The Italian's proposal

The mornings were getting heavier and heavier for Melody, who kept throwing up everything she ate for dinner and something else, each day when she woke up. She was tired of the sound her gagging made, she was tired of waking up her friend Lucy every time she threw up in the sink, which was inside Lucy’s room. Melody had never in her life felt as uncomfortable as she did at that moment.

It wasn’t just the fact that she had been living with Lucy for a week, her friend was a sweetheart just for allowing her to spend time there. The apartment was tiny, and they barely had enough food for the two of them. Lucy wasn’t much of a shopper and Melody didn’t have time to buy anything, because when she finished her shift at the coffee shop, she went to clean and water the plants of a young couple who lived near the coffee shop where she worked. It was extra money, money she needed more than ever.

When her mother told her that she wasn’t ready to be a real mother to the baby she was expecting, a woman capable of raising her unborn child well, she thought her mother was just being archaic and wanted to hurt and scare her.

It was highly likely that those were her intentions, but Melody realized, during that week away from her mother’s lap, that it wasn’t going to be easy living alone.

“Don’t come asking for help later,” was what her mother yelled at her as she packed her blouses and pants.

“I won’t,” was all she replied as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“You’re destroying your life! You’re about to graduate, you only have 3 more quarters left. That happens right away,” her mother approached her, but did not touch her.

From the moment she said she was pregnant; her parents had withdrawn like she was a leper.

“I’m not destroying my life. I’m pregnant.”

“It’s the same thing. You’re twenty-two years old, a career in veterinary medicine ahead of you. Your father and I didn’t kill ourselves paying your education for you to come here and ruin it!” vociferated Lydia to her in a rage.

Melody told herself at that moment that she deserved her mother’s fury and her father’s silence.

She had ended her parents’ dreams of an ideal daughter. A neurosurgeon and a schoolteacher, two productive and respected members of society, admired by all who lived in Norwood, for being united and hard-working. Her father, Charles Redford, born and raised in that small Bronx neighborhood in New York, was known for being the one who helped his neighbors and who had put his two beautiful daughters through college without any of the rebelliousness typical of teenagers. Her sister was now a librarian, married with a beautiful baby boy named Anton.

But Melody always had a competitive and free spirit. So free that she had dated the worst guy in college, a guy who was only around when there were car competitions, the kind with rich, pretentious billionaires. She had realized how in love she was with him, until one night, after leaving a college party, he proposed to her in his car and she gladly accepted. She wasted her virginity and ruined her parents’ dream.

college, her father had the place lined up for her to start her own vet shop, they had a lot of plans and because

old and

Listen to me,” this time her mother anchored herself to her arm and forced her to look at her, wiping away

no use crying anymore.

had given an

seconds for the decision

child alone. Many young women had done so and had turned out well,

attention again. “Look at me girl,” she hated to be the cause of so much pain

I am not going to have an abortion. Don’t you understand what you are asking me to do? Don’t you

a

grip on her hand and shoved everything faster into the bag. “He’s not a thing. He’s my son. It’s your grandchild.”

appendix

you listening to yourself?” Melody walked out of her room. The room that

had to leave.

Lucy didn’t have any problem accepting her into her tiny studio apartment. She just gave her the disclaimer that the place

she felt at that moment, the fury coursing through her veins. She couldn’t burst out and say things she would surely

Let me know when yours

she left without looking

any kind of comment, but poor Lucy worked all night in a call center, customer service and toothpaste sales. She came in late every night, past three in the morning. Lucy was twenty-four years old, an orphan of both parents. She was also studying veterinary medicine at the university, but she hadn’t gotten

Officially her ex.

had called him immediately, scared to death. Richard was a jerk who just told her that it wasn’t

she had planned

okay?” Lucy stood in the bathroom doorway