Mama Said - Trudys Story
Chapter 1
And Then They Were Gone
She remembered, at first being so scared of having a baby when she found out. She was a young innocent school girl, from a middle class family. If the virus never broke out, she would have told them...eventually, maybe after shutting herself in her room and crying, they would have freaked, shouted, ranted and cried, but eventually they would have forgiven her...or so she would like to think so.
...But she couldn't tell them. At first she wasn't even sure, but when she was sure, the world was in chaos, people were dying, her parents were panicking. She couldn't tell anyone. Her parents were worrying about getting sick and dying, how could she add anything else...they had more to worry about.
She was sad and embarrassed,that she had let him get her into that situation. She always was sensible, and shy and ...Martin...She never wanted him, she felt sorry for him.
Days and weeks passed...her life whizzed by. It was as if she had the fast forward button pressed, she couldn't remember much. Adults dropped like flies. There was brief talks about evacuating children...but it never happened. She just stopped going to school, less and less children turned up, teachers disappeared. There was no adults out on the streets anymore, and no workers in the doctors surgery, when she turned up green, nausea washing over her. She banged on the door, and then felt the familiar feeling churning in her stomach, before leaning over and retching into the shrubbery. She didn't think a baby so small could make you so sick. She straightened herself up, and shyly touched her small rounded tummy, before running away. She had to get back. Her dad had passed away the week before, leaving her mother deranged and gravely ill.
She remembered back to her mother that day, she had screamed from inside the bathroom, and she ran up to find her mother staring at herself in the cabinet mirror. It still haunts her...even now. She found her pulling at the sagging skin around her mouth...screaming, her eyes glassy and sunken, her hair brittle, her body frail and gray. Her mothers hands were shaking as she ran her boney fingers along her face, the face that was aging more each day. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at her. Her own parents had died, her friends had died ,her husband had died and he had died horrible. Withering in pain on the bed they shared, covered in urine. In the last final days, his body had shut down, piece by piece. His body became leaner, gray and blue, wrinkles that he never had before formed deep across every part of him, his body trembled...death was waiting.
The next day, her mother didn't have enough strength to get out of bed, she wet herself and didn't flinch. A few hours later, her facial muscles went. She couldn't move her jaw to eat, she couldn't smile...she couldn't scream. Maybe she had just given up. She remembered the blank sad expression on her face and the emptiness in her eyes, she was still alive, but she was gone. She wasn't going to stick around to watch her die too.
She kissed her mother softly on the forehead, said "i love you", and grabbed her already packed bag..
She turned up on his doorstep, standing out in the rain. It wasn't unexpected, so Bray had let her in. They were quiet as he lead her into the house. Both not knowing what to say. He knew that it had happened, she was all alone now...just like him. He gave her a towel, and she wiped herself down, thinking as she sat down on the cream leather sofa. What was going to happen now? She had no idea.
"How are you Trudy?" he asked, placing himself next to her
"Pregnant" she replied, through her tear stained face.
She remembered his reaction. It was kind, soft...just like Bray. She cried...they hugged...but it was too nice. What she wanted was someone to give her a great big slap across the face, to wake her up from this nightmare, thats the reaction, as a gymslip mum she should have got. Instead she got Bray, telling her everything was going to be OK, things happen for a reason blah blah blah. There was only one thing he said that day that made her smile, "I'll take care of you both"