Week 9: Lisa

In week nine I stepped up to the plate and submitted an idea for a character prompt.

When I came up with the idea I had a totally different story in mind but as I sat down to write a different Lisa emerged. Stranger still, she has stayed with me. In the months that followed Lisa appeared in two more stories and she is still hanging around in the back of my mind. I am not sure what I am going to do with the story -- I may just have to sit down and write the whole tale just to exorcise her!

Character name: Lisa
Age: 26 years old
Scenario: She is sitting on the floor of a small bathroom with a watch and a pregnancy test. Is the result positive or negative? Is she happy about the results?


two minutes…

Lisa slid the cap back on the end of the pregnancy test and placed it gently on the back of the toilet bowl. She handled the stick with the caution that one might expect from someone re-inserting a pin in a live grenade.

Taking two steps back she leaned on the wall behind her and slid down settling herself on the cold black and white tile floor.

Two minutes. In two minutes she would know for sure. Her period was only two days late but her cycle was usually as regular as clockwork. ‘It’s probably stress,’ she had told herself the day before but she broke down and bought the test on the way home from work unable to wait any longer for an answer.

From her spot on the floor she craned her head looking her watch on the counter but it was not there. Crap! She had forgotten it on her bedside table. Well she certainly was not going to go back into the bedroom to get it. She couldn’t risk waking Jason; she just couldn’t deal with him right now. First, she would find out what was going on then she would talk to him about it.

In the meantime she would just count… one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…

No, that wasn’t going to work either.

Feeling the tension in her shoulders and her neck she let her ear drop down to one shoulder in a gentle stretch. Then she changed sides and took another deep breathe.

What was she going to tell her mother? She was 26 years old and she was still afraid of what her mother was going to say. She could almost hear her now. “Lisa, dear you can’t be pregnant. What am I going to tell the other ladies at the church tea? I already have enough trouble trying to explain why you are not married yet. You have a wonderful man like Jason and still you won’t make a commitment. What on earth are you waiting for?“

Oh God, she couldn’t be pregnant. She considered a desperate prayer. Was there a patron saint for unwed women who may or may not be knocked up by men they no longer loved?

Well if any good came out of this mess it was that it would force her to deal with the Jason situation. If the test came back negative she promised herself that she would finally screw up her courage and tell him how she really felt.

It should be easy. She had practiced the conversation in her mind at least a dozen times over the last month alone. They would sit him down in the living room with a glass of wine and she would just tell him.

Jason, I think you are a lovely man. You are talented and bright and I will always care for you but I just don’t know if I am in love with you anymore. In the scenario she imagined Jason would have tears in his eyes but she knew that would never happen in real life. Men like Jason did not cry over the likes of her. They moved on and found someone new. She was sure that there would be another woman living with him in this very apartment in the space of a year if she ever moved out.

But, that was only one side of the coin. What if that test turned up with a plus sign? If she was pregnant she knew Jason would have a ring on her finger that very day. Men like Jason would do the ‘right thing.’ In fact, he had been trying to discuss marriage and kids for the longest time and she did her damndest to avoid it. Did he really want her or did he simply want the settled-married-man status that the partners of his law firm respected?

A quiet knock on the door startled her. She closed her eyes and sighed.

“Lisa, are you OK… Can I come in, babe?”

“Yeah.”

Jason slowly pushed the door open and his eyes flashed with worry as he saw her sitting on the floor. He followed her gaze to the top of the toilet bowl and grabbed the stick.

As he turned towards her she caught a quick glance of the tears in his eyes as he dropped down in front of her and wrapped her in a tight hug.

“Lisa….”

Without even seeing the test, she knew the answer and she wanted to cry.

***

Yet again I encourage you to check out The Character Project and read some of the fabulous stories that have been posted there!