FALSE ALARM

The big news for me this week was...no news. Sorta. Sorry if this is getting into Too Much Information territory, but it’s either be honest with you, the readers, or not embarrass Rudy. Rudy loses this one.
My cycle is usually steady and reliable, which Fenton says is reflected in my personality. However, I totally missed last month’s period. Okay, I thought; that does happen on occasion. Fenton and I do take precautions, and we hadn’t slipped up. Always in the back of my mind, though, is the knowledge that a stray quill can puncture...anything.
So this month comes around and...nothing. I wait 24 hours and still...nothing. That’s when I buy a home pregnancy test at the local drug store.
The directions say that for best results to use it after a night’s sleep. That’s Day for us nocturnals, so when we rose at 6 p.m. we went into the bathroom. We were so nervous.
The little stick informed us that we were not parents-to-be. That was confirmed the next day when my period finally started. (It was unusually heavy.)
This left us pondering a lot of What Ifs. We agree that we’re not ready for this step, being in our early twenties. In a few years, sure, but not now.
We told our families, who took it with varying degrees of equanimity. Kell seemed freaked out the most, as the prospect of grandmotherhood seemed to contradict her self-image. I think she’s sensitive to the age thing since her days as a professional predator are behind her. She’s management now and besides, the injuries she sustained in surviving the CEO challenge at Herd Thinners were serious enough to make field work hazardous to her. So, her career is now behind a desk.
But, being the Alpha Female at the company she owns, it’s the biggest desk.