Different Circles

“So ... anyway,” Neesh said. “You said you had your ultrasound a few days ago, right?” Laura had mentioned that at dinner.

“That’s right, on Monday,” she said. “That was the very day I turned sixteen weeks.”

“And you said everything was good?”

Laura nodded. “A perfectly normal sixteen-week fetus with the placenta implanted exactly where it is supposed to be. All the identifiable internal organs intact and developing normally. All the identifiable bones developing normally. Everything in proper proportion. Everything perfectly on track.”

“That’s good to hear,” Neesh said.

“It was a relief,” Laura agreed.

“But did you find out what it was?” Neesh asked.

Laura smiled. “Dr. Niven did the exam herself,” she said. “She told us that she was about ninety percent certain that Ziggy is a little girl.”

Neesh smiled. “A little girl, huh? That’s awesome, Teach. But only ninety percent?”

“In the ultrasound at sixteen weeks they determine sex by the absence or presence of external genitalia. With a boy, it’s usually pretty clear what they’re looking at so it’s easier to be one hundred percent certain. She got a good look right between Ziggy’s legs and couldn’t see little balls or a little pee-pee. So, we either have a girl cooking in there, or a boy who is going to have some hangups as he goes through life.”

Neesh laughed. “How does Jake feel about that?” she asked.

“He’s very excited,” she said. “He’s not one of those men who would be disappointed if he didn’t get a boy. He just wants a healthy baby. That’s all I want too.”

“You two are going to make great parents,” Neesh said. “Have you started thinking about names yet? Or have you already decided on Ziggy?”

Laura giggled. “Ziggy is just her nickname while she’s a fetus,” she said. “That came from Dr. Vargo explaining that a baby starts her existence as a zygote right after fertilization. We would never actually name her that any more than Pauline and Obie would have named their baby Clump.”

“Ziggy is a much cuter name than Clump,” Neesh pointed out. “And it would go along with some of those other baby names that celebrities are hanging on their kids—like your friend Mindy Snow, for instance.”

“We wouldn’t do that to little Zig,” she said. “We have talked a little about names and have decided that it should be something musical in nature—we are musicians after all, and music is what brought us together—but Jake absolutely insisted, and I agree, that we will not give our child a ‘fucked-up name’, as he puts it.”

“Musical, huh?” she asked. “Any examples?”

“Nothing but rejects so far, and not even very many of those. I suggested Leslie, you know, after Jake’s favorite guitar, the Les Paul, but he did not like that at all. He said all the girls in school would call her Lez.”

“Hey now,” Neesh said. “Nothing wrong with a little Lez every now and then.”

“True,” Laura agreed (and how, she thought, eyeing the swell of Neesh’s breasts and wishing they were in her mouth), but there is no sense in setting up someone for ridicule. Jake says you have to make the high school bullies at least work a bit to come up with something.

“He may have a point there,” Neesh said after a moment’s thought.

“Jake suggested Harmony, but ... I don’t know, I don’t really like the sound of that one. I’m not sure why, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. He agreed to take that one off the table.”

“I’m not sure I’m down with Harmony either,” Neesh opined. “In any case, I can’t wait to hear what you eventually come up with.”

“Me either,” Laura said.

They watched the sun sinking toward the sea for a few minutes, hearing the crashing of the surf and the screaming of the gulls as they flew back and forth. There was no offshore marine layer and only the gentlest of a breeze blowing.

“I saw in the papers that your girlfriend Celia is one of our neighbors now,” Neesh said, breaking the silence.

“Yes,” Laura said. “She has a beautiful house not even five minutes from here. Maybe I can talk her into having us over one of these days. I’m sure you’d love to see it.”

“She is a cool chick,” Neesh said. “At least from what I saw of her at your wedding. How is she doing these days? She over the breakup with her hubby?”

Laura shrugged. “She’s coping the best she can,” she said. “She was up in Oregon with us while we were working on the new group’s CD, helping out. We didn’t really need her up there—truthfully, they didn’t really even need me up there—but it seemed like she needed to get out of LA for a while.”

“The entertainment media were saying that you and she were getting it on,” Neesh said. “Please tell me that shit is true.”

Laura shook her head. “No truth to it at all,” she said. “Just entertainment media innuendo.”

“That’s too bad,” Neesh said. “She’s quite the piece. What about them stories about her and that female pilot?”