the wall and sniggered. “I’m kidding. I know it’s the baby. Shit, man. I’m teasing.”

I stared down in front of me and after a moment I noticed what he meant. I was protruding a little, which seemed odd for how far along I was. It couldn’t have been a matter of getting the dates wrong, considering I’d been a virgin before Leroy.

“Oops,” Noah laughed. “Leroy didn’t tell you that you can’t wear crop tops anymore, huh?”

“Buzz off,” Jacob snapped at his son and waved his hand toward the corridor. “Stop being a pain in the ass.”

“Honey,” Eleanor captured my attention. “Don’t listen to him. You still look wonderful. You’re just starting to show. It’s normal. And beautiful.”

“But I’m only eleven weeks,” I said. “I shouldn’t be showing this soon.”

“Nonsense,” she said and stood up, grunting a little from sitting on her legs. “We all carry differently. And you’re so little. I’m not surprised at all. There’s not a lot of room in that belly of yours.”

Leroy sauntered over to my side and let his large palm slide across my stomach, the touch sending a chill right up my spine. He kissed my forehead and his lips remained against my skin when he whispered, “You look perfect.”

On Thursday, my leg bounced up and down. The plastic chairs squeaking because I couldn’t stop fidgeting. Leroy placed his hand on my knee, and I looked up to find him regarding me with a small but knowing smile. Saying that I was nervous was an understatement. But how could I not have been? We were about to see our baby on screen.

It was a good kind of nervous.

“Relax, Els,” Leroy whispered, leaning in a little closer. “It’s going to be fine.”

“I know. I’m good. I’m fine.”

“Makes it all real, huh?”

His hand gave mine another squeeze and the fact that he understood me so well was comforting in a form all of its own. This did make it all real. This was the beginning of the rest of our lives. Seeing our baby would make it official in such a concrete manner. But with Leroy, I was ready for this. I could do anything with him beside me.

“Ellie Livingston?”

We both snapped our heads in the direction of the woman who waited at the threshold at a set of double doors. Leroy stood up, took my hand, and we wandered over to where she was waiting for us.

“Hi, Ellie.” Her smile was warm, her narrow nose was pierced, and she extended her hand for me to shake. “I’m Pira. I’ll be your technician this morning. Are you Dad?”

Leroy nodded and shook her hand before we followed her down a corridor with harsh artificial lighting, clinic awards on the walls, and the overwhelming scent of sanitizer and latex gloves. We reached door number six and Pira let us go ahead.

“Just hop up on the bed, Ellie. Lift your top to beneath the breasts and unbutton your jeans. We have to get the wand quite low on the abdomen because the baby is still very hidden at this stage. The notes said you’re aware of conception date?”

Leroy stood behind me on the other side of the narrow bed, his hand resting on my shoulder while I adjusted my clothes to expose my stomach like she’d asked. Pira fell into a roller chair before she slid toward me with a clipboard and pen.

“It was the twenty-eighth of May,” I said and Pira smiled as she scrawled something down on her clipboard.

She went over a few basic questions about my health, how I had been since discovering that I was pregnant, etc. Basic medical questions.

Before much longer we were watching the computer screen that Pira was organizing. She switched it on and squirted some blue gel onto my tummy, which made me wince with the cold. Also, because I’d had to drink about twenty gallons of water right before this, I felt like I was going to burst. She placed the handheld device on my stomach and the computer screen became bright with a black-and-white image. My name was in the top corner, next to the date: Thursday, August 6, 1998.

I had no idea what I was looking at while Pira continued moving the wand over my stomach.

“Well,” she turned toward us and looked at Leroy, nodding. “That is a set of twins in there.” Leroy’s hand became tighter and he stared at the screen with a dropped jaw.

“What?!”

Twins.

What?

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