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Friday, June 13, 2014

Near Miscarriage


      “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