2084 The End of Days by Derek Beaugarde

Maria Conchita Gonzales. Maria was a gorgeous fiery-tempered flame-haired Tex-Mex, who also worked as an auxiliary on the base at Andrews, although they had never met each other before. They immediately became lovers and within months Jack had asked her to marry him. One day in the locker room at Andrews he told his best friend and wing man, Vance Mulcahey, a Princeton graduate, that he was marrying Maria. Vance was taken aback and implored Jack to rethink.
    “Jeez, man, Maria’s a great lay, Jack. But, for Christ sake, she’s only a base cleaner. With your film star looks you could have any one of the rich debs up in DC if you wanted!”
    Jack had to admit to himself that his looks had attracted scores of beauties into bed over the years, but this time it felt different. Vance was his most trusted wing man and the closest of friends but Jack, with a slam of his locker door, snapped back angrily.
    “Ah love Maria, Vance! Don’t matter what she is or where she comes from. If you ever saw the trailer park ah came from, you might a thought twice about havin’ me as a friend!”
    “Sorry, Jack – I was totally out of order there. Congratulations, Big Bro’, hope I’m gonna be best man? You need a good wing man on your wedding day!”
    After the wedding Jack and Maria bought a small neat bungalow in Silver Springs and both continued to work at their jobs on Andrews. They both talked about wanting to raise a big family and it was only a few months after their marriage when Maria fell pregnant. They were delighted but it turned out to be a nerve-wracking pregnancy. Maria had collapsed and she was diagnosed a month into her second trimester with a previously undetected small hole in her heart. The doctors at the base hospital determined that she would require an operation, but it was too risky to carry it out while Maria was carrying her unborn child. It was touch and go, but Maria gave birth to bouncing baby Isabella Annabel Maria Crossan on 26 May 2064 in the maternity suite at Andrews Air Force Medical Center. Nine months later she was back at the Center for her heart operation. Jack had left Isabella with her grandfather Andy, who had journeyed up from Lexington, and he spent three long nerve-jangling hours in the waiting room before the base chief surgeon came in head lowered and looking serious and drawn. Jack’s heart sank.
    “Is she...?”
    “Don’t worry, Mr Crossan, she’s fine, but, ah –“
    “But – but what, doc?”
    “Well, the keyhole surgery has revealed that Maria suffered additional damage to the small tear in her heart during her pregnancy and when giving birth. We have, however, been able to repair it quite successfully.”
    “So she’s gonna be fine, Doctor?”
    “Maria’s gonna be up and around in a week or so and she’ll go on to live a long happy life. But, one thing, Mr Crossan –“
    “Call me Jack.”
    “Jack – the thing is this. Maria’s heart is never gonna be 100 per cent again. The pregnancy has taken a lot out her and the heart has been severely weakened. I am going to advise her – and I’m telling you – it will be too risky for Maria to have another child.”
    “But Doctor, she’s Catholic. She won’t take the pill –“
    “Then, Jack, it’s up to you. From now on it’s either the male contraceptive or else –“
    The surgeon indicated what he meant by motioning two fingers as snipping scissors towards Jack’s private parts. When Maria got home she looked so much healthier than she had been in a long time and Jack, Maria and baby Isabella knuckled down to enjoying family life. For a while things were going great. Jack went back to the F-69s and Maria gave up her job at Andrews to bring up Isabella. Maria would not hear of Jack going on the male pill and also that Jack was not going for any snip. Secretly, Jack was pleased about that part. It would have been a dent to his machismo and he did not fancy being a member of the “I Only Fire Blanks Club”. Maria