TenIquitos, Peru
Claire looked out of her cabin window as another cramp ripped through her. She had been awake since dawn trying to come to grips with what lay in front of her on the bed. She stared out into the ever-brightening sky as the musical voices of dockworkers filtered into her room from her open window. Pregnant. Against all odds, she had been pregnant after all. She put her hand out and drew the bloody towel toward her. What would this child have meant? What choices would she have had to make?
Her mind careened back and forth between her career at Berkley and the vision of what it would have been like to see her child grow up. She was certain it would've been a boy, probably called Alex, because it was the name she had loved years ago when dreaming of having a family. Yet, her
