Laura’s Promise

Laura’s Promise

And the little black book

There where a hundred pages of promises bond in Italian leather. The bookmark fasten to the book forever forgiving laid on the ink tear-stained page of her worst unkept promise.

It was the most important one she made to herself and her unborn child. This would be the one that Laura would regret for all eternity.

On the dusty table next to the book was a gold coin. She though about when she found it that it would be funny to flip it to make some of the important life decisions.

It was something that she had struggled with her whole life.

She even joked about with Jess when she found it

It sparkles in the sun on the edge of cliff and it was this if it was calling to her.

The ancient coin was kept as a souvenir from a long weekend she spent with Jess walking on the cliffs and Beaches of La Jolla.

She loved Southern California and most the time she loved Jess.

Jess who she missed and missed treated was her only hope for redemption.

Most of the promises she told herself she we keep in the leather-bound book that was given to her on her 21st birthday. They were mostly silly and empty promises.

I promise to stop eating chocolate. I promised to lose 10 pounds. I promise to finish school. I promise never to scream it Jess. I promise, I promise, I promise.

Over and over again she casually wrote down each promise till the book was full.

She bookmarked the one page; the one promise that she believed in a heart she would keep.

It was almost summer when she headed back to New York. She told Jess she would be back to finish school. She told him she loved him. She told him that she wanted to have his baby but she couldn't never get pregnant even though she already was.

She got on plane and head back to New York with big dreams of making it on her own.

Without her parents help and without Jess.

She would have the baby on her own. She promised in her book, she promised.

When she couldn't find work in her belly got bigger And bigger and emptier in the noisy roach infested apartment.

She broke the promise she broke her promise and gave her newborn baby away.

She took the $20,000 in cash.

She put the money in a paper bag in a locker at Grand Central Station went home to pack her bags.

She never even asked what their names were. She took one photograph of the child before she gave the little girl away.

She didn't even cry you just flipped a coin and let it made the decision.

It had made the decision for her to move back to New York. To leave and lie to Jess.

Ever since she picked up the coin she had let it make every decision.

Now it seemed to her she packed her bad that they were all bad decisions.

But is too late. The baby was gone. She would never seen or know it. She could never find it.

She didn't even know what they wanted it for. They look more like hustlers than loving parents who couldn't have a child of their own.

Laura became terrified of what she had done. She became frightening for the baby the baby that she made her body. The baby! The baby was now in hands of people who would sell it or hurt it.

Laura began to scream. She took the coin over pocket and ran up to the roof.

She flung as far she could into the heavy rush hour traffic.

It flipped and turned and with each flipping turn as it tumble to the earth it sparkled.

She felt that separating from her as she felt the baby both attach by some strange invisible umbilical cord pulling at her.

She thought about taking money out in hopes of finding the couple and the baby.

Should would give all the back for the baby.

Should would call Jess and tell him he was a father.

Should we get on the plane with the baby he would be waiting for them.

But the truth was it was one promise that she wanted to keep.

The truth was she was too weak in her mind and too frivolous with her body.

The truth was she could make any of this right and just as the coin hit the pavement, Laura jumped.

It was the first true decision she made on her own.

The End

By JD Helfert