She patted the bed next to where she was sitting. I swallowed nervously. I could feel the hairs stand up at the back of my neck and my stomach was turning upside down. I took a seat.
“So… we’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while now…”
I was waiting for her to continue, when she suddenly seemed to stop for no reason. At first, I was just staring into space. Then I looked over at her and I could tell that she was struggling to keep things together. Every time she tried to speak, she had to stop and clear her throat. She also kept drying her eyes, stopping tears from ruining her makeup.
“Are you crying?”
“No… yes… I just…”
“Hey, are you all right, Lizzie?”
“Yes! Dammit, I’m not gonna…”
She took a deep breath and exhaled calmly, regaining her composure.
“It’s just been a bit… hard. You know. We’ve been arguing… trying, failing… It hasn’t been great for our relationship…”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Three years. Uh… yeah, just over three years. It’s been rough. So… basically, I’m done trying normally. I’ve read all the books, seen the doctors, tried all the advice… I’ve been using this thing to find out when I’m ovulating and then Ted and I have been having sex just at the right time… I’ve even been to the clinic and gotten myself checked out. They couldn’t find anything wrong, so the only thing left is… him. Aaaand… that’s where the trouble really started. The mere suggestion that it was him that has the problem… let’s just say he didn’t take it well.”
I was beginning to see the problem. Suggestions like that would be a hit to any man’s self esteem.
“I’m positive that it’s him. That he’s the one who can’t… perform. When I asked him to get checked out, though… he wouldn’t. Says he’s more than man enough to knock his woman up… you know, male ego stuff. Said we should just keep trying. But we’ve been trying for so long now… and it’s not working. I need to try something else. Time is not something I have in endless supply. So I started thinking about giving Mother Nature a helping hand.”
“All right but… you go to a lab for that, right? What do you need me for?”
“Uh, so… Artificial insemination, that’s what they call it. They take a man’s donated sperm sample, put it in a syringe with a tube and inject it into a woman’s uterus, right deep in there so that the little swimmers can make their way up to the egg. I mean, sometimes they inject it even deeper, or they actually take an egg out and fertilize it in a lab before putting it back in…”
“In vitro fertilization…”
“Exactly! How’d you know what it’s called?”
“Pff… I watch TV.”
Lizzie smiled. Then she stopped, looking dejected.
“The thing is, Ted won’t do that. He won’t let me use his sperm like that. I think he’s afraid that they’ll find something. That they’ll tell him his swimmers can’t swim or something…”
“What about the IVF? They don’t need to swim for that.”
Auntie looked embarrassed and started biting her lip.
“It’s… really expensive. Like, seven… eight… ten thousand dollars, depending on the clinic… or maybe even twice that for multiple treatments… I can’t afford that. Ted doesn’t want to and certainly isn’t going to pay for it. The one time I mentioned it, he was really offended. He really thinks that all that’s needed is for him to pump away at me for two minutes and that’s it. Dumbass… can’t even make his woman get off…”
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