Chapter 2 – A Shotgun Marriage for Chris
New Year to Easter I worked like dog trying to get some cash saved for a new motor. I never heard a word from Debbie during this period, so I assumed that everything was cool.
So it came as a surprise that at Easter I had a visit from Debbie. She called me first and said she needed to talk to me, so I invited her over to my place. When she arrived, I could see from her expression that she was not a happy bunny.
She came straight to the point and said. "You bastard, you made me pregnant!"
"The last I heard was that it takes two to achieve that." I said rather flippantly. That was the worst way to approach the subject and she then laid into me for the next ten minutes. She called me for everything under the sun, until finally she paused to catch her breath.
Once she had all that pent up anger vented, we managed to discuss the situation rationally. Abortion was not on the cards. We had been brought up as Catholics and although neither of us was particularly religious, that route was not for us. I was adamant that I would stand by her and support her and the child but she wanted more that that.
She just blurted it straight out. "I want us to get married, so at least the child will not be a bastard. I don't love you, but I will honour my marriage vows and be a loyal wife to you in every other way, excepting loving you."
I was stunned and at a loss for words. Then I thought of the having to face both sets of parents and I hesitated even more. I looked at her sitting there, watching my every expression, trying to get an insight into my thoughts. I realised then, that the attraction I had for this girl at school was still there and I wanted to do the right thing by her. Ideally, I like to get to know her better, but there was no time available, she was already three months gone. So I said simply. "OK. Let's go tell the folks."
She jumped into my arms and we kissed properly for the first time sober. Her mouth was soft, yielding and tasted slightly of peppermint. As we stood there hanging onto one another she started crying and I held her in my arms gently caressing her hair and running my hands down her back. She pressed herself to me and before you could say preggers, we were frantically pulling off our clothes and trying to move to the bed at the same time. We tripped over and landed short of the bed, but such was our passion that we had our first daylight shag there on the floor.
I know we both had massive orgasms, she screamed so loud that I feared our neighbours would call the police thinking someone was getting murdered. We made it to the bed for a more leisurely and gentle loving the second time.
Afterwards in the post coital moments, the practicalities of what we were about to embark upon came to the fore. Debbie had clearly given this some thought and had a range of ideas about where we should set up home, but not how we were to finance it and strong ideas about her going to work and make use of her education. It was clear she had little idea of life in the real world that I lived in. I was working class and quite happy to continue working at my trade and in any case, I did not have the qualifications to find work paying the kind of money that would be required to support her dreams. She was definitely a cut above my lifestyle and used to having her own car and an allowance from her father to cover her needs.
As we discussed the options, I had to bring reality into the equation. What she wanted was all very well but my earnings were not going to support that life style. I told her my weekly wage packet was good enough to meet our living expenses as long as she was careful. My flat would have to do for the moment, as I could not afford anything better in the short term and that we would try and hold onto her car, but that was going to stretch us financially.
The touch of realism brought her down to earth with a bump, but to her credit, she said she agreed with my assessment and that she was being a bit starry eyed about the realities of our situation.
After showering, we went to face her parents. As you can probably guess, it was not a happy meeting and some sharp words were said. Her mother's name was Irene and she was a formidable lady. I could see where Debbie had got her looks from, but she had a tongue on her that could strip paint and she used it to berate me. I won't bore you with the details, you can probably imagine that for yourselves. Her father Bob, was more practical and asked how I intended to support my new wife and imminent family. I went over the same ground as I had with Debbie and he supported my plans for the immediate future. He did ask if I would consider accepting some support from him and I refused immediately. I think he respected me a bit more after that. I could have taken the easy way out and could see from the expression on Debbie's face that she was furious at my rejection of the offer, but wisely she held her tongue.
Next it was Debbie's Gran's turn to be told. We were working our way from the middle class side of town, down to where I and my parents lived.
Granny Jean was great, she congratulated us both and wished us all the best. She was a shrewd old lady and asked outright if Debbie was pregnant and when we confirmed it, she just sighed and said. "Well you can have worse ways of starting your lives together, your granddad and me were in the same position as you and it did us no harm."
Debbie looked at her, the shocked expression on her face meant no words were necessary.
Granny Jean laughed at her and said. "Did you think that you were the first couple to find yourselves in this predicament? We were younger than you when your uncle was born and lived with my mother until your mother came along. We were lucky, it was wartime and your Granddad was in a reserved occupation. There was plenty of work in the yards in those days so we fared better than most. I will tell you this, despite our ill conceived start to our married life, if you'll pardon the pun, I grew to love your granddad and never regretted my decision to wed."
