Sounding bad because nervous energy makes her voice half-an-octave higher than normal and having just passed puberty a couple of years earlier, it's already high.
Joseph stares at her long black hair, olive skin, piercing green eyes before taking her hand as he sits.
She squeezes his arm, laying her head on his broad shoulder.
He silently waits.
Joseph's not a big talker anyway, choosing to work with his hands, figuring things out in real time manipulating wood which never talks back.
Long black hair hangs over his face too covering charcoal colored eyes that rarely betrays emotion.
The silence roars and the room's full of unspoken emotion.
"What is it Mary?" he whispers.
The teen age girl cries as she absentmindedly places a hand on her stomach.
Tenderly caressing her hair, his voice cracks as he asks, "What is it honey? We can handle it."
She sobs and his heart breaks holding her tighter.
"Mary," he says ... firmly yet softly, "what?"
Moist green eyes hold his and Joseph sees she's intensely looking at something far, far away ... a three mile stare ... perhaps a million miles.
"I'm missed by period," she sobs and her voice cracks between the syllables and his heart breaks again.
"How?" he finally says ... sounding more like a hopeless plea than a question.
"I don't know," she answers burying her head into his chest.
The silence roars as his mind races.
Of course they'd been intimate, after all they were engaged, had been public about it, but they were always careful. There was simply no way. He would never risk disappointing his family or shaming Mary who he's loved since he first saw her in worship, wearing a blue Shaw over a plain white dress.
"But ..." is all he musters.
"I don't know," is how she replies.
Joseph grows cold, no longer feeling her wet cheek on his shoulder, the smell of her breath, wisps of her hair on his face.
"There's no way it's mine," he snaps.
Mary sobs as he stands.
Joseph sobs as he leaves.
Brutal, hard time passes.
Mary's sick in the morning.
Joseph's sick all damn day ... the wood suddenly talks back and little gets done.
At this point, a miracle occurs.
God only knows where it begins.
Joseph comes back and holds Mary again.
Mary thanks God.
And a family comes together as an embryo grows inside a teenager with a lover who refuses to leave.
