“Two
months after the wedding, I was in Marva’s yard playing skip with
her daughters, unaware that skipping could cause me to miscarry my
two-month old pregnancy. Later that night, I felt a terrible pain in
my hip. My entire body ached. I could barely move. Fortunately,
Tracy came home that night to bring me some of her delicious sweet
potato pudding.”
These
are the opening sentences of “Jumping
Hoops,”
a
story in my book: The
Talking Palm:How
the
childhood storms of a young woman’s life remained hidden until a
palm fruit started talking
http://www.amzn.to/175EzBh
Newly-wed
Sheryl is pregnant. She knows that. But she is nineteen. When her
teenage neighbors sound as if they are having so much fun jumping
hoop, what does she do? Join the fun. So what if she is pregnant?
She is invincible, isn't she? After all, she is a teenager. Do
teenagers think they can get harmed when they do harmful things? Do
they think they can hurt themselves or others when they do reckless
things like drink and drive, or or rendezvous with strangers they
meet through the internet?
Sheryl
is not deliberately pounding herself, or throwing herself against an
object, or doing anything so stupid that a rock would know that she
has gone too far. She is not even thinking about her baby, her first
baby, her precious baby to come, one she cannot wait to see. She has
no reason to.
Her
baby is safe. Deep inside of her. Nothing can go wrong since she is
not expecting anything to go wrong. Right? As far as Sheryl knows,
she is jut skipping. How can anything go wrong when she is just
having a good time?
Later
that night, when pain engulfs her body, she realizes her mistake.
Her idea of having fun is really a reckless act that has jeopardized
the life of her baby
Perhaps
if the teens' mother had known that Sheryl was pregnant, she would
have warned Sheryl against jumping hoop.
Ether
Jno-Charles
Author:
The Talking Palm:How the childhood storms of
a young woman’s life remained hidden until a palm fruit started
talking http://www.amzn.to/175EzBh
