Butterfly (14 page)

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“Tired.”

“I was tired when I had my abortion, too. You're probably going to feel sore for like, the next couple of days, but after that, you should be fine.” Keisha held Bri's hand.

“What was it like, Bri?”

“Weird, but it didn't really hurt. I was kind of numb through all of it...”

BRI'S STORY:

As I sat in stirrups and the doctor was between my legs, she explained the surgical procedure to me.

“Hi, Ms. Cooper, I'm Dr. Henson and I'll be performing your procedure today. Dr. Henson was a white, tall and skinny woman. She had short brown hair and wore glasses. She reminded me a lot of an old tennis player named Martina Navratilova. She was very nice, though.

“During this process, we will end your pregnancy by removing the fetus and placenta from your womb, which is also called a uterus. There are different types of abortions. There is the therapeutic abortion, whereas a woman needs to end the pregnancy for health reasons. And then there is the elective abortion, whereas, like yourself, a woman simply chooses to end the pregnancy. We will be performing what is called an elective-surgical abortion. We will administer a sedative that will help you relax and make you feel slightly drowsy, but you will remain awake throughout the entire process. Because you are further along than fifteen weeks, we're going to have to dilate your cervical canal. Small sticks called laminaria will be placed into your cervix to help it open and then we will insert a hollow tube into your womb before using the vacuum to remove all of the pregnancy-related tissues from your uterus.

“This is a relatively routine procedure, but like all surgeries, there are certain risks involved. In this particular procedure, we run the risk of future ectopic or tubal pregnancies, which is when the child develops in the tube and not in the uterus. There's also PID or pelvic inflammatory disease, which can lead to fever or infertility. Abruptio placentae; it is a condition in pregnancy where the sac holding the baby, or the placenta, tears away from the uterus lining. This can result in extreme and life-threatening bleeding. Women who have this procedure often run the risk of increasing their chance of breast cancer by fifty percent. Do you have any questions, Ms. Cooper?”

“No, ma'am.” I tensed my body because I could feel pressure on my vagina.

I was under the impression the doctor was trying to scare me out of having the abortion. I had never been a part of an abortion before, but I could not believe that she had to explain the procedure with such detail like that.

“So how do you feel thus far?”

“I'm okay.”

“Good, because it's over.” Dr. Henson smiled and then slid her chair backward. She threw her latex gloves into a trash can. “You did well!”

“Thank you. That's it? It's over?”

“Yes it is.” Dr. Henson washed her hands. “The nurse will be in shortly to explain your outpatient information. Get some rest and have a good day.”

Dr. Henson walked out and in a few minutes, a nurse walked in. She was black, light-skinned, with a round shape. Her hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, but you could tell that she had a very cute shape in her scrubs.

“Hi, Ms. Cooper, how are you feeling?”

“I'm doing okay.”

“My name is Connie and I'm going to go over what we need you to do to make sure you're as good as new.”

“Okay.”

“We want you to make sure you drink lots of fluids. Stay off work for a few days if you can. Make sure you take vitamins, eat healthy foods, and try to get as much sleep as you can. Make sure you take the antibiotics immediately and for the full amount of days. No exercise for two weeks. No swimming or tub baths for two weeks. No lifting anything over fifteen pounds for two weeks. Don't use anything vaginally for two to four weeks. That means no sex, no tampons and no douches, nothing.

“You're capable of ovulating two weeks after you have this procedure, which means you are capable of becoming pregnant again within two weeks of ending a pregnancy. After the two- to four-week period has expired, you should not have sex again unless you feel physically recovered, and
you and your partner have made a planned parenting decision to have a child. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself in this same position.

“Your body will probably return to its regular menstrual cycle in about two weeks, so if you decide that you want to resume sexual intercourse, make sure you are prepared by having some form of birth control or prophylactic. Please be certain that you are healed completely, both physically and emotionally, before resuming sexual activities. We want you to schedule an appointment and come back for your two-week check-up as soon as you can.” Connie smiled. “Any questions?”

“Uh, no.”

“Okay, you have some friends out there who seemed to be very anxious to see you, so let's get you to them to ease their concerns.”

“Okay.”

I looked around the small room and wondered how many other young teenaged girls had been in my position, and what did they do to deal with the aftermath?

END BRI'S STORY

•   •   •

“...I don't ever want to go through anything like that again.”

“Me either!” Keisha said.

“Ms. Alicia and Dr. Forrester are gone out of town, so it's just you, me and Pa-Pa, Bri. All we have to do is just tell him you're sick and he'll baby you the whole weekend. He won't have a clue.”

“Yeah, but we're supposed to be babysitting, Brit, too.”

“Oh, Brit won't be a problem. Please, I got her! That's my baby.”

“Oh yeah, don't forget I have to stop by the pharmacy and get my prescription, Shante.”

“Oh, okay.”

We stopped by the pharmacy and picked up Bri's prescription. When Bri came out of the store with the bag in her hand, Toya was excited.

“What you got?”

“What you mean, what I got?”

“What kind of 'scripts you got?”

“'Scripts? What is 'scripts?”

“Your prescription. What kind do you have?”

“I don't know.” Bri opened up the bag and pulled out one of the bottles of pills. “I got a hundred and twenty Vicodin pills.”

“Vicodin?” Toya shouted. “You done struck it rich, babygirl!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Bri, you won't need all of them pills, girl. I can sell what you don't use on the streets for two or three dollars a pill. And we split the profit fifty-fifty.”

“What?” Bri was confused as hell.

“Do you know what you have in your hands right now?”

“Yeah, I got some medicine.”

“No, you got a goldmine.”

“Don't pay no attention to that fool, Bri.” I chuckled for a minute and then kept talking. “She's trying to get you to give her some of that Vicodin, so she can sell them on the street.”

“Like a dope dealer?”

“Naw, man, I'm not no real dope dealer. I just sell them to my friends at school and they give me a few dollars for them.”

“Look, you got enough to worry about without getting into more trouble with drugs, Bri.”

“See, Keisha, you always trying to talk somebody out of doing something.”

“And you always trying to talk somebody into something, Toya.”

“She ain't talking nobody into nothing 'cause Bri ain't messin' around with that shit! So stop askin' her, Toya!”

“Okay, Butterfly. But I'm telling you, Bri, we can make some money.”

“Bri got money!” Keisha snapped. “She don't need to hustle.”

“I don't feel good.” Bri leaned her head onto Keisha's shoulder.

“We're about to get you home, Bri.” Keisha wrapped her arms around Bri's shoulder. “Hurry up, Butterfly.”

I drove faster trying to get home as quick as I could. The Forresters were gone and Pa-Pa was playing with Brit outside in the backyard. We snuck Bri upstairs and put her in my bed. Keisha and Toya left and I went outside to play with Pa-Pa and Brit.

“Hey, Pa-Pa.” I kissed him on the cheek and then picked up Brit. “How's my favorite baby?”

“Hi, Butterfly.”

“Look at what I brought you.” I pulled out a lollipop and dangled it in front of her. “You can have it if you give your big sister a great big kiss!”

“Mmmmmmm!” Brit gave me a wet kiss on the cheek.

“Yuck!” I wiped my face.

“Well, she gave you what you asked for,” Pa-Pa joked. “Where's Louise, Thelma?”

“She's not feeling good; she's lying down.”

“Lying down?” Pa-Pa started to walk toward the house.

I grabbed his arm and stopped him. “She's all right Pa-Pa. It's just like, you know, her time of the month. You know what I mean?”

“If you mean what I think you mean, I don't wanna know what you mean.”

“I gave her some Tylenol, so she should be okay.”

“That's too bad.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted you two to watch a classic with me.”

“What? I'll watch it with you.”

“Well, come on!”

I put Brit on my hip and followed Pa-Pa into the house. He put a movie called
Roots
in the DVD player. Pa-Pa sat in his recliner that he had shipped from Michigan and Brit lay on the sofa with me. That was the longest damn movie I had ever seen. Of course I had heard of it, but I had never seen it before. I had no idea it was that freakin' long! The bad part about it is that Pa-Pa and Brit went to sleep ten minutes into the movie and left me all by myself to watch it. Bri came downstairs during the fourth hour with a comforter wrapped around her and lay on the loveseat.

“How you feeling, Bri?”

“I'm sleepy. I keep dozing off.”

“You hurting anywhere?”

“No, not really. I'm a little sore, but I'm just sleepy.”

“We eating pizza tonight.”

“Y'all go 'head, I ain't eating nothin'!” Bri chuckled and then looked at the television. “What in the world is this?”

“It's called
Roots.”

“Grandpa got you watching this?” Bri looked over at Pa-Pa sleeping in the chair with his head about to fall off. “He's always trying to get people to watch movies with him and then he falls asleep.”

“He is knocked out, too, girl.”

“Man, take that movie out,” Bri whispered.

“I can't. It'll hurt Pa-Pa. He really wanted to share this movie with Brit and me. You, too, but you were sleep.”

“Well, your Pa-Pa is sleep,” Bri said sarcastically, “so put in something else.”

I got up to put another DVD in. “What you wanna watch, Bri?”

“
Avatar
.”

“
Avatar?
I'm not putting in no
Avatar.”

“I like
Avatar
. It has so many pretty colors.”

“Is that why you like it?”

“No. It has a good storyline, too.”

“Girl, please! They stole that storyline from that cartoon movie
The Ant Bully
and they know it.”

“No they didn't. They're two completely different stories.”

“It's the same story, Bri. In
Avatar,
the human becomes an Avatar and have to learn the ways of the natives, which were the blue people. And in
The Ant Bully
, the little boy shrinks and has to learn the ways of the natives, which were the ants. In both stories, they have to prove themselves by going against their own kinds.”

“Dang.” Bri chuckled. “You're right.”

“See, I told you, it's the same story. The only difference is, one was ants and the other was blue people. Now that one blue man was fine, though.”

“Oh my God, you are crazy.”

“Okay, I found
‘ATL'
with T.I. and Lauren London.”

“How about N-O-T. I don't want to watch that no more. I've seen that like a billion times already.”

“I thought you were sleepy anyway.”

“I am, but that's going to keep me up.”

“Oh, okay. You better be glad I like you.”

“Whatever.”

“What you want to watch then?”

“Put in
Beauty and the Beast.
That always puts me to sleep.”

“You kidding, right? That's a kid movie, Bri.”

“So? After what I've been through today, I want to stay a kid forever.”

Bri fluffed her pillow and then lowered her head. I felt so sorry for her. She was truly a good girl who had made some bad decisions. From what I could see, she was doing it just to fit in. Too bad she did not realize that with everything she had going for her, she did
not need to fit in with anybody; in time they would want to fit in with her.

“Can I tell you something without you getting all sensitive and sentimental on me, Shante?”

“I'll try, you know how I am.”

“Promise me or I won't tell you.”

“No! No! I promise! I promise!” I was excited and could not wait to hear.

“I am so glad that you are a part of this family. And there is no way we are ever going to let you leave us. Even though you may not be a blood relative, you are definitely a love relative. You have been there for me ever since we met, and I don't know what I would have done without you today.”

“Awwwww.” I wiped my eyes.

“See! There you go crying.”

“I can't help it.”

“I don't understand how anybody can cry that fast? You started crying before the words even came out of my mouth.”

“I know! I know!” I sat up and wiped my eyes. “Well, I feel the same way about you. I see you as my little cousin, and I will do anything to protect and defend you.”