Chapter Three: The Realization

"You really don't seem well, Audrey. She doesn't seem well, Robert. She has been to that bathroom quite a bit" Nancy expressed as she felt her daughter's forehead.

Audrey has been getting bad morning sickness in the last three weeks or so. The girl didn't think she was pregnant but she knows sex can lead to it. She sat there and began to wonder as she hid herself under the blankets. Being looked down upon by her parents like a problem that needed solving. Her mother was a little more sympathetic to her plight but she wouldn't be if she knew this was down to her simply wanting to know what sex feels like.

"Well stay at home for today. Let her stay at home...The school doesn't do any good for her anyway. She's scatterbrained" Robert piped up.

Audrey suddenly felt sick again as she pushed past her father. The sound of her reatching just confirmed it. Her mother however wasn't so sure this was the run-of-the-mill bug anymore. She was sick almost every day and it didn't seem to be going anywhere despite it now being on it's third week. The school has sent her home already due to this in the last three weeks. She looked at Robert but he didn't seem as if he was interested or even remotely suspicious. Mainly because he didn't think a daughter of his would be so stupid.

"I'm going to work. You deal with her" Robert said as he gave his wife a kiss on the cheek.

Taking one look at the bathroom door on his way out. Nancy waiting as she heard the sound of her husband going downstairs, putting on his coat and then opening and shutting the door. Nancy thus breathed in before opening the bathroom door to find her daughter crouched by the toilet as expected. This wasn't some bug, this was something else. Audrey could sense she was being stared at and the thought has come up in her mind too.

"What's happening to me?" Audrey asked her mother with a small tear.

"Well you tell me. Three weeks you have been sick with the so-called flu but it's not the flu, is it?"

"I'm sorry"

"Did you go to bed with somebody?"

"We just...We just wanted to see what it was like. We only did it the once and I regretted it. It made me feel shameful and now I'm paying the price. I'm sick" Audrey admitted with more tears.

Nancy remained silent on hearing this. She looked disappointed and ashamed of her daughter. How could she be so stupid? Robert wouldn't be as calm as her neither, she doesn't know what she started. Nancy left the bathroom and went to her room, shutting the door and trying to brace herself for the next conversation. She began pacing and pacing as her mind was racing. Audrey forced herself up from the bathroom floor as she held herself as she stood in her long nightie. Her mother opened the bedroom again and looked a lot less composed...

"You know what your father is going to say? He's not going to look at you the same way again and neither I am. We expected one thing from you, Audrey. Marriage and children. In that order-"

"He said he would marry me. I ought to tell him the truth"

"Has the father spoken to you since you had your fun? Or has he ignored you like most boys tend to do to girls like you?"

"No. I ignored him...I don't want to speak to him but if it makes everything better. I will talk to him and he will do the right thing. He didn't want to leave things badly but I couldn't bear to look at him again. I don't want to marry him but if I have to, I will" Audrey declared.

"All you had to do was not give yourself up to the first boy who wanted you!" Nancy finally snapped.

"Perhaps it was because he made me feel wanted. Something you or father never do!" Audrey shouted back.

Her mother stormed over and slapped her around the face for this. Audrey feeling the side of her face before being sent back to her bedroom.

...

Robert came home later that day and could sense the frosty atmosphere on entry. His wife and daughter were sat on the couch but weren't talking and both looked like death warmed up. He removed his coat and hat as he looked over, he knew something was up and it wasn't the flu. Audrey got up as she grabbed them from him as she usually did but he grabbed her arm to stop from leaving this time. She thus dropped his things on the floor and wrapped her arms around him. Trying to find comfort where there wasn't any. She wept as she knew her mother was right, he wouldn't be pleased when he discovers the truth. This was shameful and even more so as he was a devoted christian in the sense that there wasn't any argument when it came to out-of-wedlock birth.

"Somebody died?" Robert asked while looking at his wife.

"No. Oh Audrey, get off him. You proven yourself to not be a child anymore" Nancy spoke up.

She thus let go and glared back at her mother. Picking up her father's things and putting them away in the usual place. Not daring to return to the main living room as she remained standing in the corner. Hearing as her mother suggested he should sit down as she had some rather unsettling news. Robert looked spooked and that was a rare emotion for him. Nancy began very slowly and gently, saying that Audrey didn't have the flu. Her so-called illness was entirely self-inflicted and that was the worst thing about it.

"She went to bed with somebody, she's got caught. And she hasn't even told the father" Nancy confessed to him

"She went to bed with somebody?"

"Oh yes. Nobody forced her arm in that arrangement, she went to bed with somebody simply because she wanted to. And before you go blaming the boy for putting the daft idea in her head. She explained the situation there too, the daft lad; whoever he is...He isn't the one ignoring her, she's the one ignoring him"

Robert got up on hearing the last part. He stormed over to the corner where Audrey was trying to remain invisible. She could sense her father's fists were itchy and before he could use them on her. The girl ran towards the back and slammed open the back door. She was chased by her father down the street, he was demanding she get back in the house so they could talk. Audrey was in tears and could hardly think straight. She tripped over after bumping into a certain couple, cowering on the ground...

"Robert!" Malcolm Reid shouted out which stopped the man in his tracks.

The Reid couple were the couple she bumped into during the brief chase. The couple she loved to mocked were suddenly her light in the dark. Robert looked at his friend with shame and embarrassment that he saw this side of him. Joyce helped a tearful Audrey up and the girl clung onto the slightly older woman's arm as she hid behind her almost.

"This is a family matter...I'm sorry you had to see it but you know what Audrey's like. She enjoys winding me up" Robert spoke up as he stepped closer but Audrey pulled Joyce back with her as he did this.

"Well I don't doubt that. She's clearly scared to death right now. Go home and calm yourself down. We'll take Audrey back to ours for a night, Joyce will cook her tea and she can sleep in our spare room. Alright?" Malcolm asked with his hand out as he diffused the situation.

"With all due respect, Malcolm. You have no idea what's she done"

"Well perhaps I don't but I know this isn't a good look. Chasing your sobbing daughter down the street with all guns blazing. Don't ruin your reputation for what she's done" Malcolm suggested.

"One night. But don't tell anybody what you saw tonight"

"I wouldn't do that. We are all friends here...Whatever is said remains between us all. And if you do wish to tell me what she's done. That stays between us too"

"She'll tell you" Robert insisted as he pointed towards Audrey.

The Reid couple and Audrey then watched as he retreated backwards. Walking back home to Nancy. The last thing they heard was a can being kicked furiously down the road.

...

"This could be our last chance, Malcolm. Audrey's baby could be ours...That would solve all our problems. And Robert and Nancy can be safe in the knowledge that their grandchild would be well-looked after" Joyce spoke up later that night as a tearful Audrey confessed earlier to them what she's done.

"I'm not sure. It would never be our baby and I would always know that. Our baby died a long time ago"

"Oh but it would be. Audrey is still a mere child herself, she couldn't give the baby the love and attention that we could. This is my final chance to have a baby I could call my own. I'm thirty-seven years old, Malcolm"

"We haven't even asked the girl's opinion"

"I know but she will surely accept what we have to offer. She doesn't even have to tell anybody else about her being with child if she accepts this. Audrey can hide it and then move on. Nobody would ever have to know she had a child out of wedlock. The Potters' reputation would be saved"

"I know you long for a baby, Joyce. I do too but this baby won't be mine. That's what I couldn't accept"

"Oh it's easy for you to say that when you still have time for one. You don't understand what's it like when your days of childbearing is more or less over. Your fault for marrying a much older woman I suppose" Joyce responded with tears falling down as she tried to plead with the then twenty-seven year old Macolm Reid.

"Don't go over that again. I married you because I loved you and we did have a baby together once. I don't begrudge you for those few weeks of bliss"

"But you are happy to begrudge me this?"

"No! Listen to me...We will suggest this to Audrey if it's what you really want. It's not what I want but I may feel differently when the baby is born"

"We won't just suggest it, Malcolm. We will tell her what's going to happen because I deserve that baby more than she does" Joyce spoke with conviction before getting into bed.

Malcolm standing for a few minutes as the young man tried to think. He nodded to himself as he realized this will happen as Joyce was rather desperate. He got into bed with her and the lamp was switched off.

...

TBC