SPECIAL

"Mom always said I was different 'coz I was special. The stranger agreed with her. Was that wrong?"

I always liked Doc Burdett's office. It had ash-white dangling bones, warm wooden walls, and water trickling over rocks. And he never made a fuss, which made Doc very special to me.

"Did he say anything dirty, Sarah?"

"Dirty?"

"Inappropriate." Doc Burdett frowned and searched the ceiling for words. "Anything that made you feel uncomfortable?"

"No. He just brought the announcement."

"Annunciation." Mom clutched her purse, kinda scared-like. "Annunciation was the word she used. But why would she? She doesn't even know what it means."

"Sarah? Who is 'he'?"

"The dark man who comes to my bed at night."

"She says she has a lover. Thirty-two hours in labor, and she lies to me."

"She's twenty-one, Adele. Being oxygen-deprived at birth didn't stifle her hormones." He gave me that look that men do, the one that makes Mom twitch.

"Impossible. I'm with her every waking minute."

"Some fella shinny up her downspout?"

"You treated anybody with my shotgun up his ass lately?"

Doc Burdett wiped his mouth. "Sarah? Tell me what happens."

"Feathered fingers on my window. Brittle taps against the glass. He lies on me 'til he's all heated honey-sweet skin, and rocks inside me 'til dawn. Then there's just wide, purple-black wings, and he's gone."

"Masturbating," Doc said promptly. "Let her be. Fantasy may be all she ever has. And you know what it's like to be alone, Adele."

Mom was calmer after that. I was glad Doc could help her. Especially now that I can feel something growing, fluttering deep in my belly.

There'll probably be a fuss. 'Coz I think it's gonna be special too.

                                                          ~ END ~