Due on the Road (CLOSED RP WITH FOUR)

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"Pull over" Phil told his wife, Rebecca, who had been driving since they hit the road 5 hours ago. Rebecca made no protest that it was the fourth time they had pulled over since they started their journey, twice already so Phil could pee and once so Phil could vomit, as she knew there was nothing he could do about it. She brought the rusted GMC truck to a stop on the shoulder of the gravel road and Phil swung open the door, then swung his legs out of the truck, and then finally, and carefully, lowered himself out. He took two steps away from the truck, unzipped his fly, and proceeded to pee freely onto the dusty soil. Looking at her husband while she kept an eye out for oncoming traffic, Rebecca couldn't help but remark how from behind Phil looked just as skinny and lanky as the day she met him in high school, three years prior. It was only when Phill turned around and began the struggle of hoisting himself back into the truck that she was brought back to the reality of their situation. From Phil's slender frame projected an almost cartoonish, fecund, orb that was Phil's belly. Pocked with stretchmarks and bluish veins that marred its surface, Phil's belly arced all the way out from below his ribcage to its apex at his swollen, herniated belly button. Phil's stained t shirt could not come even close to covering up his belly completely, and unable to afford maternity pants, Phil had resorted to using a piece of wire to hold his jeans shut below his belly when it had been long since he had been able to make the button meet the hole in the denim. Rebecca tried to block out the anxiety she felt when she thought too long about Phil's condition. He was only 30 weeks pregnant, with a single baby, and already he looked bigger than most mothers at term. Once back inside the car, Rebeca drove back onto the road while Phil reached for a loaf of white bread and a package of bologna in the back seat--the days food for the both of them. Offering some to Rebecca, she declined, knowing that Phil needed the lion's share of the food. Phil ate, his appetite having returned following the morning sickness he felt earlier, resting a hand on his belly while he chewed. He washed down his salty, starchy lunch with a few big gulps of water from a milk jug they had refilled, belched, and then focused on the road ahead of them.

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Phil drank heartily, capping the jug when he was done and then taking Rebecca's hand and placing it against the sweaty skin of his belly so she could feel the baby kick inside his gravid womb.

"I'm thinking if it's a girl we should call her Sarah" Phil said, cutting the silence of the road with their typical conversation of choice--picking baby names. "If it's a boy we'll call him Tony" Phil added.

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Phil smiled watching Rebecca play with their unborn child inside his womb. "So where do you think we'll spend the night?" Phil asked, knowing the answer was most likely on some abandoned side road in their truck. While he tried not to let it get to him, the later Phil was in his pregnancy the stronger his nesting instinct--the instinct to make up a home in preparation for his birth--was becoming. Already he was getting particular about how things were packed into their truck and he could only imagine how bad he would get closer to his due date.

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Phil knew Rebecca's answer, even though she didn't need to say it. "I've heard there are a lot of abandoned homes in this state. We could always try to find one and homestead in it? We'd technically be squatting but we could buy the title once we've saved up a little money" Phil explained, trying to remain optimistic.

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The two drove on, following the long, dusty road over the horizon.

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" I think it's an abandoned town" Phil said, squinting into the distance. "Let's take a look."

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Phil took a few swigs of water as they drove slowly into the abandoned town, looking around for any signs of life and a place where they could possibly bed down for the night.

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"I think this home will do nicely" Phil said, looking around the dusty and decrepit home. He waddled slowly from room to room, envisioning a home full of color and warmth for their new family. "We could turn this room into a nursery" Phill said, looking at a small room full of old boxes and beer bottles optimistically.

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Phil rested, holding his gravid belly as Rebecca worked to tidy up their home.

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"A bit sore but alright now that I can stretch out" Phil said lying back on the old mattress.