Dogma Page #6

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Ever think about having it?

GIRL:

(beat)

What woman doesn't on some level.

BETHANY:

I never did.

GIRL:

(incredulous)

You had an abortion?

BETHANY:

(lights a smoke)

My first year in college. All through high school, I'd dated the same guy -

Walter Flanagan. We were really in love, right? So much so. that we decided

to go Carnegie Mellon together... that's this college in Pittsburgh. So

there we are -away at school, and there's suddenly no parents to worry

about anymore, so we're screwing like rabbits - just constanly doing it.

And I wound up getting pregnant. So he begs me to have it. He says we

should quit school and get married, and I'm telling him that that'lI screw

up our educations. We fought about it for a week - my arguement being there

was no rush to have kids, you know? We could always have a baby in a couple

of years - after school. So I got the abortion against his wishes... I

mean, what the hell - it was my body, right? After graduation, we got

married and immediately set about trying to have kids. We tried like hell

for the first six months, and... nothing. So I went to a gynocologist to

see if everything was okay on my end.

(beat)

It wasn't.

(takes a drink)

My uteran wall had this fissure. It seems that the doctor who performed the

procedure on me years before had somehow botched it. I'd never be able to

have a child.

The Girl's face says it all. Bethany takes a drag and continues.

BETHANY:

So there I am - devastated. And now I have to go home to break the news to

my husband who years before had begged me to have the baby - his baby. And

after I explain it to him through my tears, he sits on the couch and rubs

his eyes. And in the calmest, most rational voice I've ever heard anybody

use in my life, he asks me for a divorce. And I fought him, you know? I

tried to talk him out of it; told him there were alternatives - like we

could adopt. And all he said was he wanted a wife who could have his

children.

GIRL:

(beat)

What happened?

BETHANY:

He remarried. He had two kids in two years with his new wife. We never

spoke again. And now I do this.

GIRL:

That's like... such a sad story.

BETHANY:

I dated this guy a year or two ago - he was really into comic books. He

told me I had the stock superhero story -I wanted to prevent a wrong that

had happened to me from ever happening to anyone else. Kind of like Batman,

he said. The only difference is I don't put on tights to do it... unless

all my other clothes are in the wash.

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