Faith Wish by James Bennett Page A

Material ? There were several pages of questions with cartoonish drawings as illustrations of dilemmas and choices. Some of the questions were obvious ones, such as, “Could I handle a child and a job at the same time? Would I have time and energy enough for both?”
    The more disturbing questions in the pamphlet were under a heading called, Have my partner and I really talked about becoming parents ? The first question in this section was Does my partner want to have a child? Have we talked about our reasons ?
    â€œPlease put this away,” said Anne-Marie abruptly “I don’t want to look at it anymore.” She hadn’t told Brother Jackson she was pregnant, and it was something she didn’t want to think about. She hadn’t even seen him since that afternoon they were intimate. He was far away in Crawfordsville, Indiana. She felt her nerves on the rise again; only her sister’s presence kept her from heading straight for the parking lot.
    Their wait was a short one. Mrs. Howard invited them into her office five minutes later. She was a young black woman with an RN badge pinned to her blouse, so young she looked like she couldn’t be much older than Eleanor. She folded her hands on her desktop before she asked, “So. Why are we here? What can we do to help?”
    Anne-Marie glanced nervously in Eleanor’s direction, but her big sister looked away. She’s putting the ball in my court , Anne-Marie was quick to realize. She cleared her throat before she said, “I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant, but I could never have an abortion.”
    Mrs. Howard smiled. “Fair enough. Nobody would try to convince you to have one if your mind is made up.”
    â€œMy mind is made up.”
    â€œFine. That’s that, then.”
    â€œAnd I have to know that everything we talk about is completely confidential. My parents don’t know and if anybody ends up telling them, it has to be me.”
    â€œI can assure you that anything you say will be held in absolute confidence. Nothing we do or say here will be shared with anyone else, okay?”
    â€œAnd that’s for sure?”
    â€œThat’s for sure. Here’s a statement of our confidentiality policy.” The nurse passed a paper across the desk in Anne-Marie’s direction. “The same confidentiality rules that apply to others will apply to you. May I ask how old you are, Anne-Marie?”
    â€œSeventeen. I won’t turn eighteen until the end of August.”
    â€œThat makes you seventeen and three quarters, then. But still a minor. Let me ask you, first of all, why you think you’re pregnant.”
    â€œI took one of those home pregnancy tests, the kind you get at the drugstore.” The same lie again? Why ? Maybe because it didn’t sound as stupid as saying, I just know I am; I can just tell .
    â€œDo you understand that those are occasionally not accurate? When was your last period?”
    â€œThe first of April.”
    â€œOne thing we do ask each client to do is take a pregnancy test here, to be sure we know what we’re talking about. It’s a simple urinalysis, and we can get the results in just a few minutes. Do you feel up to that?”
    Anne-Marie glanced in Eleanor’s direction again, but her big sister was looking over the confidentiality statement. Then Anne-Marie looked back at Nurse Howard. “Would this be in confidence, too?”
    â€œOf course. Everything we do here will be in strict confidence.”
    â€œGo ahead,” Eleanor joked. “You’ve peed in a bottle before.”
    â€œOkay, okay.” Anne-Marie giggled, in spite of herself. She had peed in a bottle before, a time or two for cheerleader drug testing, in addition to other ordinary doctor visits.
    This part was easy, because Anne-Marie felt like she was about to wet her pants anyway. When the specimen bottle was full, she washed her hands thoroughly before she gave