Lisa's Babies

The day dawned bright, sunny and heavenly. She was excited, because today was the day she was going to be a mother!

She recalled with a tinge of sadness all the years when she had tried unsuccessfully with her husband to become pregnant....they tried everything...intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, fertility drugs...the works. But it was all for nothing. After 3 miscarriages, she remembered vaguely going into depression and other complications along with visiting a psychiatrist for treatment.

But that was all over now! The sun shone brightly today!

She looked at her husband, Vincent still fast asleep....she dare not wake him. He was up late last night working. His was a business world of deals, propositions, proposals and lots of money - a world where she didn't understand much, so she let him be happy with his work.

She had gone to the adoption agency and had enrolled their names. They had informed her that it may take many months before they will be able to adopt a child, but compared to the painful treatments and many years already spent. This was a small price to her.

For breakfast she was exceptionally happy. Vincent looked at her lovingly " You look very happy today my dear. It's good to be happy." Then he smiled, "Don't forget to take your meds, Lisa."

"Don't worry Vince." she smiled - everyone called him Vince, "I won't." He would always remind her to take her medicine. He loved her so much.

Usually she enjoyed the attention but this time she couldn't wait for him to go. She wanted to surprise him.

She went to the adoption agency as soon as he left the house. There she saw a beautiful baby girl...she wanted her. They said she's a twin. She was thrilled...she would be mother to both the baby girls.

She signed the necessary documents and knew that it would be probationary for the first few months with regular checks on how the babies were adjusting.

She thought that Vincent would be happy when he saw the beautiful baby girls. But, instead he would ignore them. No matter what she tried to do, he was simply too busy with his work. She couldn't understand much about his work except that it was all very important. So she stopped telling him too much about the twins.

She brought lots of toys and dresses. She made the babies' room ready. She would have to buy more clothes as there were two babies now. She would shop, and then try to feed them. She was so happy, she would forget her medicine at times.

The servants were absolutely useless. Even after telling Vincent to sack the whole lot of them, he believed that they were doing a reasonable job. She tried to ignore it... because she couldn't change his mind about them.

She felt that whenever the child inspector would come, he would be extra nasty to her, so she would dread the visits and would try to be unavailable on those days except for the last 10 minutes or tell the servants to handle the visit. She needed an all clear certificate if she was going to keep her babies.

One day, she met a common friend of Vincent and hers, after a very long time. She met her when they went for dinner to a nearby restaurant. She was edgy because she wanted to be with her babies, but Vincent didn't seem to care. She felt like her little world was falling apart because Vincent behaved like the twins didn't exist.

"How is everything Lisa?" Their friend asked.

"Rather lovely, Jane. My twins are doing very well." Lisa replied after explaining that they were adopted.

Jane looked questioningly at Vincent, "Wow! Twins?"

Vincent just shrugged. Lisa frowned.

Lisa couldn't bear it anymore. She excused herself to the powder room.

"Hey Vince...what's wrong?"

"It's Lisa." he whispered. "She's skipping her meds and she's not getting any better."

"But she has the adopted twins to keep her busy..hasn't she?" Jane asked innocently.

He looked at her with such a sad face, he almost looked tormented.

"That's the problem. Lisa's had such a hard time coming to terms with the miscarriages, she made up her own babies in her head. She's off her meds and she's hallucinating again. There are no twins, no adoption, no inspector, no one. I tell the servants to humour her and they do. Bless their patience with her. And she buys toys and dresses. I'm literally living in hell, but I try not to say anything much, else she goes crazy and that's far worse. The schizophrenic tendencies only stay in control when she takes her meds on time."

Lisa comes back and takes her seat, "Vince, it's almost time to go home, my babies will be missing me."