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Lucky Little

Doctor Lane continued...

“I can’t explain now but you don’t have to worry about the long process this time. All of that will be taken care of. Please, don’t answer now, and don’t, you know, don’t tell Mary Ann about this until you’ve heard me out, ok?” he pauses, “okay, goodbye.” And he hangs up the phone. The doctor looks frazzled to say the least. He is frazzled. “Lane!” a lady calls from atop a spiral staircase just outside the double doors of a lavishly decorated bedroom. One of five bedrooms in this 4200 square foot home in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, a neighborhood called River Oaks. The doctor had done well for himself. He had done well for his alumni. He had done well for his family. What he hadn’t accomplished up until this point was passing on his genes. “It must be her” he’d tell his closest friend, an upscale lawyer who came from family money like he did. “I know for a fact,” he pauses quickly in his speech cadence, as he kind of rooster walks a little, holding his breath. Then speaks the words as he exhales as if everyone has been holding their breath for his declaration, “but it’s not me.” The counselor knows very well what he means, in fact he didn’t need any clue at all. They both know that they both know about the one night stand, and, the abortion. They both know that nobody else knows about the abortion, or the girl. They knew the girl knew about the one night stand, and the abortion, but they didn’t much talk about that. She was going to be better off. She didn’t have a good support system to bring a child into the world. She barely had any money at all. How can you raise a future doctor or lawyer or politician without plenty of money. Yes, he found out he had what it takes to make a baby that’s true. He also knew he had the money to pay for an abortion. He knew the doctor that would perform the operation. It wouldn’t be the first he had ‘arranged’. A good friend of his was one of the Harris County big wig politicians involved in raising money for the building and the opening of the Astrodome in April 1965 . The opening day game was the Houston Astros vs the New York Yankees. President Lyndon B. Johnson attended, Micky Mantle hit a home run, and evangelist Billy Graham soon declared the stadium the “eighth wonder of the world”. The doctor’s friend was very good friends with Mayor Hofheinz and one of the Mayors biggest donors and fundraisers. The press even back then was all over any kind of story to bring a mark against the mayor. He had gained plenty of friends and plenty of enemies in the 10 years he gathered political, architectural and engineering resources – as well as roughly $31 million in public funding – and built what was then the world’s largest indoor stadium. This politician friend of his got a paid prostitute pregnant. Before the Grand Opening of the Astrodome the villainous underbelly of the city works over time as well. Prostitutes male and female are brought into the city as are 10 times the amount of drugs and scam artists. The big wig ended up paying for an abortion as well as hush money to keep it out of the public. Dr. Lane helped the young girl receive an abortion, at her request he was told, and he helped a powerful businessman avoid a scandal. He helped someone that would then help him and his wife receive what they had always wanted, but held no dollar amount for barter, a baby. A perky young woman strolls out of the bedroom with her hair wrapped up in a towel and a partly opened thick white robe on that hardly hid her Monroesque figure. She smiles from ear to ear and snuggles her cheek against his forehead as she grabs hold of his arm and pulls him in close. She looks down at her belly seeing years of life ahead and rubs it gently but widely as though her little baby bump were this giant globe that’s orb was like a planet. “We’re gonna have a baby Lane. Can you believe that God answered our prayers, our prayers, and we’re gonna have a baby!” she says full of giddiness. The doctor tries to shake off the phone call and fake a smile. “Yes, sweetheart”, he says. Then adds on somewhat coarsely, obviously pointing out, as usual, her less than educated sounding speech. “we are ‘GOING TO’ have a baby.”