Josie's Chronicle

Chapter 6: Valerie

Valerie sat on the airport floor with her back against the glass wall. She didn't know why it had been so easy to purchase a ticket without getting arrested, but she wasn't going to be caught off guard by the Police sneaking up on her. She pulled a sandwich from her bag and smelled it. The familiar smell of a bologna sandwich wrapped in brown paper made her feel safe, like she was home.
She missed her mom, and she missed her daughter.
Carolina would be 4 years old when she saw her next month. "If I see her next month." She thought to herself.
She shook all thoughts of her past out of her mind. There were far more important things ahead of her.
She stared at the small blue bag next to her. It didn't matter to her how it got through security. But it had been all too neatly done. She put her things on the conveyor belt, and just as her shoes went through, all hell broke loose. A man in line began to shout and complain that he was in a hurry and tried to rush through the checkpoint. He was largely ignored until he said he was gonna shoot everyone in the vicinity. People started grabbing their things and running. She grabbed her things and ran also. They announced a shutdown and told everyone to stay where they were. It took forty-five minutes for them to give the all clear.
She wondered what he'd actually been trying to distract them from. Looking around her, she carefully looked everyone over. They all seemed normal, ordinary even.
She laughed to herself. No one in the place could ever imagine, let alone guess that she was carrying five viable embryos packed in some very illegal stuff. It was going from one clinic to another.

She could hear her flight being announced and that everyone would be subject to a security check and dogs before being allowed to board. She tucked the brown paper wrapper into her back pocket and wiped her hands on her pants. She left her lunch bag slightly open and uncapped her bottle of juice. There were another four sandwiches in the bag. Standing up, she caused her cranberry juice to spill out onto her pants and shoes.
"Damn!" She exclaimed loudly. She then picked up her bags and moved hurriedly towards the front of the line. Bumping into the woman doing the searches wasn't in her plan, but it made the lady next to her shove her toward the gate and there the flight attendant reached for her boarding pass, which was now wet and smelling of bologna. This made him frown and wave her into the passageway.
Success! Valerie wasn't even certain she'd needed all of the subterfuge, but it had been fun. She got to her seat and put her bags away, placing the small special one under her seat.
She smiled at her seat partner and sat down. Moments after the plane was in the air, he reached over and took her hand. She looked at him. He sat with his eyes closed, listening to music too loudly in his earpods... she could hear the music and it calmed her. She positioned herself closer to him and placed her head on his shoulder. She had once again risked her freedom for Dr. Dan. She went to sleep, dreaming about one day becoming Mrs. Dr. Daniell Godsey.

They'd gone to the clinic in separate vehicles. He left with the small blue bag, and she carried the bright yellow one he'd left in the seat beside her. She smiled. She knew what was inside, and it calmed her. He'd always known how to get her to relax. She'd met him while he was in medical school, and she was waitressing at the school cafetera. He had been all at once weird and exciting! All of these years later, he still caused her heart to skip a beat. She stood outside of the clinic, having arrived ten minutes early. She stood, noting that there were no distinguishing signs on the building. There were just numbers. Rich people do things very differently. Valerie had been inside of this clinic before. It still caught her off guard. The first floor was designed to pamper to rich. There was a beauty salon, a gym, two restaurants, a florist, a cobbler's shop, and the oddest of all, a travel agency. Valerie laughed. She wondered about the last time someone had actually gone in to book a trip. This was actually the front to the clinic. The agent would make a call and then take you into an office and onto the elevator.
Valerie had always seen surrogacy as a noble endeavor. It was to her, the very best thing she had ever done in her life. She'd always imagined that she wouldn't want to hide if she was a rich woman looking for a surrogate. There should not be a stigma about any of it. There was insane amounts of money being paid for eligible women and men in this service. It had long since lost its nobility and had become selective breeding. Sure, some of it still had the aura of innocent people helping people, but Valerie had drifted from that side long ago after her daughter had been born.
The ding of the elevator brought her out of her thoughts. She smiled at the receptionist and sat on the cool leather couch in the brightly colored, well decorated atrium. Her favorite wall had small pictures of smiling babies of every race, varying skin tones, hair colors, and complexions.

"Hello, Valerie." Daniell said, walking up to her. She smiled, and he leaned down and kissed her forehead

Pointing with his head towards the bright yellow bag. "Did you open it? I think you're going to like this especially."
"No," she said, standing up to hug him. "We can open it together. I couldn't possibly eat it all.
He reached for her hand and walked her down the hallway. The smell of roses met her at the door of his office. The room was filled with roses of every color and pattern.
"I know it's cheesy, but I didn't know which to order, so I ordered all they had. All I have to do now is get a yes from my business partner."

He set the bright yellow bag on the table and slowly unzipped it. He raised the lid and stepped away from it. Valerie stepped up and sort of leaned over to peek and saw a lot of little lace gift bags. She looked at him. He smiled and nodded. The first five bags held beautiful earrings, and she enjoyed that he remembered her love for them. That's when she noticed that two of the bags were a different color than the rest, so she picked up both together. Not wanting to presume too much, she held them out to him.
Daniel took them and got down on one knee. She went deaf all of a sudden and it got very cold in the room. She felt herself nodding, and he stood up and emptied both bags into her hand. One was a thin rose gold band, and the other was a diamond solitaire in rose gold.
He placed the solitaire on her finger and held out his hand for her to place the band on his hand.
They hugged.
It was odd to think that this man she loves so much had never seen her naked. They'd never kissed on the lips. Valerie had found it weird AF in the beginning, but he explained that it's how he had been raised. He was, and she believed him, a thirty year old virgin. He told her that he had been chosen by a church elder to marry when he was twenty-one, but that the girl went away and he was then allowed to go to medical school without marrying.
"So, are you hungry? There's someone I want you to meet." Daniell had keys in hand, standing almost outside of the door. "Come on wife to be. I need to eat."
Valerie grabbed her purse and followed him out of the door.
The police were waiting for them as they got off of the elevator.
Valerie instinctively removed her ring and placed it in the center of her cleavage, hiding it between her breasts. She was determined to keep it with her no matter what happened next.
They were placed under arrest for theft by deception.