“I want an abortion,” Eve hissed, glaring at her husband as he struggled to control his SUV during a complete white-out on the northbound lane of Lake Shore Drive. Gusts of bitter wind howled, sleet pummeled the windows, turning one of Chicago’s main arteries into a car graveyard. She cranked up the radio, fiddling until she stumbled upon a rock song to her liking. “And I want a divorce.”
“You’re drunk,” Oliver said, dark eyes flashing in the oncoming traffic. “We’ll talk about this when you’re sober.”
“I’m not drunk, and we’ll talk about it now,” Eve said, turning up the radio a notch. “I’m sick to death of your self-righteous attitudes. Your constant moralizing drives me mad. I only had a few drinks. It was a Christmas party, after all.”
“A few drinks?” Oliver snorted, skidding on the off-ramp from Stevenson Expressway. “Don’t make me laugh. You were tilting back that Sangria like it was cherry soda. You’re pregnant and shouldn’t be drinking at all. You shoulda seen yourself out there on the dance floor in that skin-tight red dress, rubbing up to all the male jockeys, shimmying and kicking up your stiletto heels like you were a contestant in Dancing With the Stars. You looked ridiculous. Everyone was laughing and pointing. Honey, you made a royal ass of yourself.”
“Shut up,” her hands balled into tight fists, long fingernails coiled like talons. How she itched to wipe that smug look off his face, knock him off his pedestal. She rolled her eyes theatrically, heaving out an exasperated sigh. “Unlike some people I know, the jockeys at the clubhouse know how to cut loose and unwind, leave the work load behind at the end of the day. You’re no fun at all, a real deadbeat. Did you even try socializing, get to know some of the jockeys? No, you just sat there all night like a bump on a log, drinking coffee, eye on the clock, a scowl plastered on your face. We have nothing in common. Why I married you is a mystery to me. I want out, the sooner the better.”
“Over my dead body,” Oliver roared, tires squealing as his vehicle skated dangerously close to a light pole. “What about our baby?”
“Weren’t you listening? I’m terminating this pregnancy; I’m only a few weeks. I told you when we got married, no kids. Training horses is my profession, my passion, something I won’t give up for anyone, least of all a kid. Thoroughbred racing comes first, foremost and always. Get it through your head. The last thing in the world I want is to be straddled down with a snotty nosed brat. Not in this life. You can’t make me have it.”
“You think this is about power and control?” Oliver raged, brakes squealing, wheels spinning. “It’s not. It’s about love and commitment. Haven’t I always catered to your every whim, your every need? Since the day we met, I treated you like a queen. I spoiled you rotten and let you have your way. Not this time, Eve. I’m putting my foot down. I want this baby. An abortion is out of the question. Absolutely not, I forbid it.”
“You what?” she laughed, cranking up the rock music to an ear-splitting screech. “Do you think you can control me, make my decisions for me? Order me to go through with this unwanted pregnancy because you’re a judge? The Honorable Judge Oliver Wendell Williams presiding? Do you really think you can lock me up behind bars, hold me prisoner against my will? Make me have this kid? Because that’s what having a baby would feel like to me, a jail sentence.”
“Don’t be so selfish, Eve.”
“Oliver, the pole!”
With a screech of brakes, the wheels locked, sending the SUV skidding into the light pole with a thundering boom. The vehicle flipped on its side, rolling three times before crashing into a tree, the splintering of glass and broken metal piercing the night.
***
She ached all over. Not wanting to open her eyes, she preferred the comfort of the surreal place she was floating in, drifting in and out of. Her head throbbed and she felt something tight and uncomfortable squeeze her arm. Somewhere in the distance, she heard beeping.
Cool fingers snaked around her wrist. Paramedics feeling for a pulse? She had a vague recollection of the wreck. To her horror, she remembered the SUV skidding into a pole and rolling over and over before landing with a resounding crash. The shattering of broken glass rang in her ears, the shuddering shriek devastating. Was she dead? She felt cold, colder than she’d ever felt. She needed to tell them she was alive.
She was faintly aware of murmurs, muted and distant. Someone pried her eyelids open and flicked a bright light in them. She thought she heard her name, far away in the distance, but it was so muffled she couldn’t be sure. She fluttered her eyelids.
“We’re losing her,” a man said, panic rising in his voice. “She’s lost too much blood and is going into cardiac arrest. We need to resuscitate. Let’s move! Code Blue.”
Eve felt herself leaving her body, floating upward to a swirl of bright light. As she gently ebbed closer to the rapture, her senses became acutely aware. She drifted through a garden of roses, vivid blooms of crimson, burnt orange and liquid gold as bright as sorcerer’s flames. The sweet perfume permeating the air was heavenly. Enveloped in peace and tranquility, she passed through a veil of flowers. With a flutter of gossamer wings, a beautiful cherub materialized. The angel was breathtakingly beautiful. A spiral of jet-black curls framed a heart-shaped face, and when she smiled, lips the color of ripe cherries lit up her entire face.
“Who are you?” Eve asked.
“It’s me, Mummy,” the angel answered sweetly. “The baby you lost in the wreck, the child you didn’t want.”
CHRISTMAS ANGEL
Winter Wonders will be released by Whimsical Publications
on December 12. It is a collection of short stories.
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