Gravity Don't Mean Too Much to Me

Bandit waited eagerly for her parents to begin. Her mother had cleared her throat, indicating that she was about to start, yet she just sat still with a big grin on her face. Bandit's stomach clenched as she grew more impatient by the minute.

She thought she already knew what her parents were about to tell her, but it just seemed too good to be true. After all, her father had seemed really mad when he had found out that her mother was pregnant. Even her mother had seemed upset about the baby, which seemed odd to Bandit. She knew now however, that her mother was just scared. She understood. Of course her mother would be scared, Bandit knew it was hard work taking care of a baby. Her parents had told her stories of when she had been a baby, when she used to stay up all night crying for her mom.

Bandit had apologised for that, and her parents had laughed. All babies cried, all babies screamed and all babies pooped. Bandit stopped herself from giggling thinking about this. She didn't want to get her hopes up though, babies were hard work, so maybe her parents had decided they didn't want the baby. She crossed her fingers.

Her mother looked at her father as though for reassurance, and Bandit saw him nod at her to begin. Her mother cleared her throat once more.

"Okay, so first of all we would like to apologise to you about last night. The way we both acted was completely irrational, we didn't mean to upset you in any way." Her mother paused, as if trying to think of what to say next. Bandit shuffled uncomfortably on her father's lap. "We just want you to know that everything is going to be fine now. You understand why mommy reacted the way she did, don't you?"

Bandit nodded and attempted to smile. She heard her father's voice from behind her and turned to face him. "Your mother was just under a lot of stress, it was a lot for her to take in. Of course she loves you and the baby just as equally, but at the time she was a little scared about it all."

Her mother walked over to where Bandit was sat on her father's lap, taking hold of Bandit's hand and kneeling in front of her. Bandit could see tears in her eyes, and she began to worry about what the news was. She crossed her fingers tighter.

"You understand why I was so upset, don't you sweetheart? Having a baby is going to be very hard on us all, so we have to stick together." Bandit uncrossed her fingers in shock. Her mother had just said that it would be hard to raise the baby, but she hadn't said anything about not having the baby. Was she saying that they were keeping the baby? Bandit grinned.

"So this is where our news comes in." Her father smiled, lifting Banit from his lap so that she could face both of them. "But first we need to know that you're not upset by our little argument."

Bandit struggled to talk. They were so close to telling her. "I'm fine now. I understand why Mom was upset, it must have been a big shock." Her mother smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. "I understand why Dad was shocked too, and why you were mad. Mom said that she hadn't told you about the baby yet, and she should have. But you've made up now haven't you? Everything is going to be okay."

Her parents looked at each other with grins on their faces. The suspense was killing her. Why couldn't they just tell her? She was about to shout at the two of them to spit it out when her mother finally told her; "We've decided to keep the baby."

Bandit squealed and jumped into her mother's arms, making the two of them fall over. Her mother screamed playfully and began tickling her. Bandit squirmed and tried to get up, but failed as she was too busy giggling. Her father laughed and helped them up, picking Bandit up and spinning around, making Bandit slightly dizzy.

"Oh-kay. St-st-stop spin-spinning me! I'm g-getting dizzy!" She cried, and her father stopped immediately, looking into her eyes with the biggest smile on his face that Bandit had ever seen. He kissed her cheeks and put her back down.

"Oh, honey!" Her mother cried, as Bandit ran up to her and gave her a hug. A tear escaped Bandit's eye, and she quickly wiped it away. She didn't want her mother to think she was unhappy. She was the happiest she had ever been, she was finally going to have a little brother or sister!

"Thank you! Thank you so much Mommy!" She turned to her father, who now had a tear rolling slowly down his cheek. "Thank you Daddy! For a moment I thought you weren't going to keep the baby! But now I get a baby brother or sister!"

Both her parents faces grew serious, and Bandit felt like her heart had dropped into her stomach. They hadn't changed their minds, had they?

"Bandit" Her mother began, taking her father's hand. "We would keep the baby no matter what. I never want you to think that we would be so cruel like that ever again. Of course we're going to keep the baby, there is no other choice even if we didn't want the baby. We love you, and we love the baby, so don't you ever think we would get rid of it."

"But-" Bandit hesistated. "You both seemed upset about the baby, so I just thought that maybe you were going to give the baby away or-"

"We would never do such a thing." Her father reassured her. "We've explained why we were upset, we were just shocked. We are having this baby, and you are going to have a baby brother or sister."

There was a few minuets silence. "I hope it's a girl. I want a sister."

Everyone began laughing and Bandit began arguing with her parents about why a girl would be better, and they gave reasons as to why a boy would be better. They were going to be a family. Bandit smiled.

Lindsey sat downstairs, waiting for Gerard to return from putting Bandit to bed.

Everything had gone perfectly, and she couldn't be happier. The look on her daughter's face when she had told her had been brilliant, and she would never forget that moment. They were going to have another baby, and instead of feeling panicked or scared, she felt excited. What had she been thinking before? Of course it didn't matter how old she was, she could still raise a child. She had done it once, she could do it twice.

She smiled as she remebered how they had argued playfully about the sex of the baby. At the end they had told Bandit that in all seriousness, it didn't matter what sex the baby was, as long as the baby were healthy. Lindsey thought about how things would be if the baby were to develope a disability. At first she felt worried about how she would cope, but now she knew that with people she loved by her side, she could take on anything the world threw at her.

She picked up the home phone and scrolled through the phone book. Who would she tell first? She had already told Alicia, who had of course now told Mikey with her and Gerard's permission, but she had made them both promise not to tell the others yet.

Without much further thought she dialled in the number she wanted.

"Hello?"

"Lindsey! Hey, is everything okay?" Frank asked worried, and Lindsey frowned. Why was he asking if she was okay? Had Bandit told him about her and Gerard's fight? Had she told him what it was about?

"Hey, yeah I'm fine. Why do you ask?" She waited for his response, he seemed to be hesistating. What had Bandit told him?

"Oh, I was just wondering. Bandit seemed worried about going home earlier, she told me you guys had had a fight." He didn't ask what the fight was about, Lindsey began to get nervous. Did he know she was pregnant? Did he know how she had reacted?

"Did Bandit happen to tell you what the fight was about?"

"No, and you don't have to worry, I told her everything would be okay. I didn't ask her anything, it's your business." Lindsey smiled in appreciation. Frank was a good man.

"Thank you Frank. But I actually need to tell you something, and it's to do with the fight. So, I guess it is your business." There was a pause. She took a deep breath. "Gerard and I were fighting because I was scared about something. I had just found out.."

She couldn't continue. "Lindsey? Are you still there? You don't have to tell me, really."

"But I do." She sighed. "Alright, I'm just going to come right out and say it. Frank, I'm pregnant." Her heart was pounding as she listened to the stunned silence. She could hear him breathing, so she knew he was still there. After a few minuets, he began speaking.

"You're...pregnant?" She confirmed. She knew he wouldn't believe it, a woman of her age getting pregnant was pretty rare. "You mean...Please tell me it's Gerard's."

Lindsey felt anger rise up in her chest. "Of course it is! How could you even ask that?" She looked at the hallway at the stairs, and tried to keep her voice down.

"Sorry! But then, why were you and Gerard fighting? Wait, forget that. How are you even pregnant? Are you sure?"

"If you must know, we were fighting because I was scared about having the baby, so I didn't tell Gerard. It wasn't until he walked in on me crying, and Bandit kicking me that he found out. He got angry and he thought that I didn't want the baby. But I do. He was mostly angry because I hadn't told him." She took a deep breath. "Bandit thought that I didn't want the baby either, she didn't understand. That's why she ended up kicking me." She heard a gasp down the phone. "She also thought that we hadn't wanted her either, but I explained everything and she's fine now."

It took a while for Frank to reply. "Well, as long as you've explained that you do want the baby, and you do want her, then that's fine. I hope Gerard didn't take it all too badly."

"He was pretty angry, but we're fine. We've just had a chat with Bandit and explained that we're going to keep the baby and be a happy family."

"Keep the baby? Surely you weren't considering abortion?" Frank sounded outraged.

"Of course not. We were just considering..other options."

"What, like adoption? How could you do that to Bandit?" He demanded.

"No, not adoption. Just, getting help to take care of the baby. I'm an old woman Frank, I shouldn't be having a baby. The complications.." Frank tried to interupt. "But I want this baby Frank. I don't care if the baby has something wrong with it, I don't care if I die in child birth, I'm going to have this baby."

Frank paused. "So, why do you think you're having a baby? I mean, shouldn't you have started.. you know.."

Lindsey rolled her eyes. Men. "Menopause? Yeah. But I haven't. So, any more questions?"

"No. I... I'll tell Jamia. If that's okay?"

"That's fine. Just don't tell anyone else. I don't want the media knowing yet, and I want to tell everyone else on my own."

"Sure, thanks for telling me." It sounded like the conversation was coming to a close untill Frank began talking again. "By the way, I need to talk to you about Bandit. It's about a girl at school."