Melinda's Short Story - Josh's Tall Story

MELINDA'S SHORT STORY

Melinda enjoyed writing. She wrote about everything. She wanted to write a book one day. When she found out she was pregnant with Trenton in her senior year of high school, she penned this, a draft of her story. I will type it below, as it is difficult to read.

Melinda’s Short Story




1. Ringing alarm clock. Melinda rolled over in the bed. Her outstretched arm, she managed to push

2. the clock over the edge of the night stand, instead of hitting the snooze button as she had intended to. After a few moments of self pity, Melinda managed to fumble out of the warm and inviting sheets, slip into her fuzzy slippers and stumble into the bathroom, one which she only had to share with herself.

3. “A week and a half late” was the only thought running through Melinda’s head. “I’ll have to pick up a test”. Melinda had been with her boyfriend, Joshua for almost a year and throughout that time it was simply standard procedure for her to take a home pregnancy test whenever her period was late. It seems that when you are a teenager, you never believe that anything drastic will ever touch your life, but it was typical to act like it could. It’s the knowing that you need to stop somewhere to fill your car up with gas. You know that it could die in the middle of the road, but you don’t actually believe that that will happen to you.

4. Finishing her usual morning habits in the bathroom, Melinda returned to her bedroom, got dressed and headed out. She hopped into her 1998 white Dodge Neon and began her hour drive to school. Melinda was a senior and had transferred schools at the end of her junior year. Now she attended the same as Joshua, but don’t be misconsieved, she did not transfer high schools with the simple minded idea of going to the same school as her boyfriend. Contrary to that myth, the new school she had decided to attend offered better programs for her. With Florida schools in session from August to May, Melinda and Joshua were now in the middle of their twelfth grade year.

5. Her car pulled into the parking lot of Joshua’s mother’s flower shop. Melinda saw Josh sitting forlorn (?) in his truck. This was their meeting “spot” before leaving for school, but it was certainly not his typical personality. Getting out of her vehicle Melinda knocked on the passenger’s side window. Looking up after burying his face in his hands, Josh’s eyes were red and swollen as if he had been crying all night. Josh reached over and unlocked the door to his Mazda, flashing a mild smile to pass as a greeting.

6. “Hey Puppy, are you alright”? Melinda greeted Josh using their affectionate nicknames for each other. “My mom was yelling at me for not cleaning the shop good enough yesterday. I don’t know what the big deal was…I did whatever the hell she wanted me to.”

7. Climbing into the truck, Melinda hugged Josh tightly, trying to make him feel better in any way that she could.


JOSH'S TALL STORY

Here's from the  Nancy Grace show aired September 29, 2006

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/29/ng.01.html


GRACE: Here on the set with us tonight, Trenton`s father, Josh Duckett.

When you think back on when you first met Melinda, you told me the other night you still have feelings for her, you still love her. What made you stay with her, through all of these outbursts, and anger management, and self-mutilation, the problems with Trenton? Why?

J. DUCKETT: I guess just the hope of trying to make a family and not having to have a family split up. I mean, because she`s still the mother of my child, regardless of the bad blood and everything that`s happened. I mean...

GRACE: Did you guys plan to have Trenton?

J. DUCKETT: No, not at all. I mean...

GRACE: So he was a surprise?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: How long had you known each other before you got married?

J. DUCKETT: Almost a year or two years.

GRACE: Do you (remember) the first time you ever saw Melinda Duckett?

J. DUCKETT: Yes.

GRACE: What was it?

J. DUCKETT: I seen her out in public just walking around. And then I didn`t really -- I didn`t talk to her at all that night. And a couple of my friends ended up running into her the next day, and they introduced me to her, so it kind of went from there. I mean, we talked one night and then were together ever since then.

GRACE: Did she want to have the baby?

J. DUCKETT: I guess, to an extent, she did, but then to an extent she didn`t.

GRACE: Why?

J. DUCKETT: She told me later, after she had already had him and everything, that she had gotten pregnant on purpose because we were having trouble, and we were on again and off again. And she told me she got pregnant on purpose as a way -- she knew my beliefs, as far as not leaving her if she was pregnant. And so that was a way to kind of trap me.