The Clinic Swore the Baby Was His, So He Stayed When It Wasn't novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Wrong Straw
On the clinic table, Liisa learns the log says she was inseminated with a banked sample that belongs to a harbor tug captain, who walks in, and she refuses the pill and tears the release in front of him.
The doctor was reading the thaw sheet aloud, as she did before every table was cleared, and she stopped halfway through the straw number.
"That isn't 2217," she said.
I lay on the paper sheet with my knees up and a heating pad under my back.
Ten minutes earlier I had signed beside 2217 for the fourth time.
2217 was the donor I had spent eleven months choosing.
"What is it, then?" I asked.
"The sheet says H-0918," the doctor said.
"That's a client's own banked sample, Liisa. It isn't a donor's."
The nurse by the counter stopped moving.
"The tech has already put the straw in the sharps bin," the doctor said.
"Since the August storm took our computers, every thaw is written down by hand."
"Somebody pulled the wrong straw, or somebody wrote the wrong line."
I looked up at the ceiling tile with the brown water stain.
I had stared at it through three rounds with a husband and now one round alone.
"Whose?" I asked.
"I can't tell you that."
"Then I'm not getting off this table."
The doctor took a breath.
"The client is in our building," she said.
"He came in for his storage review, and our manager had to tell him before he left."
"He's asked to speak to you. You can say no."
I thought about it for as long as it took the heating pad to click off.
"Give me a pair of pants," I said, "and then send him in."
I was dressed and sitting on the edge of the table when the door opened without a knock.
The man who came in was very tall, in a navy peacoat dark with rain.
"Which of you is the patient?" he asked.
I knew the voice before I looked at him.
For three years that voice had said "Bridge, Aurora" on the harbor channel at ten past six every morning.
I raised the Aerial Lift Bridge for his tug a thousand times and had never once seen his face.
It was a good face, weathered and tired, with silver at the temples.
"I am," I said.
I slid off the table, my knees went soft, and his hand closed under my elbow.
It was large and warm through my sweater, and I let it stay a moment longer than I needed.
"Mats Brevik," he said, and let go.
"Liisa Waara."
He did not know my voice.
He had said good morning to it for three years, and he had no idea it was mine.
"I banked four straws at twenty-seven," he said, "the week before they cut the cancer out."
"They told me it might be everything I had."
"They're the only four I have, and now I'm told there are three."
"I'm sorry," I said, and I was.
"I'm not here to make a scene," Mats Brevik said.
"I'm running for mayor in March, and I won't pretend that doesn't matter to me."
"But I'm going to want a say."
The doctor had moved behind her desk, and she slid two papers across it.
"Our counsel asked me to give you both these," she said.
"The first is a release of claims against the clinic."
She touched the second sheet.
"The second describes a medication that can be taken within five days to end the pregnancy before it begins."
She looked at Mats.
"Mr. Brevik has the right to ask for that."
Mats looked at the paper and then at me.
"I didn't ask for that," he said.
"I'm not asking."
"Good," I said. "Because I wasn't going to take it."
I picked up the release and read the first line.
It said I gave up every claim against the clinic in return for nothing at all.
"And I'm not signing this," I said.
"Ms. Waara," the doctor said, "I'd strongly advise."
I tore it down the middle, and then across.
The sound was loud in the small room.
"If it takes," Mats said, quietly, "I want to know."
"If it takes, it's mine," I said.
"I'll tell you when I tell anyone, and not before."
I put the four pieces on the doctor's desk and picked up my coat.
I had said the same words to a thousand boats waiting on the water.
"Bridge is up, Captain," I said. "Mind your wake."
Mats Brevik went completely still.
"Bridge," he said.
I walked out of the room with my coat over my arm.
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