THE MOST STRINGENT LONGING

Bea felt frustrated, angry, depressed and most of all, lonely. She could be called a big lair, if she said she wasn’t jealous of her very best friend and the fact that she had found her happily ever after. She wanted a baby.

For as long as she could remember, Bea had always wanted a child. She had always wanted a little bundle of joy that she could call hers, she wanted to be able to carry a child and know that the little being was dependent on her, she wanted a child that she would watch grow, one that would swell in her stomach. She longed for a kick of a child and then the birth, oh the birth. She would be a fool to think that it didn’t hurt, she knew it did. Her best friend, Kristen just had her first child, Alexandria and had let Bea know how dreadful child birth could be. Nevertheless, Bea wanted a child, no matter how painful it was.

Bea adored her niece, Alexi, she did. At six months, she was already looking so much like her mother, brown hair and brown eyes. Bea still wanted