Baby Mine
Sometime in 1986
Stupid fucking kids. One was worse. Two? How in the heck was he going to afford
supporting two little brats?
His wife was supposed to be on the pill. How in the Hell could this happen?
It was two forty-five in the morning and they were both screaming their little heads off.
One of them was going to have to go. The girl. They were about as useless as the
parades that preceded holiday football bowl games. At least the boy
could help out with chores the minute he was able to walk and talk.
Dennis Parker was about to put the pillows over his face and the covers over his head
to muff out that incessant whining—but something needed to be done.
Why didn't she get rid of one?
Jesus Christ. That wailing sound was so annoying and even worse amplified by two.
There was an old saying his Grandfather told him that children should be seen and NOT
heard.
One of them had to go.
Audrey Parker hated to admit especially as she was a teenager in the midst of the
1970's feminist movement. But it really was all about being a mother. She quit her job
as a paralegal for a small San Diego law firm. Audrey didn't want to be the type of
mother who went to work soon after the twins were born. She wanted to be there for
Drake and Denise.
Her two perfect little angels.
Well they weren't being perfect at the moment. They were fed and had their diapers
changed, but they were still restless.
"Drake," He always did like being rocked in the antique rocking chair that Audrey found
at flea market for only twenty dollars. Dennis said he would refinish it, but he never did.
"Ssh. It'll be okay. Do you want to go back in the crib with your sister?"
"Can't YOU SHUT THEM UP?"
"Dennis," Audrey was afraid that one day he would start physically beat her or the kid's
at any minute, "Don't yell. It's not good for them to hear raised voices."
"Please. They have no problem screaming!"
They're three and a half months old, you moron!
Don't you hit them!
"They're babies." Audrey said in the softest voice possible.
"I have work in five hours…but you don't seem to care about that, since you quit your
job…now we hardly have any money. All because of these mistakes."
"Dennis, you don't mean that."
"Audrey, don't tell me what I mean. I have news for you. We are giving up one of these
brats up for adoption." He realized he lied about it making it seem like his wife was
going to have a choice in the matter over which infant would be going.
The babies were starting to calm down. She briefly wondered if they could sense the
kind of man that there father was. Dennis Parker didn't start out like this.
They met when they were in college. He dropped out in his junior year because he
didn't want to waste any more time in getting a useless degree when he could get a job
at one of the local auto dealerships.
Then as the years went by, Dennis Parker was filling up with rage. He didn't hit them.
He used to be that happy guy who would buy a round of drinks for all his friends at a
party, but once the realities of daily-married-life set in he was becoming a man full of
resentment who hated the responsibilities of being grown up. The verbal abuse was
getting too much to bear.
Audrey didn't want to give up either of her babies. She loved them both so much, but
one of them deserved to have a life free of Dennis Parker and a real chance of having a
real father. And it would be easier to raise one child and maybe it would stop the
chance of Dennis snapping.
The choice was clear. There was no external crying or shouting she didn't want to set
him off, but it was tearing her up on the inside.
"Okay, but let me talk to one someone at my old firm."
"Fine. Now that these brats cost me a full eight hours sleep. I'm going to sleep on the
sofa."
She wound up the zoo animals mobile and the tune of "Rockabye Baby" started to play.
Brother and Sister with their tiny heads next to each other.
"I love you, Drake and Denise. Please know that everything I am doing, I am doing so
because I love the both of you."
It would be the worst mistake of Audrey Parker's life when all she wanted was to give
her daughter a fair chance.