Friend of mine found out she was pregnant around two weeks ago. Am I not supposed to talk about things like this on the blahg? Discovered to her surprise that she wanted to have the baby; her boyfriend convinced her to “take it out,” get an abortion (a dime a dozen here, legal, cheap, convenient; from what I understand a prevalent form of birth control). They’ve been together a very short time, he doesn’t feel ready, good reasons. She’s sad and in some pain. A few days later he left the country, to rehearse and perform somewhere; he was away for a week, didn’t call her. He was supposed to get back today, has a rehearsal in the evening, she called in the afternoon. His phone was on, meaning he’d already landed; but he didn’t answer. Hasn’t called her back. I’m sure there is a good explanation. The one I’ve come up with is this: he’s an asshole. Is that good enough? Can you think of a better one?[1]

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[1] There’s been a kind of weird side effect to my friend’s discussing this with me, giving me detailed descriptions of what the brief spell of pregnancy felt like, which is that it made me want to have a child like never before. Which “like never before” isn’t saying that much, as you know, but is still saying something.