The Baby Scan
MattY is sitting up in his office at the Monk on Fire Music head quarters. He is ready to go and has called a taxi to help him get to the hospital on time. MattY is so excited that he is struggling to keep still, but he is also nervous. He is always nervous these days. Going out nowadays is dangerous. People are after him.
His receptionist knocks on the door and lets herself in, “Hiya, okay. You should be going down now; the taxi will be here in about five to ten minutes.” MattY smiles and nods in response. He gets up and grabs his wallet. He walks out the door, leaving his phone on the table. The door closes behind him and the phone starts flashing. “Cherise x” it says clearly on the screen.
MattY tries to calm himself down; the nerves and the excitement are getting out of control. He gets down to the lobby and looks outside. It is raining here. He opens the door and walks into the rain, looking around for his taxi. After a couple of minutes, he walks back inside, very wet. He stands by the window, watching the world pass by.
The taxi finally arrives, about twenty minutes after it should have done; and MattY rushes outside. He opens the door and then suddenly realises that he has forgot his phone. He goes to the window and knocks on it to make the driver open it. “Mate, I’ll give you some cash now to wait for me for five minutes. I’ve got to run back upstairs to get my phone.” The driver nods and MattY shoves a couple of twenty pound notes into the drivers open hand. MattY runs inside and up the stairs, he almost knocks over one of the ladies that helps with PR and shouts a quick “Sorry!” to her as he runs into his office. He rushes to his desk and grabs the phone. Quickly looking out the window, he notices that the taxi that he was supposed to be using has now disappeared.
“I ordered a taxi, and it was twenty minutes late.” He complains down the phone back in the lobby. “I don’t care, I gave him about £50 to just wait for me, and the wanker has done a fucking runner. I NEED TO BE AT THE HOSPITAL IN LIKE 2 MINUTES!! I. Want. Another. Taxi.” He slays, slowly and clearly, down the phone. After continuing his heated discussion with the woman on the other end of the phone, he hangs up. Another taxi will be there in 15 minutes. She will already be in and started by then!! MattY’s frustration is quite clear, and the lobby receptionist goes and grabs him a cup of coffee and sits him down. She has a quick chat with him and manages to calm him down.
35 minutes later, the taxi arrives – 20 minutes late again. MattY goes out the front door of the building with a look in his eyes that could kill. He gets in the back of the cab and they start driving. But they weren’t driving for long; the traffic in the city was so bad that they were almost at a stop for 10 minutes. When they finally got moving again, MattY caught a glimpse of his phone flashing. It was Cherise. He picked up the phone and put it to his ear; “Cherise, babe, I’m so -”
But Cheirse, didn’t want to hear it. She cut him off “MattY, shut it. I don’t care. I’ve just had another weird shit scarey call. I need you here, something’s not right.” Her voice worried MattY. There were so many thought rushing through his head, ‘Was it Joe trying to get him back for what he did to Zakk?’ was the main thought.
MattY decided to try and calm her down, knowing deep down that she had every right to be scared, “Calm down babe, it’s probably just some prank call. Stay where you are, I’ll be there soon. I’m in the taxi. Just keep talking to me. I’m here with you.”
“But MattY, I’m not joking. It really freaked me out!!”
“I’m here, just keeping talking. You’ll be fine.” He was trying to not only keep her calm, but as long as she was talking, he knew that she was still safe. “So, was the scan okay? Did you find out?” he waited for a response, and she said nothing. Worried, he now said, “Cherise? Talk to me…”
She responded, sending a wave of relief through him, “Sorry, yeah. Erm… The scan was fine; baby is healthy, normal size. I’ve got a picture for you.” MattY smiled as she talked to him, their baby was getting bigger and healthier.
Struggling to contain his excitement, “And the sex?”
“Oh, it’s a girl babe…” and then MattY heard her scream down the phone and the line went dead.
Now worried beyond belief, the next five minutes to the hospital seemed to take hours. He got out the car, chucked some money through the window and ran through the hospital grounds to the area that she said she would be waiting at. She was nowhere to be seen. Cherise was gone. MattY walked slowly around, trying to be quiet, hoping that he would still be able to find the people who had made Cherise scream. The only thought that was going through his mind was ‘It’s my fault.’
He got to the bench where Cherise had been sitting not long before and saw on the floor, a bit of paper. It was the right shape to be a picture. He picked it up. It was a baby scan. He turned over the piece of paper, and written in smudged red writing was the words “Don’t call the police. We’ll get in touch.”
