Joanna Jinxed

"Gramma, you got a baby in your tummy."

Joanna's jinx is at it again. As a much younger colleague, he was forbidden, but his eyes begged, his hands were warm, and he smelled like man, and in a moment of weak self-indulgence she agreed. Now, the whole town will see their elementary school vice-principal pushing a big belly when school opens, and after Christmas break, a stroller. She will not hamper his excitement over his new position by telling him. Maybe in time. Then... Oh, god, her jinx was never supposed to harm those she cares for!

Of course, there are alternatives for a forty-three-year-old woman who needs another child like she needs warts on her nose. Should she terminate? No. How about running away with her teenager to...to the Galapagos? No. She couldn't get insulin for Sibyl there. How about the South of France? Tempting, but there's a language barrier. Stay and force her best friend Maggie, a nurse practitioner, help her through this?

Maggie wants babies, but can't have them. Can she hurt Maggie by letting her joy show? And what about Mike, Joanna's summer lover, who was nowhere near in April? How will he feel if he sees her Cheshire Cat tattoo grinning just above her pelvis, grinning broader and broader?

And that is only the beginning.