As I lay dying...

I was at the hospital this morning getting a TB test for school and to start my new job. An old woman came and sat down next to me. She was one of those really thin old gals who still do all their hair and make-up like they're a glamour puss and need to be all dolled up for their man. She smelled really good, Chanel #5. She was wearing a nice outfit, not out of date or anything. Just some black pants and a pink top and she looked okay. She sat next to me and after a minute or so she says "Well, aren't you a pretty little thing."

I just looked over and said, "Thank you", like my mama taught me. Then she says "Are you here for a pregnancy test?" God fucking forbid. I just said that I wasn't. I tried to be nice, but she was being just a little nosy. Then she starts telling me that she'd never had any children and she was sure it was because of that botched abortion she had in Philly back in 1953. She just sat there and told me this whole story while we were both waiting for out turn in the lab.

It was Philly, back in 1953. She suspected she was pregnant because she'd missed two periods and she was feeling hungry, light-headed, and nauseous all the time. She told the guy she'd been sleeping with and he told her it was impossible. She told him it was in fact very possible, and most likely the truth that she was pregnant with his child. He got really mean and cold to her and just said that it was impossible because he didn't sleep around and he certainly would never have slept with a filthy whore like her. Then he spit on her and walked away. She figured it out pretty fast.

She didn't know what to do so she dropped out of college, got a job as a waitress, and started staying with a friend of her sister's. She couldn't go back to her parents until she figured something out. She asked around and found out that there was a "negro" doctor in New York City who could get rid of her little problem, but it would cost $250 plus the trip up there and where to stay and all of that. So she forged her father's signature and cashed in her last two savings bonds and sold her bicycle. She had barely enough money to do it.

She got up to New York City and check in at the YWCA. She went to meet a "negro girl" in Central Park who took her to a basement apartment in Harlem. She waited six hours for her turn. When she walked to the bedroom that was the OR she passed the room that was the recovery. Almost all the girls were white. When she got to the OR, a large "nigra" asked her for the money. She gave it to her and was afraid they would shake her down and ask for more, but they just told her to hop on the table.

They didn't knock her out. They just gave her a rag to bite on. She was more than three months along, but he went in there and took care of it. She spent three hours in recovery and then they sent her on her way. They wouldn't let her call a cab until she got out of Harlem. She stayed that night at the Y and took the train back to Philly the next day.

A month later she ran into the guy who got her into trouble. He came into the place where she was waitressing with his new girlfriend. They both pretended they'd never seen each other before. She worked there until she saved enough money to come out to Hollywood and be an actress.

"How'd that pan out for you?", I asked.

"Good, for a while. Then I got too old and the producers got too racy for me." She said.

I'm pretty sure she was making skins in the Valley.

"Then I met a wonderful man, which I'm sure you will, too, one day. We were married and had a beautiful life together. He died last November"

I told her I was sorry. She said it was quite all right.

"We just never had any children, that's all. That's all there is to that."

They called her name and she followed the tech.
She was gone when I came out.