It was a chilly winter Evening in Chicago and Charlotte was dressed from head to toe in black. She sported high-heeled leather boots overtop tight leggings. Her winter coat met the middle of her thigh and her face was shielded by a bulky scarf and knit cap. Her hands were protected from the chilly air by long gloves. She sat with her legs crossed on a bench beneath a bus stop and stared at the apartment building across from the street. Rosewood Plaza was her home last Wednesday. Now she could see the shadow of two bodies entangling by candlelight in the bed she used to lay. They'd only been apart for a week and he already had a new lover.
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About the Creator
Ashley Lima
I think about writing more than I write, but call myself a writer as opposed to a thinker.
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Unplanned
I thought you were supposed to feel elation. The deepest form of love in the human experience. Beauty and magic. A biological miracle. But I didn’t feel any of those emotions. I felt fear. From the moment I watched Star Wars, and Padme died in childbirth, I quaked at the thought of ever falling pregnant. The thought of pushing an eight-pound baby out of my body made me sick to my stomach. I felt embarrassed. Growing up in a conservative Catholic household, pregnancy was supposed to happen strictly between husband and wife. If you weren’t bound by the sanctity of marriage, it was an abomination. Even my entirely pro-life father suggested abortion. Like he wanted me to get one. I didn’t. I felt alone. Though half of the world has the opportunity to go through this experience, I had no one to talk to about it. Between my parent’s disappointment and the fact that I was twenty-one and unmarried, no one understood why I would want to “give up my youth”. I didn’t seem like the type to ever have children. And I wasn’t. And I didn’t want to. I needed to.
By Ashley LimaExclusive • 5 years ago
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