Tuesday, October 03, 2006

The Answer Will Be Revealed In Nine Months

Eddie and I met a guy this week at one of the truck stops, named Melvin. He must have thought I looked like a person with a sympathetic ear (clearly, he was not lucid) because he started to talk to me about his life and the abundance of problems in it.

In addition to the low wages he made, the truck that he didn't own, the guy he worked for that he didn't really like and the felony/misdemeanor warrant out in his name, it seems his forty-five year old girlfriend called him that morning to give him the good news; she's pregnant.

The bad news? She doesn't know whose it is. Nice guy that Melvin seemed to be, he told her that he would do the right thing and since they were together, even if it wasn't his, he'd raise it as his own. Seems that the woman's ex-husband, the father of her two youngest children (4 yrs and 1 yr) is living in the house she shares with Melvin because the guy lost his license and can't drive, which in turn means he can't hold a job and I suppose that he's just plain down on his luck. So, to help him out, Melvin and the girlfriend decided to let the ex-husband live with them. Did I mention this is the girlfriend's tenth child? TENTH.

As a result, when Melvin and his girlfriend got into a recent tiff, she turned to the ex-husband and apparently got pregnant; but she's not really sure if it was that time that did it, or if it was the time she was with Melvin, last time he was home. Hence, the confusion.

The thing that amused me about this whole unfortunate situation is that Melvin kept telling me that he wanted her to take a "maternity test" to find out if the baby was his. I didn't have the heart to tell Melvin that the mother of the child was not in question, it was the father they are unsure of; which is why they need a PAternity test, not a MAternity test.

Perhaps Melvin shouldn't be having any children if he can't be sure who the mother is. And perhaps at forty-five, this woman should stop the baby making, especially when one of the known fathers has no job and the other suspected father doesn't know the difference between maternity and paternity.

The only thing that might ease 'ol Melvin's mind is if the kid comes out with flaming red hair; then he would be a spitting image of Melvin and no testing will be needed.

In any case, he's still going to have to wait the nine months.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would I be correct if I guessed that this happened in the South?
LOL
Greggie

The Daily Rant said...

Oh Greggie, you are so astute!! :)