After the Party

Though their parents were not religious, Joey and Diane knew there was no way they could convince their parents their love genuine and right for them.

"Ready?" Diane asked as they stood by the door the morning they decided to tell them.

"Yes," Joey agreed. They entered the room where their parents were eating breakfast. Mom and dad looked up from their breakfast in shock. Joey and Diane were never up this early.

"Mom...dad, I have something to tell you," Diane said. Joey smiled, giving her the courage to finish her sentence. "I'm pregnant."

Shock filled faces of their parents, Dad started to turn from shock to anger. "What?" Both parents said at the same time.

"Whose is it? You bring that son of a bitch here right now," Dad said, fuming.

"He's already here dad," Joey said. Waited a few moments, but they didn't seem to catch on until Joey took Diane's hand in his. "I'm the father." Joey thought there would be shame or embarrassment in his tone, but none existed.

"What? How?" mom exclaimed.

"It's not like we planned this," Diane said. "We just fell in love."

A few minutes later Joey and Diane grabbed the largest suitcase they could find, and started to stuff anything they could. Dad was about to call the police so they had a half hour to grab as much as they could and run.

Joey and Diane cashed in their savings and moved all the way across the country. Their rush, as it appears was not needed, they had a cell phone that their mom called the day after they left, apologizing, saying they didn't call the police or file a report and asked them to come home. They simply deleted the message and settled down in a small town in upstate New York. People there know them as husband and wife, not brother and sister.

Their daughter was born not to long after Elisa, for all the horror stories you hear about mutations from incest babies turned out to look like a normal, beautiful baby girl. Elisa was on her way to preschool when she was told she would soon have a brother.

Diane sat down with her daughter once she was old enough to understand the way of the world and told her that she could love anyone she wanted, because love is not something that can or will be contained.