Prologue: Today.....

......is Monday, June 2nd, 2008. My day at work is coming close to an end and unlike most Mondays, I have not noticed the hours crawl by. Actually I haven't noticed much today. I've been busy yes... but I've been rather pre-occupied too. This last one has been quite the weekend. One phone conversation in particular may forever have changed my life....

Friday afternoons are by far the favorite times of my work-week... the moments when I realize that in a few hours or minutes I would be walking out of this building and I would not be coming back until Monday.... two days of freedom so to speak.

This past Friday was no different. I had been busy all day trying to sort through a mess of a project that my Boss had laid on my lap a couple of weeks back and about which I had not gotten much done. I must have looked at my clock at some point and realized that the day, and the week, was almost over for I picked up my pace and managed to get quite a bit done.

I had then driven home, delighting in my new-found freedom and looking forward to Josee, one of my boys, coming over with a couple of girls. He had called earlier to find out if I had any plans for that evening. I didn't have any... not till after 11 anyway, so I had asked him to call after 5. I went home and lay on the bed... my phone close by, and promptly fell asleep.

********************************

I wake up two hours later to total silence..... but for the growling in my stomach. I am hungry. Quite hungry indeed, I decide after listening to a ten-second-long rumble. I look at the Ciao Bella Take-Out menu that I am currently using for a bookmark. I settle for the Baked Haddock Binici - 'always fresh Haddock, baked in a white wine with marinated plum tomatoes, fresh basil & melted provolone over pasta of your choice'.

I go with the linguini. The only option I heard clearly when I asked what kinds of Pasta they had.

One hour later, feeling rather proud of myself for finishing what must have been a two person serving of the baked fish, I settle back to watch game 6 of the Eastern Conference NBA finals.

Just as the game is starting, my cell phone buzzes... 'Private Number'.

There are only two people I know whose Caller I.D is 'Private Number'. Former flames both of them; one of whom I am rather disinclined to talk to.

'Hello!' I answer, really hoping this wasn't her.

'Sasa...' Throaty female voice on other end. Neither of the Exes speaks or knows Sheng.

'Poa..... How are you?' That voice is familiar.... too familiar.

'I'm o.k now, lakini I just got back from hospital. I had to go in last night...... ' Now I know who it belongs to and I'm really wishing I had not answered the damn phone.

'Why don't you get them to take off that gall bladder already?' She had landed in the hospital a couple of days after I'd met her courtesy of a faulty gall system... and apparently it hadn't been the first or the second time, and obviously not the last.

'I am going back on Monday to see the doctor......' I miss the rest of what she says as my attention drifts back to the game. I hope the Celtics can pull their act together tonight and end this thing.

' Let me tell you what happened. Aki I was in so much pain I ended up in the E.R. but the nurses told me I wouldn't be seen any time soon. Eh! Aki I was in so much pain and they did not want to know.... so I told my friend to drive me around the corner and we called the ambulance from there....' I watch as Billups gives the Pistons the first point of the game and wonder why she feels the need to go into details whenever she's talking to me.

Wait a minute. Did she say the Ambulance guys said it would be more costly? O.k. I know where this is heading and she is plain out of luck. I am flat broke.... I'm actually short on money to pay for a next weekend flight.

'... so they asked me if I was pregnant and I told them no. They said that had to test me for pregnancy anyways, since I was complaining of abdominal pains....' Pregnancy test huh! I muse as I watch Ray Allen's 3-pointer put the Celtic's in the lead.

'... I had to give a urine sample...' And what the hell do I need all this information for?

'... then the nurse came back and asked me again if I was pregnant. I told her there was no way, I haven't had any sexual....' That pregnant word again? This is going one of two ways.... I'd rather she wants to borrow some money.

The Celtics miss two field goals but at this at this particular moment I couldn't really care less.
She needs to stop going on about her freaking tests and get to the point... I am perspiring all over now, it feels like the prelude to a terrible nightmare. I struggle to regain my composure as I quietly urge her on.

'Uh huh... then?' Hoping the tremble in my voice is not evident.

What am I going to say if she says what I think she's about to say. Oh shit man.... please let her say she needs to borrow money for the ambulance. How could I let this happen? What was I thinking? You knew she couldn't be.... She definitely doesn't need money....

'Pa!'

'Huh?' I realize my inner voices had drowned hers out.

'Pa......... You didn't hear what I said?'

In truth I hadn't...

'Are you saying that you are pregnant?' I ask trying to sound as unconcerned as possible.

'Yeah! That's what the doctor said. I told him there was no way.... I just had my menses and besides I was on contraceptives....'

Yeah... right! I'm thinking to myself as she rambles on. You had to be the 1%. You are such a liar and you've picked the wrong person to play.

A thousand questions are reeling through my head.... why had she disappeared to Lowell without a word? Why had she flown thousands of miles away without as much as a goodbye.?
Why hadn't she used her phone to call me? Why? Why? What if......

'....they said that when I go back on Monday they'll do another test coz even me I....'

'Did you say they'll be doing another test on Monday?' I interrupt... desperately grasping at this last straw.

'Besides,' I add, emboldened. 'How can they tell when it's only been what... not even three weeks....?'

'Oh yes they can.... even after four days..'

Gee thanks... I'm glad to hear that.

'Well then, I guess congratulations are in order....' My lame attempt at sarcasm goes unnoticed.

'What did you say?'

I repeat it to her....

'What does that mean?'

Argh! I suppress a groan before explaining to her that I was congratulating her just incase she is really pregnant. Of all the girls I've been with, it had to be the most dense.... Arrrghhhhh!

I bid her goodnight... 'We'll talk on Monday after your tests.'

I go back to my game....

I am not sure if its the just-ended phone call or the heavy meal I had but suddenly am feeling rather sick. I half-heartedly watch as the Celtics secure their place in the Finals and can't wait for Mambo to come get me out of the house.

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Later that night......

We are driving to Lowell... to some party, supposedly. Mambo is going on and on about this girl who's invited him to this party and the people involved. He's been talking for a while now but nothing he's saying is registering in my head. There are all these voices coming at me from somewhere.... nowhere.

'One of my girlfriend's pregnant.' I blurt out in the middle of one of his sentences.....

'What do you mean one of your girls? Which one? Joy's sister?'.... He asks, as if this was regular fare in our regular conversations.

'Who the hell is Joy?' I'm wondering. 'Oh, Joy!'

"Your silence says a lot'.....

I can't argue with that. I wouldn't have the energy anyway, if I felt so inclined.

'Dude! First question... is it yours?' Didn't know Mambo had a methodical side.

'It could be...' I answer tentatively.

'And what the hell were you thinking having unprotected sex in the first place?'

'Very good question that.' I acknowledge..... 'and please don't ask it again.'

********************

I am not sure I know the answer to that question..... Why? Is always a good question.... It serves to peel away the layers of this onion that is our lives.

And so the rest of the weekend was spent peeling.... and crying..... and drinking and peeling and crying some more. What follows are glimpses at these layers..... these many layers.