Page 49 of Just Say (Hell) No
When the doctor came back in with the technician, though, the mood got serious fast. He was genial, fortyish, and balding. Nothing wrong with him, but Ella went stiff with tension.
“So,” he said when he’d shaken Ella’s hand, sat on his stool, and rolled up to the table. “We’ve got twins here, eh.”
As bombshells went, it was a good one.
“What?” Ella finally said.
“Is that news?” the doctor asked. “Didn’t anybody tell you? Show you?” He glanced at the technician, and she opened her mouth.
“No,” Marko said before she could jump in. “We didn’t have any information passed along to us.” He was holding Ella’s hand tighter. “It’s all good,” he told her. She was shaking a little, her hand moving in his as if the tension were spilling over now and she couldn’t hold it back anymore. “It was a baby, and now it’s two, that’s all. You’re still exactly as pregnant. It’s an on/off switch, eh.”
The doctor said, “Let’s fill you in, then. Show us again, please, Carla.”
The tech pressed her lips together tighter and got busy with the jelly and the paddle again. “Here,” she said. “A and B.”
“You’ve got two fetuses,” the doctor said. “Baby A here, and Baby B nose-to-tail, see? Here’s one head, and over there…” The technician moved the paddle, and the image appeared on the screen. “Is the other one. This twin’s bigger, and more wiggly as well, I see. Arms and legs both moving. Got some personalities happening here, maybe.”
“Oh,” Ella said faintly. “Is the little one all right?”
“Not enough littler to be a major concern,” the doctor said. “It’s common for one twin to be a bit bigger. Especially where they’re sharing a placenta. Competition starts early, eh.”
“Sharing a…” Marko said.
“Identical,” the doctor said. “One placenta. Can happen the other way, where they each have their own, but usually, it’s one. It all depends on when the division happens—how many days after fertilization. Fortunately, each of them has its own amniotic sac. That makes everything less dicey.”
Ella’s knuckles were showing white against Marko’s big hand. Marko’s voice was calm when he asked, “How many months gone is she, then?”
The doctor looked at him over his half-glasses. “And you would be…”
Marko didn’t sigh. “Ella’s cousin. Not the babies’ father.”
“Marko Sendoa,” the doctor said. “Aren’t you?”
“Yeh. Consider me the family representative.”
“We measure in weeks,” the doctor said. “And we’re at fourteen weeks and three days. Forty weeks is a standard pregnancy. For a twin pregnancy, thirty-six is more likely. Forty weeks would put you at September tenth, and thirty-six at August twenty-seventh.”
“Twenty-two weeks to go, then,” Ella said, while Nyree was still trying to do the math. “Or so. Five months, same as before, if it’s thirty-six weeks.”
“You’re sixteen, it says here,” the doctor said. “Also good at maths.”
He smiled, and Ella said, “Yeh. It’s my best subject.”
“In school, then,” the doctor said. “That’s good. Have you considered your options? I’m asking because I have twins myself. I can tell you that they’re something to take on, and I haven’t done the hard parts. It’s not just the pregnancy. A baby’s not easy, and twins aren’t less than twice the work. They’re more.”
“I was planning to…” Ella’s voice was wobbling again. “Have it adopted.”
The technician muttered something like, “Thank the Lord,” which was an opinion that absolutely nobody needed, but Ella didn’t seem to hear, fortunately.
Ella asked the doctor, “Would anybody want to… do you think they’d want both? Won’t the babies need to stay together, since they’re twins? Wouldn’t they be… sad, otherwise?”
“Yes,” the doctor said, his voice gentling. “It’s a special kind of bond, twins. Ours are fraternal, a girl and a boy, but close as peas in a pod growing up for all that. Identical—more so. They’d need to be together. And I imagine somebody would want them both.”
“Can you tell what they are?” Ella asked. “Girls or boys?”
“Not to tell you with any certainty. Fourteen weeks is early days. If you’re back again in a few weeks, we should be able to give you a better answer. All we need is one who’s not shy.”
If you’re back again.“Thanks,” Marko said when Ella didn’t answer.
