Look at me and my mad posting-five-times-in-one-week skillz. Did you enjoy the ride? I hope so, because I don't predict it happening again anytime soon, at least not solely on this site (did you take that as a hint that new and exciting things are on their way? I sure as hell hope so, because otherwise, no offense, but you're really not that bright).
Anyway, in addition to my new Secret But Awesome Freelancing Gig, I also have a blogging class to plan for, a class that has not received nearly enough TLC. There are books to read, syllabi to plan, and assignments to plot out that will hopefully cause my students to pump their fists in the air with glee instead of groan over the injustice of receiving such an incompetent teacher. At this point in time, it could go either way.
Before I jump into TLF, though, I'd like to thank everyone for all the kind comments I've gotten over the last two days. Because I've been swamped with work, I won't be able to respond individually to everyone, but know that your support and well wishes mean so much, and there would be no Secret But Awesome Freelancing Gig if it weren't for you. If any of y'all are attending the BlogHer conference in Chicago in two weeks, I will have no choice but to crush you in a bear hug as a token of my thanks. Unless you don't like to hug. Then I'll leave you alone. As long as you don't put your hands on my stomach(e).
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN - JENNA (CONTINUED)
"How did this happen?" An attendant asked as he hooked her up to IVs.
"She - she was kicked and smashed her stomache. She's pregnant," I added brokenly.
"How far along is she?"
"I have no idea," I admitted sadly. He glanced at me sharply, and I quickly added, "She wasn't showing, so she can't be that far."
[How much you wanna bet this guy's next phone call is to Child and Family Services?]
The rest of the way to St. Mary Magdalene's Hospital was spent squeezing my little girl's hand.
Once there, they took her away to a room in the EMERGENCY wing. I filled out the necessary paperwork and told her nurse what I knew. Then I sank in a chair in the waiting room, waiting for my family and praying for my baby. For the first time in a while, I thought about Kayla. She didn't know what was happening; never would. That saddened me because I was sure that wherever she was, she still loved her daughter.
[That she does. And your husband, too!]
I also thought of Mary Katherine, my unborn angel. She would've been 15, just like my oldest. I wonder what she would've looked like, been like? Probably the spitting image of David. To think, so much would've turned out differently if I hadn't been hit by that car all those years ago. I would've married David and had Mary Katherine. He would've been paying child support to Kayla for Katherine, who probably wouldn't have been named Katherine. It sounded nice, but then Katherine wouldn't have been mine, or Michael's. Michael and I would never have admitted our love for each other, and Leigh and Lucas wouldn't have been born. Cassie... I had no idea what happened to her.
I sighed.
[Wouldn't it be fun if I rewrote that scene just to see what would happen? Maybe it'd go something like this: Kayla misses both David and Jenna and smashes into the Dairy Queen drive-thru window. Is discovered and hauled off to jail. Gives birth to baby girl, who she names Kaylene because she's self-centered like that. Meanwhile, David and Jenna are married and ripping each other's heads off in a cramped one-bedroom apartment with little Mary Katherine, who is born without thumbs because I love to tormet little children. David falls in love with Kayla's svelte mom figure and Kaylene's ability to properly fill out the finger holes in her mittens. He and Kayla engage in another night of passion thanks to the prison's flexible stance on conjugal visits. Kayla gets pregnant AGAIN. Michael is impressed with her fertility and proposes marriage, because we all know he's jonesing for a wife, and what other prospects does she have? Little does he know that Kayla has all the men, while Jenna is left trying to shed those last ten baby pounds. Jenna does something crazy, but I don't know what, because holy crap, how many stories can I work on at one time?]
"Momma!" I looked up and saw Leigh running to me, Lucas right behind her. They crushed me into a hug. "Hi," I said. "You guys doin' OK?" Leigh didn't answer but wouldn't look at me. Lucas just shrugged.
"Where's your father?" I asked hesitantly.
"By the payphones," Leigh answered.
He was calling his bitch. I stiffened. Well, great. I'd finally meet her.
Forty-five minutes later, not one woman showed up, but two. A handsome boy was with them. He was crying, hard. A woman with short brown hair met Michael in the corridor, and he embraced her fiercely. She had tears down her cheeks as well.
[These people really have no shame, do they? I mean, Jenna is RIGHT THERE.]
After a few minutes, they pulled apart and Michael nodded in my direction. The woman shook her head [coward], but he lead her to me anyway. I rose out of my seat and stood tall.
"Jenna." Michael looked almost embarassed. "This is Kay. Kay, my wife." He cringed at the word "wife," but I pretended not to notice.
"Lovely to meet you, Kay," I said sarcastically.
"I'm so sorry about Katherine," Kay said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She was shaking like a leaf. I took a closer look at her. Something was oddly familiar. "Has the doctor said anything?"
"He hasn't come out yet," I replied, looking over her shoulder.
"That's my sister with my son, Kyle," she offered as she followed my gaze. I raised an eyebrow.
"You're Kyle's mother? Oh, well in case Michael hasn't already told you, my daughter is pregnant. Since she and Kyle were such good friends," I commented sharply, stressing the word 'friends,' "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened."
"Lord, no," Kay whispered, looking horrified. "That can't be."
"Are you telling me my daughter's NOT lying in a hospital bed with a baby inside her?" I yelled angerily.
[How many times in life does one get to pose that question? Not many, I'll bet.]
She wasn't paying attention to me. Her chin was trembling, and she kept blinking her eyes really hard. She clutched her stomache, and her breathing became irregular.
[For some reason this description reminds me of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, specifically that scene where Claire is suffering from an asthma attack and can't find her inhaler because the bitch nanny, Peyton, hid them all in a blatant attempt to kill her off and steal her family.]
[Do I have babies on the brain or what? Also, paranoid much, Frema?]
"Are you OK? Is it the baby?" Michael asked her worriedly.
She was pregnant?
"Not the baby," Kay managed to say between gasps. "Oh God, what did I let happen!" She broke down completely, burying her face in her hands.
"Mom?" The boy - Kyle - was at his mother's side, the sister close behind. He looked at me curiously. His hair was so bright; like gold...
"Kayla," I whispered. She looked up at me and didn't answer, and I knew it was true.
"Son of a BITCH!" I cried. Michael pulled away instantly, shock on his face.
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I want to keep going, but I'm so afraid of the time when I have to post the last entry, so I'm putting it off as long as I can. In the meantime, consider this idea I have for a part three:
Remember that game telephone, where the kids sit in a circle and one kids says a message and every other kid has to pass it down to the one at the end, and that one is the one who has to say it out loud and see how close it is to the original message?
Well, my idea isn't like that one at all, but kind of. Part three could involve a group of people (preferably not children), but instead of repeating the message, each one would build on it.
Like this. Say I write the first entry for part three. Next week, it could be...Isabel. The week after that? Your mom David. After that? Pink Herring. Then Silly Hily. Then Audrey. Then Fraulein N. Then maybe back to me. And so on and so forth.
I'll be super busy this fall, what with work, teaching, freelancing, and gestating, so this would be a convenient way to continue TLF without the burden of all that writing falling on my shoulders. Plus, having new authors could take the story in interesting directions, directions I probably wouldn't even have considered on my own, and it really could be like a soap opera, with no end in sight. Also a plus, since it's not my writing, I won't bitch and moan about losing creative control. This will be TLF for the people, by the people.
(To make sure the plot doesn't completely run away from me, though, I would reserve the right to veto one plot point per entry and revise it in case a character's actions keep me from sleeping at night. The strike-through feature will come in especially handy for this, so you can see the author's original thought process, and I could explain my reasons for any changes.)
Potential downfalls? Well, you guys, I guess. This won't work if I don't receive a steady stream of volunteers, and there's always the possibility of somebody flaking out on their installment, thus leaving a big fat hole for that week of TLF.
What do you think? The future of TLF is in your hands--literally--so don't be shy with your opinion.
Kayla is so gonna spew her guts all over Jenna, and its gonna be awesome. Then when they all go see Katherine, Jenna is going to get to tell just how is YOUR MOM.
Finally, someone noticed that Kay and Kayla sound very very similar, and right after Jenna was sitting and reminiscing about Kay(la). I especially liked the little mid-entry rewrite of the previous story.
Lastly, I love the idea of the TLF merry-go-round. I'll definitely sign up.
Posted by: David McNelis | July 13, 2007 at 03:12 PM
Dude, this may be the greatest idea you've ever had... I'm all over it.
Posted by: Whitney | July 13, 2007 at 03:15 PM
OH MY GOD!!! Sorry for the caps and numerous exclamation points but they are needed here. I wish you could here me OMG-ing (in my head that is, I'm at work..but my eyebrows are all but touching my hairline and my jaw is on the floor). OMG OMG OMG!!!
"Son of a BITCH" is right. Holy shit hit-eth fan-eth. And now I'm laughing...it's an evil laugh though because these people are fixing to kill each other. All of them. Can we please get Lucas and Leigh out of there for that? Katherine is "safe" in the hospital room and I don't care what happens to that rapist Kyle (sorry) so just let Lucas and Leigh out and let them all go at it.
And man, Michael's balls continue to grow each week. He called Kay(la) up there and then introduced her to his WIFE and then brought up the fact that she was pregnant? Woooooow.
Finally, I'm in complete love with your idea of continuing TLF.
Posted by: Silly Hily | July 13, 2007 at 03:21 PM
Awww, what a place to leave everyone hanging!
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that you should retain creative control over the plot direction for the first few entries by providing a one-sentance synopsis of the events to come, and then let whoever is writing the entry fill in the action. And I really like the changes in point of view, so maybe each person could take one character and then play with the plot from there.
Posted by: VirginiaGal | July 13, 2007 at 03:51 PM
WOW! I can't wait to see how this all pans out! Should be pretty exciting, I hope someone gets punched in the stomach(e)!! I think Lil Frema's spelling of stomach(e) is my favorite part of TLF :)
Posted by: Rachel C | July 13, 2007 at 03:55 PM
First of all, I like VirginiaGal's suggestion. You give us your brief idea of what's to come and we compound on it. I want to go second. Umkay?
I love how Jenna's all "he's calling his bitch". Because that is exactly what I'd call the whore my husband had knocked up.
(Except I didn't get the whole "Kay let it slip that she was pregnant" part until I read Hily's comment. But I did catch that you might have a new blog coming out. So maybe I'm only part dense.)
Is Michael mentally challenged? He has been having an affair with Kay and hasn't figured out she is Kayla. But Jenna figures it out in the first 2 seconds. Nice one Michael. Way to pass on your genius genes.
Until next time...
(and I love the slight dig towards me at the beginning of the post. Dude, I promise to not rub your stomach[e] if you promise not to hug me. Deal? Or no deal?)
Posted by: Isabel | July 13, 2007 at 04:03 PM
MEMEMEMEME!!!! I want to write. I was just telling Isabel the other day that we needed a TLF spinoff and that us TLF readers should be the ones to do it.
Posted by: Carrisa | July 13, 2007 at 04:08 PM
HO-LEE Shit! It is getting INTENSE in TLF land! Silly Hily pretty much summed up my thoughts (OMG OMG OMG!!!), so I'll just leave it at that.
As for your Part 3 idea? I love it. (And I'm not just saying that because I'm so honored that you mentioned me as a possible TLF writer.) I also like VirginiaGal's idea of you providing some jumping-off points for those of us who may be so terrified of not living up to TLF's high standards that we suffer from pressure-induced writer's block. Not, you know, that I know anyone who that might happen to. I'm just saying ... when it's my week to write TLF the drafting and revising and obsessing and re-revising will start at 12:01 Saturday morning. I also really hope you'll still provide bracket commentary for our installments. TLF just wouldn't be the same without that dose of Frema!
Posted by: Audrey | July 13, 2007 at 04:16 PM
Because, when would be a more appropriate time to introduce your wife and your mistress than when your daughter was in hospital having a miscarriage that isn't entirely not your own fault? It's like Michael thought "Hey, I'm up shit creek without a paddle here, I might as well get it all over with at once...". The man either has ginormous balls, or is clearly insane. Or both.
I'd give writing an installment a go, as long asd you can cope with the british english ;o) Oh, and I like the idea of you maintaining some control over the plot by giving us a short synopsis to work with.
Posted by: Kathie | July 13, 2007 at 04:46 PM
BOOYAH! "Kay" is BUSTED.
Oh, and I'm in for TLF3!
Posted by: Operation Pink Herring | July 13, 2007 at 05:35 PM
Dannnngggg, I completely missed that they let slip that she was pregnant! How could I! I read Silly Hilly's comment, then the other comment and thought, no, I couldn't have been so blind. Alas, there it is.
I have a theory on Michael's actions though. I don't necessarily think he's dealing with this in an insane way. In fact, I think he's dealing with it how most people would wish they thought to deal with it. To quote Kathie, he's up shit creek without a paddle. Though he is of questionable intelligence, he's got to already realize that.
He also has to realize there is going to be a serious fallout. Why not get all the fallout done at one time? Kind of like pulling the band-aid off real fast. Sure it hurts like hell when it happens, but in the end, better than letting each hair get pulled out one by one.
Merry F-in Christmas Jenna!
Posted by: David McNelis | July 13, 2007 at 06:10 PM
OMG before reading David's latest comment I had completely forgotten that this was all taking place on Christmas! That makes it SO MUCH better and worse and tragic!
Posted by: Audrey | July 13, 2007 at 06:48 PM
"He was calling his bitch."
Ha! For some reason, the thought of Lil Frema writing that cracked me up. :P
I'm all for continuing TLF, but as a passive observer, rather than a contributor. Keep the love going, folks!
Posted by: alyndabear | July 14, 2007 at 12:51 AM
I'm still dying over the girl with no thumbs and David loving Kaylene's ability to fill out finger holes in gloves! Holy shit!
Also, this piece of the story gets a big WOW. And last but not least, damn you for leaving us hanging.
Posted by: Molly | July 14, 2007 at 01:24 PM
Your mom's got no thumbs! That being said, I'm sorry I've been remedial on the commenting lately-- I have actually been here all along, but I read, then run away from the computer-- maybe off to work or what have you- I don't really know, but I've become a sort of lurker- which is sad. No more of that shit.
Okay, baby popping and the big reveal! First of all, Michael has got himself some nerve to invite his mistress to the hospital... where his daughter is... because his wife was in "Kill Bill" mode... after he revealed his affair... I believe he may be lacking in the sympathy gene (along with his obvious case of amnesia, and terrible work-ethic) because the man has obviously got no shame (I would like to say he's dead inside compared to the sweet days of his boyhood).
I wonder if he asked himself, "My daughter is near death (or something), who would make this situation better (than the woman who is not my wife but is now impregnated with my child, and who is also the woman who ran over my adopted daughter's biological father and fetal half-sister, and almost my wife)? The only answer to that is, the whole trio of life-ruiners. A+.
I see cat-fight on this page turn, but that's just me. Whew, there, I feel much better now.
Posted by: sant | July 15, 2007 at 10:40 AM
Michael has got balls of freakin steel!!!!! I am soooo ready for the next installment. I love the TLF Part 3 idea!!
Posted by: Rachel | July 16, 2007 at 12:24 PM
WOW - I absolutely cannot wait for nwext Friday ......... I have been catching up on the weekends. I think that is an ingenoius idea, I would lllluuuuvvv to contribute. You should so get a list going because TLF gets me through the week!!!
Posted by: ashley&family | July 16, 2007 at 01:43 PM
dammit
i so know better then to follow links.. crap.. i find you now I must search through your blog to read previous epies..
for shame for enticing me so darn fast;)
Posted by: wolfbaby | July 16, 2007 at 10:50 PM
it's all your fault
i stayed on your blog for x amount of hours looking over your entire fricken story and damn.. you got me hooked.
i'd say im not coming back but im to hooked to stay away
and it's your fault;P
Posted by: wolfbaby | July 17, 2007 at 01:50 AM
I can totally see the two women at the end of the scene there, their eyes meeting, their pupils shrinking, nobody moving a muscle. Like in Westerns when time suddenly stands still and you see the two gunslingers reaching for their guns and it goes into super-slow motion and you see a bead of sweat slide down someone's forehead, a clock strikes noon and a bullet clicks into the chamber. Suddenly time starts again and Michael faints dramatically and ineffectually in a clumsy heap on the waiting room floor. What a pathetic goofball he's become.
I love the round robin idea! Like Choose Your Own Adventure! But how/whether to exert editorial authority over content without actually increasing your workload? The management of such a project would be interesting, though - kind of a new blog paradigm! Blogging 2.0! You could cover the model in your class and take bets on whether it will work, whether you can trust the Internets to come through with donated content, week after week. I bet it will.
I'd love to participate. I don't have a strong soap operatic background, but I've seen a lot of terrible movies.
Posted by: TasterSpoon | July 19, 2007 at 07:27 PM