My parents won't let you stay here, Mary. 

I'm sorry, but we all think your parents are right. You need to get some help, you need to get better.

Mary read the texts from her friend Shayla as she sat in Gabriel's waiting room for her eleven o'clock appointment. Shayla was, until then, Mary's last friend, but now even she was gone. No one believed her. Everyone thought either she'd lost her mind, or that she was too afraid and embarrassed to admit that she had gotten pregnant because she was having unprotected sex. She had tried to explain to everyone that as much as she wouldn't want to tell her parents that she had done that, the story that she was telling, which incidentally was the truth, was causing her far more problems than the admission that she'd been sexually active would have.

A woman in a green jacket emerged from Gabriel's office, wiping her eyes with a tissue. Behind her was Gabriel. He looked out into the small room to the couch where Mary was sitting and called her name. She had sunk into the couch and was not certain that she would be able to get up without assistance. Gabriel adjusted his glasses and as he did, he walked over to Mary and extended his hand. 

"You look like could use a hand today, Mary," he said gently.

" I could use more than a hand," she said with a sigh before she put her hand into Gabriel's and allowed him to pull her up to standing. She then followed him into his office. Without concerning herself with how she would again get up, she flung herself onto the couch inside Gabriel's office and began to sob uncontrollably.

"What's wrong, Mary?

"Can't you see?" Mary shouted at Gabriel. "Everything is wrong."

"I know you're having a difficult time Mary, but what is worse this week."

"I have no place to stay. My parents said if I didn't either check myself into the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, or admit that I was having sex with Joseph, that I could no longer live in their house. Since I refused to do either, they threw me out. While I was in the waiting room, the last person I knew of that I could turn to for help told me that I wasn't welcome in her house. This baby is coming any minute now, and I'm all alone, with no one to turn to."

"You are not alone, Mary. I know it feels that way sometimes but trust me, you are a very special person, and you're being looked out for more than you know."

"Gabriel, I don't think I can keep doing this. Everyone thinks I'm crazy. No one believes that I woke up from a dream pregnant. No one believes that I'm a virgin, and no one believes that there is such a thing as 'God,' When I tell them that, they look at me like I have two heads. When I tell them that the baby inside of me is this 'God's' son, they accuse me of being a mad woman. My parents want to institutionalize me. They want to put my baby boy up for adoption. I'm starting to think maybe they're right."

"No Mary, you can't think that way. I believe you, and in you, and in God."

"Please Gabriel, stop. You're supposed to be my therapist. You supposed to help me to stop having crazy thoughts, and all you're doing is encouraging me to have more."

"Mary, I know you don't really believe that you're crazy. You know that you are speaking the truth. I think it's time for you to call Joe, and give him a second chance."

"No way. He told me he believed me until I wouldn't have sex with him, and then things changed. He accused me of only using him to help keep my baby."

"Joe was scared. I know what he did was rotten, but Mary I know Joe really loves you, and that you really love him."

Mary was about to respond when her stomach tightened. A sharp pain that took her breath away caused her to be silent for a moment. When it subsided, she cried out in a panic, " oh my word, Gabriel, I think this baby is starting to come."

Gabriel did not get excited. He merely pulled up the blinds on the windows in his office and pointed to a star in the darkening sky. "I want you to look at that light, Mary. Focus on it. Let it guide you. That star is in the sky to let you know that everything is going to be alright. I have to call someone for you, Mary. Who should I call?"

Mary had another contraction. As it passed, she took a deep breath, exhaled and then whispered, " Call Joe. After a minute she mumbled, "even though I know he won't come."

"Just wait here, Mary, Gabriel said." He left the room with his cellphone to his ear. Mary stretched out on the couch and closed her eyes. It was all too much to bear. The best she could do was to block everything out. Besides, she needed to focus on coping with the pain.

But when Gabriel returned, he was accompanied by Joe, who promptly took off his camel hair coat and covered Mary's bottom half with it. He then knelt down next to her, took her hand in his, squeezed it and said, "Mary, I'm sorry. I should have believed you. I know you'd never lie to me."

Mary met his gaze. "I love you, Joe."

"I love you too, Mary." 

Gabriel told the couple that they should head for the hospital but Mary said that she couldn't move. The therapist opened the door on the other side of his office, the one that led to his house, and in bounded his Australian Cattle dog, who laid at Mary's feet.

"I think this baby is going to be born in your office, Gabriel." Joseph said, as Mary shouted, squirming in pain. "Anyway, I don't even have a car. I took an Uber here."

"Fear not, Joe. It will be alright. You two can stay in my office until the baby is born, and I will protect you from harm."

Mary let out one final scream before the cries of her newborn could be heard. Joe joined Mary and the new baby, a son they would name Jesus on the couch, as Gabriel locked the door and shut down the office for the night. The star that Gabriel had pointed out to Mary earlier shone brighter than it did earlier in the evening. And for the first time in months, Mary felt at peace. Maybe there was such a thing as god. Maybe she'd been right to believe. And maybe, her son, who had already saved her relationship with Joe, the man that she loved, would go on to save the world.    

Democracy Deferred

What happens to voters' voices that go unheard?

Do they fall flat

Like a forest that's now clear?

Or metastasize like a cancer--

And produce fear?

Do they reek of desperation?

Or appear illuminated--

like a constellation?

Maybe they just wax and wane

like the minds' of the insane.

Or do they reign?

Original Poem by Langston Hughes

Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags 

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?