Rose has type 1 diabetes, which means her pancreas produces little or no insulin, which the body needs to function. To compensate for her lack of insulin, Rose has to give herself twice-daily insulin injections, test her blood sugar up to ten times a day, and strictly control the type of food she eats as well as the time of day she eats it. It’s a lot of work but she never complains. Now, as she prepares to prick her finger to test her blood sugar, she looks up to warn me and, as always, I set off on a lap of the house (blood makes me queasy).
The house feels empty without Owen, even after all these months. I am fond of him, despite his many disagreeable qualities, such as his penchant for throwing an arm around my shoulder at unexpected times, and his refusal to call me by my given name, preferring instead to use uninspired versions of it: ‘Fernie’, ‘Fernster’, ‘The Ferminator’. It’s always strikes me as one of the great mysteries of life, who you are fond of. As I wander back toward the kitchen, I nearly stumble on the open suitcase on the floor, partially filled with shoes and a folded garment bag. At the sight of it, my stomach clenches slightly.
Rose is going to London on Friday for four weeks to visit Owen. One full lunar cycle. I know Rose is excited about it so I’m trying to be excited too, but Rose and I haven’t been apart for four weeks before – not even when Rose and Owen got married, because they had a destination wedding in Thailand followed by a ‘group honeymoon’ that all the guests (including me) attended. I try not to think about what could go wrong while she’s away, and that, of course, makes me think about what happened that night and then, suddenly, I can’t think of anything else. I don’t want her to go.
‘Dinner’s ready!’
I tuck the edge of the garment bag back inside the case. That’s when I notice the bottle. A white pill bottle with a pink label, showing the midsection of a woman, with full breasts and a curved abdomen. I pick up the bottle and read the label: ELEVIT. TO SUPPORT YOU THROUGH THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF PREGNANCY.
‘Fern? Dinner!’
I stand. ‘Are you pregnant, Rose?’
It wouldn’t be ridiculous, I suppose. Rose is twenty-eight, which is an appropriate age, more or less. I have watched television programs about the way fertility dwindles after the age of thirty. Apparently, doctors were recommending that partnered women who wanted children should start as early as possible. Once the surprise of it fades, I feel something akin to excitement hit my system. A child. I’ve always been partial to children. Their lack of complexity, their proclivity for speaking directly without subtext or agenda. Of course, I’d long accepted that I couldn’t have a child of my own, but Rose having a child would be the next best thing.
I return to the kitchen and give Rose the once-over. She doesn’t appear to have gained any weight. Then again, if common wisdom is to be believed, morning sickness could ward off weight gain in the early months. Perhaps she’d been feeling off-colour these past few weeks, having aversions to food she’d previously enjoyed, but keeping it secret, waiting for a special moment to announce it? But Owen had been gone for months. What would it mean as far as he was concerned?
‘I guess you found the Elevit,’ Rose says after a beat. ‘My doctor advised that if I was going to try to get pregnant, I should start taking them. Unfortunately,’ she says, ‘it hasn’t happened yet.’
‘So . . . you’re trying to have a baby?’ I ask.
Rose picks up the plates and carries them to the table. ‘I didn’t want to tell you until, well . . . I hoped I’d be able to tell you when we had something to announce. Turns out, getting pregnant isn’t as easy as I’d hoped.’
‘Oh.’ I sit at the table. ‘Because of your diabetes?’
‘Actually, no. It turns out I have a condition called POA. Premature Ovarian Ageing.’
She offers me some dressing. I shake my head.
‘Premature Ovarian Ageing,’ I repeat. In my mind’s eye, I see a row of eggs with grey hair and wrinkles and tiny walking sticks. ‘What is Premature Ovarian Ageing?’
‘Basically it means I have the eggs of a fifty-year-old woman,’ Rose says. ‘The quality isn’t great and there aren’t many of them. We could try IVF, but that relies on me having a good egg to harvest. At the moment, they’re not sure that the eggs will survive the process.’
Now I picture the eggs in a row of hospital beds, their deathbeds. A row of my potential little nieces and nephews. ‘That’s sad.’
Rose puts her fork down. ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘Yes, it is, isn’t it?’
‘So . . . if you have this . . . condition, does that mean I have it too? Because we’re twins?’
‘No,’ Rose says. ‘I mean, it’s possible, but not likely. You could get tested if you were worried.’
But of course I’m not worried. I am in excellent health, something I take very seriously. My personal maintenance routine encompasses an annual check-up with my GP, twice yearly check-ups with the dentist, biennial cervical screening tests and breast checks. My exercise routine entails walking to work and back each day, a five-kilometre round trip. I also do karate twice-weekly. In addition to karate, I do Vinyasa yoga for thirty minutes each morning – for its many benefits, which include muscle stretching and a calm mind. So Premature Ovarian Ageing wasn’t something I needed to feel concerned about at all. Besides, I have no plans to get pregnant; I’ve never been pregnant. I’ve only ever had sex three and a half times (the half was the first time, and half is more than generous). All three and a half
