Abigail

CHAPTER ONE

            The stars in the sky seemed particularly brilliant to her that warm May night.  She sat out in an old soccer field where no city lights could dampen their luminous effect.  She hadn’t played soccer on this field for several years, but it was the only safe place where she could go to be alone.  The darkness reminded her of the church camp she attended last summer and how amazed she was at the millions of twinkling lights that slowly emerged when twilight approached.  Church camp was in the middle of nowhere where no lights interfered.  She knew how dark it was then, but nothing compared to the darkness in her heart tonight.  

            The darkness was due to the late hour of the evening, but described Abigail’s mood as well.  She did not know how long she had been sitting, maybe one or two hours.  She was tired of crying, tired of hurting and tired of feeling so alone.  In her young sixteen years of life, she could never remember feeling so desperate and alone. 

            “How could this have happened?” she asked herself repeatedly.  She was so tired of demanding an answer of herself.  She couldn’t think anymore.  Her head throbbed and her eyes stung.  Yet, she couldn’t stop the stream of questions that begged for resolution.  Thoughts invaded every peaceful moment.

            “Maybe the pregnancy test was wrong,” she told herself.

            “Maybe I should do it again tomorrow morning.”  Surely it would reveal the true and correct result. 

            “Maybe I just got a damaged pregnancy test kit.”  She was trying whole- heartedly to convince herself that this was all just a horrible nightmare.  She would surely awaken soon and find none of it to be true. 

            “That’s it!  A faulty kit.”  Her girlfriend was the one who was brave enough to buy it for her.  “Maybe she just bought a damaged one.  Store clerks can’t tell.  They just put it on the shelf along with all the other kits.” 

Again the tears began to fall, though she wondered how.  But they poured, nonetheless, against her will.  Abigail was only fooling herself.   She knew something was wrong when she missed her last three monthly periods.  Her body started to feel differently a couple of months ago.  In addition to feeling nauseous every morning, she felt tired, almost lethargic.  Abigail passed it off as end-of-the-school-year finals.  After all, it was May and all papers and projects were due.  In addition to preparing for final tests over the past few weeks, she had been consumed with writing research papers for English and History classes and completing a Spanish project all of which were due next week.  She did not wa