05-26-2003, 10:05 AM
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obsolete
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 617
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Janice Fleming
Dinner seemed to last for ages. After several failed attempts at making conversation, Janice finally gave up. Mark kept his head lowered and rarely raised it, Jack only spoke in response to Matthew and Emily who seemed to rattle on incessantly. The innocence of youth.
Relieved that the ordeal was finally over, Janice bathed and put the little ones to bed. Mark had dashed for his room as soon as he was finished and Jack was watching the news on the television when she came back downstairs.
Switching it off, he looked up and patted his lap. "C'mere and give us a cuddle."
Janice climbed onto what had been her favorite perch for as long as she could remember, nestling her face against her husband's neck. Even so, she couldn't help wondering if simple pleasures like this would end once she and Mark... began.
Still fighting back the bile that rose in her throat at the very thought of it, Janice feigned weariness and the need to take a shower. Jack promised to join her soon, though she was never sure if he did.
Maybe she wasn't fertile. Perhaps there was a chance that and she and Mark were incompatible on a genetic level. She could always hope... and pray. Janice Fleming lay in her marriage bed alone until sleep finally claimed her just before dawn.
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