Roxanne allowed the nurse to lead her into the examination room. “Wait here, please, for the Doctor,” the bottle blond nurse cheerfully chirped to her before leaving the room. Roxanne laughed to herself at how plastic the nurse, whose name tag she noticed as the woman swayed out of the room said “Tami,” was and the strange, non-contemporary, nature of her uniform. Like the nursing assistants in the reception area, she wore bright pink sneakers, which matched her skirt and top, with white stockings. It was pretty old school, which weirded Roxanne, a very modern woman, out.
As the minutes passed, Roxanne’s thoughts turned to more sober issues. She was here at the Doctor because she had been having trouble getting pregnant. The brunette and her husband, David, made love often, day and night, but Roxanne couldn’t get pregnant. After numerous pregnancy tests, her neighbor, Chrissie, pregnant herself, suggested Dr. Daniels, a prominent authority in insemination who just so happened to have a part time office in their gated community of Horizon Falls. Strongly desiring a child, Roxanne spoke to her husband about it, got his approval, and made an appointment the next morning.
While she day dreamed about the future, she had lost track of time. Twenty minutes passed and suddenly the door to the room opened with Tami swaying in, holding the door open for Doctor Daniels. Immediately, Roxanne felt at ease with the handsome Doctor in the room. He was tall, slightly balding, but very handsome and made her feel at ease with his very presence.
“Hello, Mrs. Sanderson,” he began, looking down at her chart for a moment.
“Please,” Roxanne replied before he could continue, “call me Roxanne.”
Dr. Daniels smiled at her. “Of course.” He turned to Tami, whom was waiting passively at his side. “Tami, dear,” he paused to put his hand on the nurse’s arm, “why don’t you give Mrs. Sanderson and I a few minutes alone.”
“Yes, Sir,” the nurse nodded slowly and exited the room, hips swaying as she shut the door behind her. Roxanne like Dr. Daniels a lot, he was handsome, pretty charming, and very good at what he did. Roxanne felt at ease with him, especially about the sensitive topic they would be discussing now. He would know what was best for her.
“Roxanne, dear,” he began, taking her manicured hands in his gentle hands, “I am afraid the test results came back as I feared they would.” He paused momentarily at her resigned sigh. “I am sorry, but you cannot have children.” He began to explain the very complicated, and confusing, details of the problem, but the general idea was that Roxanne was infertile. About a year ago, right around the time they moved to the community of Horizon Falls, she had begun to feel a strong desire for family. Roxanne had always worked, at least part time, but suddenly couldn’t be around her mommy neighbors, which there seemed to be a lot of on her street, without pangs of jealousy. This change in attitude had come on suddenly, but her husband always chuckled and made a joke about “biological clocks” or something even sillier.
Roxanne certainly had a body built for childbearing. She was 5’ 6” with auburn hair and green eyes. Weighing around 210lbs, the busty woman was wide hipped and a bit pear shaped. The part time homemaker kept herself up well, spending a good amount of time caring for her feminine needs. Her nails were French tipped, her hair permed, and her face made up to accentuate her natural beauty.
Roxanne’s day dreaming was interrupted by Dr. Daniels’s hand, again, against her own. “There are, however, a few experimental treatments we can try out. They are high tech and pretty new, but I have access to the methods. Now,” he began after a beat’s hesitation, “I spoke to your husband already this morning.” He paused again, waiting to gauge her reaction. Roxanne thought that was weird, that he spoke to her husband before her, but for reason she didn’t feel the need to question it.
He smiled, obviously pleased with her reaction. “There is an experimental nanochip that can train your body to become pregnant. It is state of the art and brand new. It can work to fix the way your brain and body interact and take in certain things. If it works, you could be having a baby within a year.”
Roxanne nodded. Part of her was very afraid of this. The word “experimental” especially hung over her mind. Still, she reasoned, she trusted Dr. Daniels and had complete confidence in him being her doctor. The brunette really wanted a child, and we do whatever it took to have one. Nevertheless, some part of her nagged that she should take some time to think this over, talk it out with him. “Can I take a day and talk to my husband about it?”
Dr. Daniels nodded and smiled at her. His glance sent a reassuring feeling through her body. “Of course, come back tomorrow. Talk to my receptionist out front about fitting you in somewhere.”
Roxanne shook his hand again and left the room. On her down towards reception, Tami passed by her, a focused, although somehow distant as well, look on her face. The nurse giggled at her as they passed, waving a pink nailed hand at her. At the elevator, Roxanne noticed she was going to the room where Dr. Daniels had been speaking to her. The doors opened before she could consider this visual further and she was on her way down to the receptionist’s office.
After making an appointment with the teenage girl at the desk, who sported quite a large engagement ring for a girl who barely looked out of high school, Roxanne got into her car and began driving back towards their community. A thousand thoughts bounced around in her head. She really wanted to have children! A sense of shame, growing since their difficulties the past few months getting her pregnant, fogged over her yet again.
The auburn haired woman had never wanted children until getting married last year. Now, she couldn’t stop thinking about them. It must be, she reasoned away, like a mantra, her biological clock. Funny, she realized, before meeting her husband, she’d never really believed in that stuff either. Nowadays it seemed so normal and natural.
Driving onto their street in the beautiful gated community of Horizon Falls, Roxanne reflected on how jealous she had become of some of her neighbors’ young families. Mrs. Sanderson felt inadequate next to the beautiful, mostly young, pregnant women. She was nearing 30 and still had not produced any children. Logically, she knew, obviously, this wasn’t the end of the world, but emotionally it really bothered her.
There was Mrs. Marsh, Chrissie, across the street, a 21 year old newlywed who was several months pregnant. Her mother was also pregnant! Their next door neighbor, the also freshly married Mrs. Rollins, Terri, a woman nearing forty, was also pregnant and starting to show as was her 17 year old daughter Lizzi, who seemed to be around four months pregnant. For some reason, there was no talk of any scandal; everyone seems to just be excited for the girls.
Lizzie Rollins, their neighbors’ daughter, seemed especially intense about her pregnancy. One day, while both were out front getting their respective mail, she ranted at Roxanne about women belonging in the home and how important having children was for females. Roxanne wasn’t a feminist, or anything like that, but the intensity of the girl’s voice and mannerisms was a little creepy. They were friendly and all, but she tried to keep her distance if possible.
Roxanne pulled into the driveway and noticed Chrissie across the street, also coming in from an errand. The brunette waved at her, a smile plastered on her face. She was showing now, but still dressed very feminine in a pair of pink Capri pants with high heeled sandals and a maternity shirt. Mrs. Marsh always seemed to be so cheerful and, from their brief conversations, was a bit of an airhead. Whatever. Roxanne didn’t really care too much.
As Roxanne walked towards the house and unlocked the door, her next door neighbor Lizzie watched from their front window. She looked across the street at Chrissie, who waved and smiled. Nodding back to Mr. Marsh’s property, she gently rubbed her stomach and stared vacantly out the window.