'Oh my God! Rachael! Oh my God! What did you do? What did you do?'
Todd looked up at his father and shook his head. He opened his mouth but no words would come out. His dad kneeled down beside him. His father's eyes were wide as he looked over his dead wife.
'She-she was pregnant? Oh my God. She was pregnant! Why would she do this? Why would she do this?'
They sat like that, both kneeling in his mother's blood for what seemed like forever before his father rose and took Todd's arm, pulling him away from his dead mother. He took him into the kitchen and stripped his bloody clothes off of him then cleaned the blood from his skin with a wash rag.
'Don't worry, Toddy. Mommy is in heaven now,' his father said through tears. He paused and bit down on his own hand to keep himself from sobbing hysterically then picked up the washcloth again and continued to scrub the blood from Todd's skin. 'She's in heaven now. It's okay.'
But Todd wasn't sure she was in heaven. He'd heard that you didn't go to heaven when you committed suicide. But he wasn't certain that she had been trying to kill herself. She was definitely trying to kill the baby though. Todd thought about the baby that had been inside of her. He was pretty sure that God would have considered what she had done murder unless maybe she'd had a really good reason.
'Was it like the puppies?'
His dad stopped scrubbing and looked up at him. Tears were in his father's eyes and a look of confusion and disgust.
'What?'
'What Momma did? Was it like the puppies? Did she kill the baby because we couldn't afford it, because there would have been too many of us?'
His father shook his head and began to cry harder. He hugged Todd closely as his tears overtook him.
'I don't know, Toddy. I don't know.'
Todd was led back to his room, a glass of milk and two chocolate chip cookies were placed by his bedside.
'I have to go clean up mommy now. You try to get some sleep.'
Todd couldn't sleep. He sat up and listened to the police and the paramedics trapsing through his home. He heard his grandparents come. Heard their desperate tears. Then he heard sounds that he would never forget, wet sticky sounds as his mother's body was moved. The worst of it was what he heard his father say to his grandfather as they stood in the hallway just outside of Todd's room.
'I don't know why she would do this. Rachael was against abortion.' It was his grandfather's voice.
'The baby wasn't mine. I didn't even know she was pregnant. I've just been working so hard. I-I don't know how I didn't notice. She had to be at least eight months. I was just always so tired when I came home.'
'What do you mean it wasn't yours?'
'Rachael and I had decided not to have any more children. Two years ago, I had a vasectomy. I think it was somebody at the church. I think she must have had an affair.'
'That can't be.'
'I would have forgiven her. I would have. She didn't have to…'
'Are you sure?'
'I'm sure. I'm sterile.'
There was a pause and Todd's bedroom door opened. The two men peeked into Todd's room to make sure he was still asleep. Todd held the covers up over his face and didn't move. He didn't move again until he was sure that he and his father had been left alone.
Chapter Five
Todd looked forward to going to work now. He was on a mission. A one-man mission to stop the spread of humanity one child at a time. The second day was not nearly as successful as the day before had been.
A black lady with two kids, one a teenager and one a toddler, came in. Her name was Sandra Watson. She was tall and beautiful and unmarried and pregnant. Her skin was a light coffee color, cappuccino, and her eyes were green. Her hair was long and braided in cornrows. Todd looked at her application. She was 31-years-old. She must have been about 15 when she'd had her first child.
Ms. Watson's unemployment had run out and she'd started working for a temp agency. Then she'd gotten pregnant. She was looking for welfare, food stamps, and WIC, while she went to nursing school.
'That's great that you're in nursing school. It must be hard being pregnant and already being a mom and still working part-time.'
'Yeah, it's difficult. But Jamal helps out. I work for a temp agency during the day and my sister watches the babies.
She works at night. Then Jamal babysits for me after school so I can go to school.'
'You're lucky then.'
'Yeah, he's the man of the house now.'
Todd looked over at the shy young kid. He had a caramel complexion with a mixture of African and Caucasian features. Thick lips but a thin nose. Hazel eyes and high cheekbones. He had obviously inherited his mother's good looks. His hair was cut short, almost to the skin. He wore a baggy T-shirt and name brand jeans that hung off of his hips. Both looked new. He had a silver chain around his neck and an expensive looking watch. Todd wondered how the kid could afford to dress so well if his mother was barely working.
'Does Jamal work?'
There was a moment of hesitation.
'Does Jamal have a job? On your application you put yourself down as the sole income for the family.'
The woman turned to look at her son and she saw exactly what Todd had seen. There was no way she could lie.
'Ms. Watson?'
'He-he just has a little part-time job after school. It's nothing really. It's just so he can buy his school clothes.' There was desperation in her voice.
'Where does he work?'
'UPS.'
'My father used to work for UPS. They pay pretty well don't they? How much do you make, son?'
Todd saw the woman turn to her son and give him a look as if she were trying to will him to lie.
'Ten dollars an hour.'
Todd scribbled some notes on their application.
'Wow. That's pretty good. What do you do there?'
'I load boxes onto the trucks.'
'That's good hard work there, son. That's man's work. You should be proud of yourself. My dad used to drive the forklift. How many hours a week do you work?'
Ms. Watson looked terrified.
'Twenty, including weekends.'
'So, you make about $200 a week?'
The boy nodded.
Todd looked at the woman and shook his head.
'I'm sorry. But there's no way I can approve your application. With both of you working part-time you make too much money. Now I can approve you for WIC and maybe some food stamps but I can't give you a check.'
'But that's not fair! I have a baby on the way. You're punishing me for working? So, if I was one of these lazy-ass bitches who just leeched off the system forever and never tried to make something of themselves then you'd approve me no problem then, huh? This is bullshit!'
She picked up her purse and prepared to leave.
'Come on, kids.'
Todd held up a hand and waved her back into her seat.
