January 12, 2007
a fiction story by Jenn Joshua, RTF Staff Writer
A Second Chance
Kelly couldn’t understand it. She’d known all the right things, said all the right things (or so she thought). Why hadn’t she done all the right things? Sure, it felt right at the time, but what about now? The steamy feelings of that night were long gone; instead she faced was with despair – the kind that didn’t easily go away. She felt sick in the middle of her stomach, but that was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. The pain of betrayal, the pain of loss, the pain of rejection – she’d been dragged through all three.
And now she carried his child.
His child.
She spat out the words. And what’d it been? Three, no four months since he’d deserted her. There was no “let’s just be friends†ploy attached to this deal – no. He was gone. Completely. Whole-heartedly. Just like that. Was the result of their encounter too much for him?
The coward.
Kelly let her eyes drift to the scrapbook in her lap. An old family album. There is such beauty in waiting. She looked at the glowing faces of her mom and dad as they presented their newborn daughter to the camera for the first time. There was an openness and peace attached to the tender scene. Naturally, there were tears when her mother delivered Kelly, just as there would be tears when Kelly delivered her own baby into the world, but tears of a very different kind. Her mother’s tears were tears of pain ending in joy. Kelly’s would be tears of pain, anger, and bitterness.
Bitterness at Shawn’s abandonment. Bitterness at being alone in her trial. Bitterness that she could not be happy about her baby. Bitterness that the baby would soon belong to another woman.
The album slipped out of her hands and thudded to the floor. The decision to carry the baby to term had been her own. She might’ve made one mistake, but that didn’t mean she had to follow it with another. She knew what was right, and it was her responsibility to herself and her child to see that it reached the world safely, even if she couldn’t have the responsibility of caring for it afterwards.
She gazed out the window. A moth was stuck between the glass and the screen. It beat its wings in desperation, flying repeatedly against the netted cage, falling, then flying up again. By afternoon, it would probably be dead. As another wave of sickness and misery threatened to sweep over her, Kelly felt the slightest fluttering feeling within her womb.
Life.
As the moth finally crawled out the hole from which it had entered, she placed a protective hand over her stomach as her tears dissolved into hope. It would be hard, but she wouldn’t be alone. Sure, her prince turned into a frog, but God was her real prince - the Prince of Peace – and he wasn’t going away.
Kelly quietly thanked God for His unexpected gift of grace. Tomorrow wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Helps for young moms: Life Interrupted: The Scoop on Being a Young Mom by Tricia Goyer or The Mom I Want to Be - Rising Above Your Past to Give Your Kids a Great Future by T. Suzanne Eller
Filed under: jenn joshua, real devos
Posted by T. Suzanne Eller @ 6:41 pm
C.T. says:
Yay for Jenn! This is my story totally! Thanks for being bold with the message; some people are too scared to adress it. Your awesome!
Anonymous says:
too bad i didn’t see it that way in time.
Erin says:
Very well done.
Madison says:
i love this story because you’ve totally painted a dark tunnel but there’s definitely light at the end of it!! its a hard issue but this is a tasteful and honest way to deal with it.
Madison says:
btw, here’s my site link. if you have a xanga, please comment me back and let me know if I can print out a copy of your poem based on 1 Cor. 13 (i’d like to use it as a bookmarker).
Madison S. says:
aah! it’s not saving my link; i don’t know why. here’s one more try.
Alex Dwyer says:
I like all of your stories!