The Surrogate, The Sudarium Trilogy - Book one by Leonard Foglia, David Richards Page B

we roll up the sleeves and get down to work, yes?” He turned to face Hannah. “We will want to take some blood samples today, check your heart and your blood pressure. Weigh you, of course. Then a pelvic exam to see that everything’s in good working order. And I’ll need to take cultures of the vagina and the cervix. Not that I believe there’s the slightest cause for concern. We just want to make certain there are no infections.”
    He took her right wrist in his hand and felt for her pulse.
    “Heavens, your heart is racing! Thump, thump, thump. Like the little bunny rabbit. You are not frightened, are you?”
    “Just a little nervous, I guess.”
    “No need to be, young lady.” He laid his hand reassuringly on her arm. “No need at all. What was that delicious expression? Ah, yes. ‘Piece of cake!’ This will be just like the piece of cake.” He chuckled again.
    And it was, too.
    Two days later, Dr. Johanson reached her at the diner and informed her that the lab tests had turned up nothing out of the ordinary. Her health was perfect.
    “Congratulations,” he said. “So now we must choose the big day, no?”
    “Whatever you think best, doctor. It’s just that I’ll have to make a few plans beforehand and if you’re in a big rush, well…”
    “Not to be so flustered! The Whitfields are eager to get on with this. But we can’t hurry up nature, can we? Haste makes the waste, as the saying goes. Let me see. I have your chart and my calendar right here in front of me. The ideal time would be the first week after your period, so by my calculations…early March looks good. And I see the clinic is free March 3. That would be a Tuesday. At 10 in the morning? How does that suit you?”
    Hannah’s heart pounded. March 3 was less than three weeks away. “Will I be able to work afterwards?”
    “Of course, you will, my dear, as long as you don’t lift anything heavy. The procedure takes no time at all. No anesthesia required. You won’t feel a thing. As I keep telling you, ‘a piece of cake.'”
    “Then, March 3 it is, I guess. Oh, and doctor, I have a new address, where you can send all my mail from now on.”
    It was only a post office box that she had rented at Mailboxes Inc. in the mall, but she figured it would prevent Ruth and Herb from coming upon any correspondence from Partners in Parenthood. They were inquisitive enough, as it was.
    “P.O. Box 127?” the doctor repeated, making sure he had gotten it right. “That sounds lovely. Very nice address, my dear. Much nicer, I hear, than 126.”
    He chuckled and Hannah found herself joining in.
    Her first piece of mail arrived two days later. An elegant greeting card, it showed a rainbow arching over a bucolic English landscape. The lavender ink told Hannah who had written it before she saw the signatures.
    At the end of the rainbow lies a lifetime of dreams.
Jolene and Marshall
    The future, which for so long had struck her as terrifyingly empty, ceased to scare her. There was a place for her and there were people concerned for her welfare. What had been a hazy dream off in the distance was no dream at all. It was about to become a reality.
    She moved through the Blue Dawn Diner with a lightness of step that matched her mood, no longer resenting the long hours or the endless bickering of Teri and Bobby, or even the paltry tips, which actually began to improve noticeably. One trucker, who’d only had a cup of coffee, left a $10 bill under the saucer. When she asked him if he hadn’t made a mistake, he said, “Nope, honey, you just make this damn diner one helluva pleasant place.”
    Teri noticed the change in her, as well, and credited it to the rejuvenating, relaxing and all-round restorative properties of sex.
    Even Ruth picked up on something. “What you got to be so happy about all the time?” she harrumphed one morning at breakfast.
    “Nothing. Just happy,” Hannah replied.
    The woman limited her skepticism to a brief “Haw!” It was her