The Surprise
Written By: Kara Fallucco 2005
I felt a trickle of water between my legs.
“Jack! Wake up! My water broke.” I said as I shook him.
“ Ok.” Jack grumbled as he rose out of bed"
When I moved out of bed liquid flushed out between my legs onto the floor. I looked outside the window; the other townhouses were quiet. Everyone was still asleep. I waddled to the restroom and sat on the toilet hoping the water would stop. When my water didn’t stop leaking, I left the small bathroom and went to get dressed. Wherever I walked, liquid trickled on the floor. As my husband and I walked around the house gathering items, we found ourselves giggling at the trail that was left behind. My baby was already marking her territory.
After we packed, we went out to the car. The nearest hospital was only five minutes away so we didn’t have to rush. This was the same hospital we rushed to five months ago when I had back pain. At the time I had no idea I was pregnant, and we weren’t planning on conceiving any time soon. Receiving the news was such a pleasant surprise, but the way the news was delivered was unusual.
I clearly remembered that night. My back ached terribly. The pain began a week ago as a tiny ache in the small of my back. I thought nothing of it, until the pain became excruciating. I tried pain medication and warm bathes. I tried everything. Finally, I begged my husband to wake up and take me to the hospital.
At the hospital the triage nurse took my blood pressure and temperature. She asked the usual barrage of questions, but the only question that really mattered that night was...
“ When was your last period?”
I replied “Oh. I don’t know, several months ago, but don’t worry I can’t get pregnant. I have a condition that keeps me from having periods.”
After the nurse was finished, we walked through an automatic door to a room. The nurse asked me to change my clothes. After I changed, I sat on top of the gurney in pain. I waited for several minutes in a curtained off area to get x-rayed.
Soon an intern appeared and we walked down several halls to the x-ray department. I shivered in the thin hospital clothes. We entered a large room with a humongous machine. It was white and looked like a donut, attached to it was a bed. The intern directed me to lie on the bed. He left the room, and the bed moved between the donut. A voice told me to inhale and to exhale. After the movement of the table ceased. I lay there admiring the pictures on the wall.
Suddenly the bed was jerked away from the machine. It was the emergency room doctor.
“You told me you couldn’t get pregnant!” He said.
“ I can’t.” I replied
Voices from the side of the room asked. “What do you want a boy or a girl?”
I turned to see who the voices were. The emergency room staff was in the x-ray room. They were there to deliver the news I was pregnant. The funny thing was, not only was I pregnant, I had a kidney stone too. The nurses transferred me to a gurney and wheeled me back to the emergency room. On the way we passed a picture of a baby in utero. They showed me the size of my baby. My baby was about 20 weeks or four months.
I sat in disbelief on the ride back to the emergency room. My eyes filled with tears. I have always wanted to have a child, but my doctor told me that I would probably have to use fertility drugs.
When I found this out, I left the doctor’s office in tears. It was a cool autumn day and it was drizzling. I found it difficult to drive, but I didn’t want to go home yet. I drove aimlessly through city streets and neighborhood streets until I came to a cemetery. I pulled in and collapsed over the steering wheel. I sobbed and sobbed until there were no tears left inside me. Thankfully I was in a place of mourning, and no one knocked on my window to ask what was wrong. Every day I struggled with pain. It hurt when I saw other parents playing with their children. My heart panged when I walked through the mall and saw the tiny mannequins in the Baby Gap store. As the years passed, the pain waned, but it never disappeared.
Now I was being wheeled back to the emergency room with group of nurses excitedly chattering over discovering a baby during an x-ray.
“ Can we tell your husband?” One nurse asked.
“Sure.” I said as I laughed.
When we arrived back to the emergency room, Jack was sitting on a chair.
“We know what you have been doing.” One of the nurses said.
“ Uh…Um.” Jack replied confused.
“ Guess what we found?” Another nurse said.
Jack replied. “ A kidney stone?”
“ We also found something else, Jack, we found a baby.”
Jack shook his head in disbelief. “ No you didn’t!” He replied.
At this time the doctor entered the room with the x-ray of the kidney stone and the baby. He held up the x-ray to show the parents.
“ Would you like to hear the baby’s heartbeat?” The doctor asked.
“ Yes.” I replied.
I lay down, and he felt my stomach and listened with a Doppler until a double heartbeat was heard.
It was true there was a baby inside me. Even though it was an almost impossibility it was true. Both my husband and I sat there in disbelief.
That day the doctor told me to go home, and to see the gynecologist and an urologist. I did as the emergency room doctor instructed. Both of my doctors were concerned for the welfare of my baby. I was four months pregnant, and I had unknowingly submitted my baby to x-rays, antibiotics, and Motrin. I was referred to a specialist and was carefully watched for the next five months. Thankfully my baby developed normally.
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We arrived at Trumbull Memorial Hospital
“ My wife is outside in the car, her water broke this morning and she is past her due date.” He told a nurse.
“Has she had any contractions?” The nurse asked as she followed Jack out to the car with a wheelchair.
“ No contractions yet.” He answered.
I carefully climbed out of the car into the wheelchair. I was wheeled into private room in the maternity ward.
“ Kara. Please get comfortable and we will be with you shortly.” The nurse told me.
Jack and I cuddled on the bed; we were very excited. Today would be the day we would see our baby. Internally I was anxious. I was afraid of childbirth pains. Would I breathe as they showed me in Lamaze class? Would I be a good mother? Would the baby latch on and breast-feed…
While I was deep in thought, the doctor came into the room. He was going to perform an exam to find out if I was dilated. Afterwards the doctor had a puzzled look on his face. “Kara. You are not dilated at all and your cervix is closed. We will be performing a c-section.”
“ Oh!” I said puzzled and concerned. “ Is the baby ok?”
“Yes the baby is fine, but she is quite large and it would be safer to deliver her by a c-section. I am going to prepare the operation room and you will be transported there shortly. I will see you there.” The doctor said and left the room.
Because several women were in labor today, it was several hours before I was transferred to the operating room. I was moved from a gurney to the operating table. My arms were outstretched, like the shape of the cross. One arm was being tightly squeezed to reveal my vital signs. I tightly closed my eyes against the light.
There was a partition over my huge belly. I was so afraid. I was hoping the medication I would be given would calm my nerves. My husband stood by my side, and squeezed my hand.
“Please don’t touch me.” I requested
I was already so uncomfortable and afraid. I closed my eyes tighter and tried to relax. The last thing I remembered was the jiggling of my belly.
Next I am lying in a hospital bed listening to trickling water. The water was soothing and comforting to my soul. It sounded like the trickling of a water fountain. A red haired nurse checked my blood pressure and vital signs.
“ May I see my baby?” I groggily asked.
“ You may see your baby and husband shortly. As soon as you are out of recovery.” She replied.
When recovery was over Jack walked into the room. He was wearing a surgical hat and yellow scrubs. He looked silly but wonderful. He was pushing a dresser with drawers and a glass cradle on top. Inside the cradle was Franchessca a 10 lb baby girl with ten fingers and ten toes. Jack picked up the beautiful child and laid her next to me. I held her in my arms and cried tears of joy for the second time in my life.
Lewis Cipher
Written By: Kara Fallucco in 2005
The subway doors open with a whoosh. The station is dimly lit. I walk past the ads plastered on the walls. My heels make a clip clop sound as I saunter up the subway station steps into the sunshine. I am almost late for work. Thankfully my office is one block west from the subway station. I have been a journalist for New York Times for five years now. As I enter the news floor it is busier than normal.
“Jessie I want you to cover a story for me now!” My boss yells over the din. “There will be a press conference downtown in a half in hour. It turns out Satan has hired a publicist to improve his image. I want you to get down there. Cover the news conference and try to get a one on one interview with this guy who claims he is the devil.”
I am flabbergasted by my bosses’s assignment. He wants me to do what? He wants me to talk to whom?
“Terry. You got to be kidding there is no such thing…” but he wouldn’t let me finish.
“ Now. Go now. You will miss the press conference. Don’t forget to grab a camera on your way out. This could be our cover story tomorrow.”
I could tell that he was serious so I gathered my items and headed out the door. As I walked downtown I couldn’t believe the assignment. To me the devil has always been a fable. Something that is talked about in the churches, but I stopped going to church a long time ago. I considered myself to be an atheist, and neither did I believe in the devil. I just thought the devil was somebody the western world used to cover up his mistakes. You know, it wasn’t me it was the devil, he made me do it. Now I am covering the devil’s press conference. Huh?
As I rounded the corner, I entered the plaza. It was teeming with people. There were video cameras from all the local television stations including larger ones like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. I also saw the other major newspapers in the city. I didn’t believe that reputable news agencies were taking this joker seriously.
I made my way through the people up to the front. I wanted to be involved in the action. As I got closer to the front I saw there was two men standing at a podium. I assumed one was the publicist and one was the devil, or so called devil, but I couldn’t tell which. What about all those fables that described the devil as a red with horns and a pitchfork. Maybe the devil hid them inside his head until he was ready to do a dastardly deed. Perhaps his pitchfork was under the podium. The bible describes the devil as a serpent. Neither of those men looked like a serpent. Perhaps the devil was a changeling; later before he drifted of to sleep he would change into a serpent. Satan is also described as a beautiful angel. I secretly willed the men at the podium to turn around so I could check for angel wings. I couldn’t believe I was even contemplating these things. The devil. I knew he really didn’t exist.
One of the men stepped up to the podium and the conference began. Cameras flashed, and everyone waited for the identity of the devil to be revealed.
“My name is Jeffrey Simmons, and my client is Lewis Cipher” He said as he motioned in the other man’s direction. “Mr. Cipher detained my services earlier this week. When he came into my office I had no idea who Mr. Cipher was. I thought he was a high-powered client living in New York
A handsome man stepped up to the podium. He adjusted the microphone and then he began to speak. Cameras flashed simultaneously, and a hush grew over the audience.
“Since the dawn of time, and perhaps before the dawn of time there have been murmurs or rumors of a creature, a creature full of hate and ugliness. Sometimes that creature has been named Cain, Ham, or Nimrod. In modern day we name that creature Dahmer, Saddam Hussein, or Osama Bin Laden.
We blame the devil for our mistakes. If there is crime or murder it is blamed on the devil, or Lucifer. I come before you today to say yes, I am Lewis Cipher, or you may call me Lucifer. I am the son of perdition. I have been here since the beginning of time and before, but as you can see I am not like I have been portrayed. I am not a murderer. I am not a liar. It was not me who possessed Jeffrey Dahmer and made him commit cannibalism. I did not cause Hussein to be a murderer and a torturer. I did not make those men fly planes into the World Trade Center
It may shock you to find out that I am kindness, intelligence, wisdom, and love. See I am the one standing in front of you today, and I ask you where is God? Why isn’t he standing in front of you today explaining himself? Perhaps God is dead. Perhaps God is the liar and the murderer. I don’t know, but I do know that I am not a murderer, a torturer, and a liar. Those are lies that have been perpetrated on me through the annals of time. You can choose to believe what you wish, and this ends my statement.”
Jessie had listened intently to devil’s statement, and had even feverously written notes so she would have direct quotes for her news story. This was just so unreal that a man made of flesh and blood was claiming to be the devil himself. Jessie just didn’t think it was possible. She began reviewing her notes, when Mr. Cipher began to answer questions from the media.
“Mr. Cipher you claim to be the devil, what proof can you offer us as to your identity?” A news reporter dressed in a navy blue pantsuit asked.
“There is much proof I can offer to you, but I do not know if this proof is necessary. I just came forward today to offer a new point of view. I would hope that I would be believed without proof, but since you have been lied to so long I will offer some type of proof. My lady, what is your pleasure?”
Before she could answer, I shoved my microphone in Mr. Cipher’s face and said.
“I would be interested in understanding the form you are in now. You look like any other human being, but you claim to be supernatural. In the bible you are described as a beautiful angel and a serpent. Yet the world sees you as a red monster carrying a pitchfork, with horns and a tail. Do you normally look like you do now? If you have other forms can we please see one of them?”
“Oh. One of my most favorite questions, holding this human form is quite a gruesome task. There are many forms I can take on; actually there are limitless forms I can choose. I can form myself to look like you. I can make myself look like a beast, but I prefer to save that form for Halloween. So I can go trick or treating with the rest of the crowd. I can make myself into a rat or serpent, but I prefer to change myself into beautiful things; and I will choose to show you my favorite form.”
Mr. Cipher stepped back from the microphone a little bit. He transformed from a man into a beautiful angel. He, the devil, was absolutely stunning. His hair was golden, long, and flowing. He wore a beautiful dress made of shimmering fabric. Yet the most beautiful part of this being was the wings. They gracefully extended from his back, the feathers fluttering in the wind.
“Is this enough proof for you?”
Jessie was stunned. She hadn’t expected that this man would actually be able to transform into anything, but neither was she convinced of his identity. Before she could answer Mr. Cipher replied.
“That is O.K. Jessie Ann McCarthy. I understand that you do not believe in my existence. Perhaps one day you will.”
Jessie had not told this man her name and neither had she shared with anyone her beliefs in God and the devil. This man, or this being, had just read her mind, and said her first, last, and middle name. Perhaps he was the devil.
“Mr. Cipher where is hell? Is there a hell? Or is this another lie perpetrated on us throughout the centuries?” asked a news reporter from CNN.
“Oh yes. The question of all questions, hell is it real or not? You have all heard the stories about hell that it is a fiery place in the core of the earth. Hell a place of torture and unrelenting thirst. Hell a place where I laugh at your calamity.”
“You may have heard the fable that in hell I beat my wife and when I do this it causes your earth to shake. But what you have heard most of all is hell is the place that you will go if you do not behave. And that if you do not behave you will be there forever and ever. Well I am here to tell you that it is all lies. Hell isn’t real.”
“That doesn’t mean you can do anything that you want and murder who you please. Remember I told you I am kindness, intelligence, wisdom, and love. I ask you to apply those principles in your life.”
“Mr. Cipher, or should I say Lucifer, if hell isn’t real does that mean that heaven isn’t real also?” Asked the same reporter from CNN.
“Heaven is out of my bounds, it isn’t even in my territory, but since I told you that I am not a liar. I cannot lie to you and tell you that heaven is real. Heaven and hell are fairy tales perpetrated on the world to keep things in line. The churches have given you this line of bull century after century, and your God has allowed it. Why has God allowed it? He has allowed it because he is dead.”
The crowd murmured amongst themselves. Some began to pray loudly, others spoke in tongues asking for God’s presence. If the devil could stand before them and prove himself to them, why couldn’t he? But to no avail no one challenged Mr. Cipher. No lighting bolt shot down, and God did not present himself to prove that he was alive.
Jeffrey Simmons stepped up to the podium.
“Mr. Cipher will not be answering anymore questions today. This press conference is over.”
The two men stepped away from the podium and entered the building behind them. Jessie was too stupefied by the conference to follow them and try to get a one on one interview for the paper.
“Jessie, Jessie. Jessie. It’s time to wake up. You overslept. Hurry up you are going to be late for work.”
Jessie opened her eyes to see her roommate Tammy standing in front of her. This whole time she had been asleep. There had been no Mr. Cipher, no press conference, and no transformation into an angel, and most of all no renouncing of God.
What has happened is that Jessie left the television on the night before, and she was catching the tail end of Devil’s Advocate. That explained her strange dream.
Jessie thanked Tammy for waking her up and hopped into the shower to get ready for work.
