Leslie visited her father on the anniversary of her mother’s death. The two survivors stood in front of the gravestone clutching flowers.
Leslie shifted. “Not that I’m complaining, but how come you and Mom never had a second child?”
“I’m sterile.”
“What?”
Her father nodded. “I loved your mother more than anything.”
Over five hundred of Stephen D. Rogers‘ stories and poems have been selected to appear in over two hundred publications. His website, www.stephendrogers.com, includes a list of new and upcoming titles as well as other timely information.
Posted on January 24, 2009 in Stories
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22 Responses to “AND BABY MAKES TWO • by Stephen D. Rogers”
Comments
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January 24th, 2009 at 12:11 am
That reminds me of the definition of a cad: someone who doesn’t tell his wife about his vasectomy until after she’s pregnant.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:13 am
So much story in so few words. This is flash.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Just enough information.
January 24th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Very flash, very successful. Having said that I find the dialogue rather stilted. I would have expected a touch more tenderness or even hesitation.
January 24th, 2009 at 5:36 am
very clever, a little gem!
January 24th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Surefire adultery detector.
January 24th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Great stuff.
January 24th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Wow… that packed quite a punch. Had to reread it to make sure I got it!
January 24th, 2009 at 10:05 am
A very believable – human – flash story with its stunning revelation. Excellent, spare, writing but I do agree with Sue B over one word: ‘What?’ It seemed rather stark and clinical. I feel she would have been too stunned to speak and her father would have probably reacted to her questioning expression. Only an opinion. Still one great story.
Thanks Stephen
January 24th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Great story.
Took me a while to ‘get it’.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
A powerpacked little story……
January 26th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Channeling Hemmingway? I’m fence-sitting on this one, boiled down to this question: How much emotion should the writer provide? How much the reader?
I, for one, want to know the child’s reaction to this life-changing relevation. Would that rob the story of something? Hmmm.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
TW, I can picture this:
Leslie looks at the man hung in the doorframe, blearily rubbing at his eyes, and searches his face for genetic cues, anything to connect herself to him. “I think you’re my father.”
Owlish blinking. “Babe, I’m sterile.”
February 1st, 2009 at 6:18 am
Where in the story did you see doorframe?
February 1st, 2009 at 6:22 am
I realize why this would not be clear.
I would rewrite it as…
Leslie looks at the man hung in the doorframe, blearily rubbing at his eyes, and searches his face for genetic cues, anything to connect herself to him. “I think you’re my father.”
Owlish blinking. “Babe, I’m sterile.” The door shuts.
Him too? Another dead end. She looked at the lengthy list she had made and crossed out his name.
February 1st, 2009 at 7:42 am
Is Sam Sanders too young to tell that babies are made in test tube laboratories?
Is “gravestone” in use somewhere meaning “doorstep”?
Does Sam Sanders mean “I think you’re my father’s ***”, meaning her father wanted him as his choice for his daughter to make a shiddach?
Why did the man cut himself out? Maybe she doesn’t want babies.
I think sterile refers back to the father who chose that moment to tell his daughter she was legally adopted and one’s enough. The father had enough spirit to accept marriage, although sterile, because he loved the mother “more than anything.”
February 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Well, to be sterile to me means that she could either be adopted or be a love child. He could have known she cheated on him early in their marriage and chose to remain with her.
And… The scenario I outlined obviously is a large fail, and thank you for biliously bringing to light why it didn’t work too well. I appreciate the feedback. It is not located at the graveyard at all. It is actually a flash sequel of sorts, in the weeks, months afterwards, when she has scrounged together the clues as to the identity of her biological father, perhaps from her father’s stories of her past, letters in the shoebox found in the attic, old emails. Although she knows the man who raised her loves her like the father he is, she has to know the truth so she goes from address to address, to meet the men who could be her flesh and blood. She looks them in the face and tries to find herself.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:55 am
I guess this most interesting forum proves that writers ought to carefully consider whether abiguity is a strength or they should fill in the blank spaces themselves. Maybe its a Rorschach test.
I loved all the answers to the question. What does Stephen D. Rogers think?
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 am
Ambiguity is a good thing sometimes, and a bad thing other times. I believe it to be the former this time around.
Steve Rogers is currently a test subject in the US Super Soldier program. When he leaves suspended animation, I imagine we will have his remarks.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:53 am
Quick and tight. Too much elaboration detracts from the story. I like this one just the way it is.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
? ????? ????? ??? ????? ????, ?????? ??? ????? ??? ????. ????? ? ???????? ?????????:)
June 10th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
It could also be that the father found the baby’s competition for attention from the mother deleterious and wanted to prevent any further inroads into her affection from additional babies. But it’s a lot better than absentee fathers.