“I never got to go to Australia,” Laura thought, as the ultrasound tech spread warm jelly on her stomach.

  “It’s not like you’ll be dead,” Danny had said a couple days before.

  “I know,” Laura said, digging into her extra large portion of mashed potatoes. It was the only thing she could eat without feeling nauseated. “I mean, my brain knows.”

  There had been a lot of that feeling lately—me but not me. And her center of gravity hadn’t even changed yet.

  Now she lay back on crinkly paper and thought about a 12+ hour flight with a baby or even a toddler. Her nausea surged. Yeah, no. That sounded like a bad idea for at least the next few years.

  The ultrasound wand sounded like a jacked up theremin as the tech swooped it over her stomach, presumably trying to locate her uterus. Laura had only heard that sound in movies up until that point.

  “Ah, there we are!” the tech said. “And there they are.” She pointed to a small spot within a larger spot on the screen. She rotated the screen a bit more so Laura could see.

  Laura wasn’t sure how to react. She desperately had to pee. Apparently having a full bladder was supposed to help at this stage, to be able to see better.

  “Wow,” she said. “It’s so small.” That’s what people said, right? Only later would she overthink the way she used “it” when the tech had said “they”.

  “Everything’s good,” she told Danny as she started the car. “Estimating right around 8 weeks just like we thought.

  “That’s great.” His voice was soft in her ear. “How are you doing?”

  “Fine. Peed like a racehorse the second they were done.”

  He laughed.

  Somehow that made her feel better.

  “So what now?” he asked.

  A soft unfamiliar blip pulled Laura’s attention to her screen. It was a notification from the pregnancy app she’d installed.

  She’d spent a week photographing wood storks in Florida once. They looked nothing like the cartoony little bird that popped up on the app’s loading screen. It was carrying a pink and blue checked bundle and flapping its wings.

  A banner popped up along the top. “Congrats, 8 weeks today!” Confetti rained down her screen. The app also prompted her, “Would you like to link/start a registry?” She hit “ignore”.

  She wouldn’t need a registry for at least a month or two, right? They weren’t going to tell anyone except their immediate families until the end of the first trimester. Eventually there’d be a baby shower presumably, setting up the nursery, a crib…

  As if sensing her spiraling, Danny said, “I meant for today, hon. You got anything else on the docket today?”

  “Ah.” She laughed. “Could you hear the brain activity from there?”

  “The gears were grinding a bit, yeah.”

  “I think…” Laura looked out the window at the beautiful weather. “I’ve got my yearly physical at 2 but I’m going to try and grab a bite to eat first.”

  “Good luck,” he said. “Enjoy the day, sweetheart.”

  She realized she would probably have to let her regular doctor know that she was pregnant. Would he still be the one to treat her if something unexpected came up, or would that be the OB now? How was she supposed to tell if something was a problem for her versus the baby?

  Enjoy the day…

  Laura threw on her turn signal, and turned her car towards the ocean. She knew exactly what she needed.

  The damn vendor had moved. In its place something called Mr Crispy Cakes was slinging freshly fried and powdered funnel cakes through the walk-up window. Normally that would have been an upgrade, but not today.

  Laura slowly moved down the boardwalk, scenting her prey. Boardwalk fries.

  Normally they were her least favorite fried treat, since they were always underseasoned and required condiments. But at the moment underseasoned fried potatoes were all she could think about.

  The crowds on the boardwalk were noticeably thinner than they had been at the beginning of the month, when people were feeling the last throes of summer. Now towards the end of September there was the typical lull before things picked up again for spooky season.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  The crowd grew denser as she went along, as they all started funneling towards the same destination.

  Laura checked her watch. She hoped she’d have enough time. She picked up her pace towards the end of the boardwalk.

  The food stalls and restaurants segued to hotels as she moved towards the large arch at the far end of the boardwalk.

  The words “Adventureland Parks” stretched across the arch.

  She’d hoped to grab the fries before going into the park—food always cost more inside. But it would still be worth it.

  As she approached the gate, a slender man in a strange coat tipped his hat to her. “No kids?” He asked. He looked like he must be either employed by the park or insane. No one sane would wear an outfit like that without being paid. But she’d never seen him before.

  “Not yet,” she said with a small smile. Hopefully that would be all the response needed. Was it even an accurate response? His gaze followed her as she moved on.

  She showed her well-worn season pass at the gate and moved with the steady stream of people into the park.

  Danny surely had an inkling of what a guilty pleasure the parks were for her. (She’d been a season pass holder for years.) But he likely didn’t know just how frequently she’d wanted to visit in the past few weeks. She really needed this little moment for herself, especially in this pocket of time sandwiched between the medical poking and prodding.

  She needed to hear one of her favorite sounds—small children screaming.

  She headed towards the signs for “Witch’s Hollow”. Inside the park and away from the constant breeze of the ocean, the air felt warmer like it was still summer. The faux cobblestone path took a sharp turn to the left before opening up onto a picturesque village street where according to the decor it was always fall, specifically the most fun and spooky part of fall. Halloween.

  Witch’s Hollow was the subset of Monster Land that was for kids (“or the young at heart!” as the guide book liked to say). It had a witchy “spell shop” with candy and trinkets, and cute ghosts decorating windows next to smiling pumpkins. The directly adjacent section of the park housed a more grown-up experience of Halloween with genuinely scary theming.

  Here, it was clearer that the shrill screams were actually happy shrieks as children ran around spooky decorations and costumed employees.

  She made a beeline towards the nearest food kiosk called Finger Foods. The line was short, and she ordered in record time.

  Nearby, an entertainer in a clacky bone costume danced for a couple of kids. One of them nearly fell over trying to imitate him. Laura smiled.

  Another littler boy saw the skeleton man and started genuinely crying. It was a mixed bag, parenting.

  The little boy ran directly up to where Laura was waiting for her food. Laura froze as the little boy looked up at her. Seeing her caused him to cry even harder. “Where’s mom?” the boy wailed. Laura whipped her head around but couldn’t see anyone who looked like they were missing a child.

  Laura bent down to try and make herself less intimidating. “Are you okay, hon?” she asked him, mimicking what it seemed like a nurturing grown-up would say to a small child. What an insanely stupid thing to ask, she thought. Of course he wasn’t okay. He’d run away from a skeleton in terror and now was dealing with this awkward stranger instead of his mom.

  Should she give him a hug? Or was it better not to? What age did they teach stranger danger?

  Before she could move, a woman came running from directly behind her holding a basket of food and wrapped the boy in a big one-armed hug. “I’m so sorry kiddo! I didn’t know he would scare you. It’s just a costume, sweetheart.” The woman gave Laura a brief smile as she took the boy by the hand. The boy tugged his mom far away from the skeleton man.

  Laura picked up her fries and sat down at the nearest shady bench to dig in. The first bite was crispy perfection with its center of warm and fluffy potato. No ketchup even needed.

  Halfway through the fries though, Laura’s stomach turned. She’d waited just a bit too long to eat.

  She pushed the fries towards the other end of the bench. An opportunistic gull swooped down to perch on the end of the bench.

  “Hello, there.” Laura swiped open the camera on her phone, using the back of the bench to stabilize her arm. She clicked a few test shots, tweaked a couple of the settings, and then settled into what she called an “active stillness”. It was one of her favorite things about her job. There was something incredibly calming about it.

  Laura stilled herself to become as much a part of the scenery as possible, trying to entice the gull to come closer. It wouldn’t take much waiting—the frequent food made the gulls at the boardwalk and park much more bold than anywhere else along the shore. Laura’s breath fell into a slow, steady rhythm as she held herself ready to capture the perfect image at any moment.

  Two birds rushed the fries at once and grabbed for the same one. Rather than focusing on the number of fries still in the tray in front of them, they started squabbling over the one in the other's mouth. Laura snapped a rapid fire series of pictures hoping to get a good action shot of the one viciously snatching the fry out of the other's beak.

  A loud ding on her phone interrupted the carnage.

  It was a text from Danny.

  Did you tell your parents yet?

  She hesitated. They had said they’d tell their families after the first ultrasound, assuming it went well. Getting to tell her parents the news was honestly one of the parts of being pregnant that excited her the most right now. But once the news was out there was no going back.

  Not yet. Mind if I tell them now?

  She had 20 minutes until she had to walk back towards the gates. It was hard to pass up the opportunity to tell them in such a festive atmosphere.

  While she waited for Danny to respond, Laura checked her camera roll. All the shots she’d taken after her test shots were a cloudy gray. She quickly flipped her phone over to check her camera cover before remembering that she’d had a clear view on the screen. She scrolled through shot after shot, each a solid square of opaque gray color.

  Her phone dinged again.

  Go for it! :)

  A small thrill surged through her. This was really happening. She took a deep breath of increasingly crisp air tinged with brine and the smell of fried foods. The little kid who’d been crying was laughing again. Hopefully it was a good sign.

  Laura tapped on her mother’s name from her recent call log.

  “Hello?” Her mother answered with that slightly breathless sound she usually had when Laura called without messaging first. It sounded both happy to hear from her and also like she was trying not to let on that she was worried there was something wrong.

  Would Laura experience her own version of that feeling someday with her own child?

  “Don’t worry, nothing bad,” Laura blurted out. She’d been so excited she’d jumped the gun and hadn’t messaged first like she usually did.

  The line on the other end crackled. Her mother’s voice cut in and out. “Laura? Are—there, honey?”

  Laura launched herself from the bench and headed back towards the entrance gate, trying to get a better signal.

  “Mom? Hi! I was just saying, it’s nothing bad…”

  And that’s when the fog descended.