The Scryer ✔️

~Gouglersville - Part Two~

I eased out of the bed and tiptoed to the bathroom, happy to see that it was already furnished with toilet paper. I relieved myself and flushed the toilet, then moved to the sink. I washed my hands and looked up to see my father's specter smiling from behind me...he looked to be fully corporeal and I turned around toward the large bathtub to find that he was not there, but was IN the mirror.

"Papa?"

I take it that you like your new bed, he said grinning at me.

It was then that I realized that I was still naked as a newborn and moved to cover my breasts and girly-bits. He laughed at me.

Hannah, you are my child. I have seen you without clothing before.

I nodded. "Yes, but not as a married woman. And certainly not as a woman, who is expecting..." I looked down at my swollen belly.

He looked like he was forcing a smile and a feeling of dread overcame me quickly, causing my entire body to feel like it was freezing and I found that I couldn't breathe. "What? What's going to happen to my baby,"I gasped.

There is something wrong with the infant, he said with sorrow in his eyes. It's not right...

"What do you mean! I was just at the hospital for a prenatal..."

Oh, the baby is healthy yes, but it's not right...

I shook my head. "I don't understand..."

The child is not your husband's, he said.

I moved away from the mirror. "WHAT! Are you accusing me of infidelity," I whispered.

You were followed, Hannah...It wasn't your fault...John...

"There is nothing wrong with John!"

Not right now, but watch him...watch him closely...You'll see. You'll see.....

I watched with horror as I saw my father's specter disappear into the shiny glass.

I walked toward the bedroom and saw my husband lying on the flat of his back, his one arm raised above his head...nothing unusual there. I moved toward the bed and I watched his eyes flutter open. "Baby, are you alright?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yes. I'm still tired is all. What time is it?"

He raised his arm toward his face and looked toward the watch on his wrist. "Oh...umm...It's not working."

"It isn't?"

"No," he said as he sat up and reached over to turn on the light. He tapped on the electric chronometer. "Huh! It's dark. Perhaps the battery died?"

I shrugged my shoulders and sat down next to him and he circled my hips with his arms. "Want seconds?"

"Alwaaaaays," he said as he grinned.

"I kind of figured."

"Oh?"

I nodded. "Uh huh. There's a stiffy at my back!"

"Well, yeah. There is that..."

I giggled.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I love your laugh," he cooed.

"You do?"

He nodded. "Yesssss...."

I giggled harder and he took me into his arms once again.

We made love again and afterward, I was told by the wife of one of John's school friends that sex was infinitely better during pregnancy and she went on to mention something about the lack of stress of producing a pregnancy, or lack of the fear of creating one that played with the psyche, tricked it somehow on some primal level...they were just beginning to understand it. I talked to the Professor about it...funny how I could talk to that man about anything under the sun and moon...But I knew that I wouldn't tell him about what my Papa had said to me in the mirror...