Eeny Meeny

108

The baby wouldn’t stop shouting.

Charlie kept picturing it inside her. Somehow she knew it was a girl. And when she pictured her baby, it was already human with a personality and needs, rather than just a bunch of cells. She pictured her baby screaming for food, confused and distressed about why she wasn’t getting anything from her mother. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Was her tiny stomach cramping with hunger as Charlie’s was? She might not even have a stomach yet, Charlie thought, but it was an image she couldn’t get out of her head. I am starving my baby. I am starving my baby.

Mark and Charlie had put themselves in this situation. They were to blame for it. But her baby was innocent. Pure and innocent. Why should her baby pay the price? Her anger at their stupidity fired her spirit. Her will at least wasn’t diminished, unlike her emaciated, useless body.

She tried to swallow her fury. She tried to sleep. But the night was long. And cold. And quiet. Charlie tried to sleep but her baby wouldn’t stop shouting.

Shouting at her to pick up the gun.