Then one day when she walked in she was beaming. “Howard, I’m married.” She lifted her hand and showed him her wedding band. “I didn’t think I’d ever get married to a man. I got left at the altar once and thought I would die. But then I met Lenny and I know he loves me—he does. We got married.” She gulped.
Howard was amused at her excitement and how she just blurted out her life to him.
“We got married because we’re going to have a baby.”
“Oh, Ms. Hendrix, that’s wonderful. And a baby. Your world is so full of joy. I’m very happy for you.”
“It’s no longer Ms. Hendrix. I’m Lisa Jones now.”
And this day she was almost running to show him the sonogram picture of her baby boy.
When she told Howard before she went up, showing him the printout, he clapped his hands in joy.
“Ms. Pierce, Mrs. Jones is here.”
“Send her up.”
The three women hugged when Lisa entered the condo. Since Lisa had announced she was with child, each time she visited, Gini said, “Bee… bee… boy.”
Today, Lisa was almost jumping with happiness.
“Leesy, what’s going on?”
She gave Debbie the sonogram printout, then she hugged Gini.
“Oh, wow, Lisa, this is amazing.”
“A boy, just as Gini said.”
“Bee… bee… boy.”
“You were right, Gini. Lenny and I are going to have a son. Lenny was over the moon. He has promised me he will cut his hours, especially after he is born. Can you believe it, Deb, I’m going to have a child… a baby boy!”
Even though Gini had one-on-one contact with Ric and Robert, she still hugged close to Debbie and before sleeping touched her own body and Debbie’s. When she rubbed or sucked on Debbie’s breast, it always put Debbie into a sexual world. Still, there was no sexual response, or any indication Gini knew what sex was.
As Lisa’s belly grew, more and more questions came from Gini. She couldn’t understand how the baby could suck milk from Lisa’s breasts if the baby was inside of her. Debbie tried to explain it over and over, taking different approaches to the subject. But all it did was confuse Gini and raise more questions, like how did the baby get inside of Lisa’s stomach? Gini did correlate Lisa’s pregnancy to the fact her own babies had died, but it was obvious she didn’t realize the babies were inside of her.
Debbie explained and read out of the medical book how the woman’s egg and the man’s sperm join to form the baby.
“Sick… in… eegg?”
“No, baby, not a chicken egg, a human egg.”
“No… be… uff… know. Bain… no… uff… goo.” She put her arms down and sat back on the couch frowning. She was constantly frustrated, sometimes to the point of anger—outbursts of fret.
“We’ll keep working on it so you understand.”
Robert had noticed Gini had seemed moody the last couple of times he was there. Debbie filled him in on Gini being down on herself because she couldn’t understand about pregnancy.
“Guiney, where’s that smile I love?”
“No… be… uff… smeel. Bain… uff… no… goo. Bain… uff… no… tink. Be… uff… dumb.”
“No, no, that’s not true.” He reached to the table and picked up the spiral notebook with Gini’s poetry that he brought back. He read:
“To Be Free
“The waves bulge up and come ashore,
And slowly escape back into the sea
The gentle wind blows my curls from my face
With the lift, they are up; they are free.”
Gini sat up and looked at him when she recognized the words.
He put the book back on the table and continued from memory.
“Then a sudden shift, and the curls are pushed down
The waves slam hard against the rocks
Sending sea spray high into the air
Mother Nature’s great fury takes over the scene.
But I’m not afraid; I can handle anything.
I love the sea, I want to always be there.
When I die, take my humbled soul, and ashes, too
Take them to the ocean and toss them to the wind
So I can join nature; me with the sea.
For there, I will always be free.
Virginia Anderson, age 21”
“That’s beautiful, sweetheart.”
“Oh… yes… Be… uff… writ.”
Then she started signing. Why couldn’t she understand things? Why was her brain so bad it didn’t work even when she tried so hard to make it think right, to move her hands and to say words as she heard other people talk?
He took hold of her hands. “Gini, I want you to know you are very intelligent. I know it’s a challenge for you to even exist, but you meet that challenge every day. Part of your brain is gone, and you’ll never get it back. I’m sorry about that, but that’s the way it is. So we move on and work with the rest of the brain that’s still there.”
How is the baby inside Lisa? she signed. How did it get there and how will it get out?
Debbie watched and shook her head. Poor Gini, all she thought about was Lisa’s baby being inside of her.
“Bee… bee… be… uff… fis… uff… eegg.”
“Not a fish, but a sperm.” Robert explained about intercourse and how the sperm and egg joined.
“The embryo grows into a baby. It’s the miracle of life.” He smiled.
Gini thrust her tongue. He put his hand around her head and gently brushed her cheek with his thumb.
“Bee… bee… grow… uff… tommy.”
“Yes, and when it’s big enough to breathe air and eat, it’s born.”
“Meek… uff… bress.”
“Yes, exactly. See, your brain is working. Sweetheart, you can think. Who always wins at braille cards?”
“Er… guiney.”
“Well, you couldn’t always win if you weren’t thinking, right? And how about you always know what
