A diminutive young woman, age eighteen, sat on a hard straight back armless cushionless chair, in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. She tried to read a smudged up limp paged old magazine but she just couldn’t. Her mind was elsewhere.
Just then another woman came in, closed the door with a deadening thud, plodded over to the receptionist, and mumbled her name. This woman was big boned, in her late thirties, and she had been ridden hard and put up wet, literally, many a time over the years by many a man. Life had been hard on her, most of it from her own making, and her aching drooping body showed her mileage. She took a likewise hard back chair directly across from the young woman.
They both knew why they were here so there was no point in them carrying on a conversation. But there was someone there who wanted to be heard. It was the fetus of the younger woman.
“What are you in for?” the fetus of the younger woman asked the fetus of the older woman.
“Rape and you?”
“Incest. By the way, I’m Charisse. The woman carrying me refuses to give me a name so I chose Charisse for myself.”
“I chose Lavinia,” said the rape fetus victim. “Nice to meet you Charisse.”
“Nice to meet you too Lavinia.”
“I know,” began Charisse then she stopped, composed herself, and then began again, “I know that we live in a state that bans abortions but makes exceptions for incest and rape but you know those legislators of ours never ever once looked at it from our point of view. They don’t realize that we’re victims here too. Can we help it who are fathers are?”
“I know. I know what you mean Charisse. They must think that since my father is a rapist, I’ll grow up to be one too. You ever hear of a woman rapist? Rape that’s a man thing.”
“Well in my case they must think that I’ll be a retard because I’m a victim of incest and I know for a fact that isn’t true.”
“How do you know that?”
“From the Bible. The woman carrying me became a Bible freak after her ‘incident’ as she calls it. Reads it all the time now trying to redeem herself and get back in the good graces of God. By osmosis I learned a few things. Like he Bible is full of incest and it didn’t hurt the Jews any.”
“What are you talking about?” asked a nonplussed Lavinia.
“Bear with me here, okay.”
“Okay.”
Take that story of Abraham and Sarah for example. They’re in Egypt. The Pharaoh sees Sarah and he wants her for his lustful purposes. So he asks Abraham about her. Abraham knows that if he tells the Pharaoh that Sarah is his wife, she’s fair game, that the Pharaoh will take her from him, and there’s nothing he can do nothing about it. But if he tells him that she’s his sister, she’s off limits for some reason or other under the Egyptian code of ethics. So Abraham tells the Pharaoh that she’s his sister and the Pharaoh leaves her alone. Old honest Abe wasn’t exactly lying here. He was just sidestepping the truth. Sarah was his wife and was his half sister. They had the same mother.
“So what’s your point?”
“So my point is that later Abraham and Sarah begat Isaac and the whole Jewish race is descended from him. The Jews you know have produced some pretty smart, intelligent, even genius people over the years like that Einstein fellow. Lots of them have won all kinds of awards. Lots of them are doctors, lawyers, writers, actors, movie producers, statesmen, senators, etc. and they’re all descended from a child of incest. But oh no, not me, I’m stereotyped as a retard and have to be put down like a mad dog. And oh yah speaking of lots, don’t forget about Lot and his daughters. They all got drunk, had sex, and offspring resulted.
“Well all that’s kind of stretching it some isn’t it Charisse. But now that you’ve got me thinking about all this, as to my case anyway, a lot of famous talented people have been born as a result of rape.”
Her case was that she was drunk. He was drunk. Such was her lot in life. She said no but when a man’s lust and another part of his body is up, that other part of his body is not to be denied its full and final consummation.
“You know when they suck me down the tube they might just be killing off the next Ethel Waters or Eartha Kitt.”
“So what. They don’t care. It isn’t about us Lavinia. It’s all about them and their right to a woman’s health care decision. Like thousands of women die each year from the disease called pregnancy. Yah right. These women groups view us as a cancerous tumor that has got to be cut out of there before it grows and screws up your wonderful life, which already is. Give me a break. Abortion is killing, plain and simple, but legal.”
“Well slavery was legal once and they abolished it. Maybe someday they’ll abolish abortion too.”
“Maybe but we won’t live long enough to see it. That’s for damn sure. I hope to hell that God will get these two women but good for what they’re going to do to us.”
“Oh don’t you worry about it, Charisse. I’m sure She will. I’m sure She will.”
The door next to the incest infected young woman burst open and a nurse with a broad smile plastered across her face came out and nodded to the young woman that it was her turn now. She smiled not to put the young woman at ease but rather because she enjoyed her work for she was a fierce women’s lib advocate, especially when it came to abortion, each abortion being another victory for womens’ rights, and she was homely as a mud fence.
The young woman got up, straightened herself out. She mustn’t go to her abortion all wrinkly like she should now. After all, the reason she was here in the first place was to iron out this wrinkle from her life as if nothing had ever happened. So she stuck her chin out and she feared no evil as she entered into this Valley of the Chamber of Death. And as she did so Charisse hollered back over the woman’s shoulder, “See you on the other side Lavinia.”
To which Lavinia responded, “See you on the other side Charisse.”
Author is a retired attorney who started writing for something to do in his rusting years.