Chapter One of THE HUMMINGBIRD WHISPERER - Mystic Ink Publishing
ONE
Jeanette Driscoll opened her sparkling blue eyes, stretched out on the bed, and brushed back her long blonde hair before resting her head on her husband Ted’s chest. Tall, sandy-haired, and blue-eyed like his wife, Ted’s muscular frame complemented her model’s figure. Their friends and Ted’s colleagues where he worked as head of research and development at Bliss Pharmaceuticals often referred to them as the perfect couple.
“If we’re going to bring a kid into the world,” she said, “let’s create the most perfect one we can.”
Ted leaned in to her. “Like Hitler’s blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan boys?”
Jeanette hit him on the shoulder. “Stop it! I was thinking more along the lines of a Jesus, then again, maybe we want a little girl.”
Ted chuckled and kissed her. “I’m okay with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus, especially if he or she looks like their mother!”
“So many choices.” Jeanette groaned. “Part of me wishes we could go back to natural selection like our parents did.”
“It’s a crap shoot with too many unknowns,” Ted said with an air of finality. “Aside from that we’re both worried about birth defects, delivery complications, or other possibilities for trouble, not to mention the threat and the impact to your health.”
“I admit to being a little worried, but part of me craves the idea of nurturing a new life inside of me with all the warmth, connection, and intimacy that comes with it.”
Ted caressed the side of her face eliciting a dreamy smile. “I understand that as best as I can from a man’s perspective and I know that pregnancy can be exhausting, painful, nauseating, and sometimes flat-out dangerous. If you're pregnant and you stress too much, get sick, or catch some kind of flu or something, you might not be giving our child the best start we can.” He ran his hand down over her breasts and followed her sculpted curves down to the softness of her inner thigh. “Not to mention what it could do to your beautiful body.”
She giggled when he stroked her thigh and put her hand on his. “Stop it!”
He slid his hand out from under hers and continued his caresses. “Think about the benefits. We can continue having all the sex we want with no interruptions. You might not have the same birthing experience your mother had, but we'll both arrive at our first day of parenthood feeling physically fresh and well-rested, instead of you having been weighed down for months by a parasitic organism that could leave a path of destruction when you birth it. Even in the best case scenario there are possibilities of post-partum depression, hormone imbalances, and other post birth dangers.”
“Parasitic organism? That’s our child you’re talking about. You make it sound so horrible!”
“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I only want what is best for you and baby. You have to admit, the whole pregnancy thing takes a toll on you. If you take that into consideration and look at the positives, taking advantage of the technological benefits we are blessed with is the best way to go. Everything can be precisely controlled and monitored which eliminates any stress on beautiful you, and it ensures the safest, healthiest, most stable environment for our love child to grow in.”
They stayed quiet for awhile, then Jeanette sat up and grabbed her iPad from the bed stand. “Let’s take another look.” She propped herself up against the headboard, pulled her knees up and put the tablet in her lap, tapping the screen. Ted propped himself up beside her and put his arm around her. A moment later the Fetal Fantasies web site popped up.
Angelic looking baby faces floated up, filling the screen, each framed in baby blue or pink. In the middle of the screen effervescent pulsing pink words dimmed and brightened from a black rectangle along with the gentle throbbing of a tiny heartbeat.
Let Fetal Fantasies eliminate the pain, danger, and discomfort of pregnancy and labor while allowing you the unprecedented blessing of creating your dream child with the special qualities and genetics of your choosing.
Jeanette tapped the pulsing text opening up a new screen. Fetal Fantasies is San Diego’s premier artificial womb facility that brings a novel approach to pregnancy that allows your baby to grow in an optimally balanced germ free environment inside a transparent growth pod.
Our proprietary technology creates ideal gestation conditions in a temperature-controlled, infection-free womb with a view. A hybrid bioengineered umbilical cord provides oxygen and nutrition as your little bundle of love floats in pharmaceutically pure amniotic fluid that is continually refreshed with precisely tailored hormones, antibodies, and growth factors. Baby waste products are efficiently removed and run through a microfiltered bioreactor that enzymatically converts it back into a steady and sustainable supply of fresh nutrients.
Built in stereophonic speakers ensure that your loved one gets the best possible brain stimulation delivered with binaural beats and direct cranial stimulation, including an ongoing transmission of your heartbeat that your little one can bond to. As baby grows and develops there are options for our recommended classical, or any other music of your choice, as well as your own soothing voice piped in to build and enhance that precious bond.
A video filled the bottom part of the screen. Jeanette tapped the start arrow opening it up into full screen mode.
Brahm's Lullaby played in the background. Technicians dressed in baby blue and pink clean room coveralls, masks, and gloves moved along rows of transparent pods sitting atop active graphical displays, stopping to examine each one. Healthy babies floated inside each pod with electrodes attached to different parts of their bodies. Transparent umbilical cords and other tubes coupled with monitoring devices hung suspended in clear amniotic fluid.
An attractive young couple on a smaller screen in the foreground studied a cell phone screen that matched the graphics on the pod displays while a soothing feminine voice narrated the images and video segments playing out onscreen.
“You can monitor your baby's vitals through the Fetal Fantasy app or tune directly in to sensors in the pod where vital signs are precisely managed allowing strict vigilance over any possible physical defects or genetic abnormalities. Synchronized data on your little bundle of love is only a few taps away on our phone app along with a live HD fetus cam that gives you the ability to scroll through time-lapse video recordings of your child's development from embryo to full gestation.
“Human babies are the most helpless and underdeveloped in the animal kingdom because our brains are too big for the human female hip gap, so they are born with soft, pliable skulls, several months behind other animals developmentally. In a Fetal Fantasy EZ-Womb, there's no such biological limit, allowing parents to experiment with longer gestational periods and healthier more developed babies.
“If this looks and sounds a little impersonal and you think you might miss the feeling of your baby kicking, our haptic suit option can bring that sensation back for any parent that wants it, only when they want it.”
An image of the young couple sitting beside each other on a couch wearing VR headsets with wide smiles filled the screen.
“Want to see the beginning of life from your child's point of view? You can with a VR headset that allows you to tune in to a three hundred sixty degree camera any time you like.”
The image of the young couple panned back showing them in a comfortably furnished room with a large picture window in the background. A baby floated in a single transparent pod above graphical displays next to a window with an expansive view of a twinkling magical night time cityscape.
“If you’re uncomfortable with our standard birth package and are unhappy with the thought of your precious bundle of joy being grown in a four hundred pod baby lab, you can have a rechargeable battery-powered pod installed in your own home.”
The narration changed to a male announcer’s voice.“ Fetal Fantasies provides the best option for folks who like the idea of a baby but don’t want to go through the ordeals of pregnancy and childbirth to get one. Think about it. You might not even need a day off work! Just hold hands with your significant other after a day at the office, head down to the baby farm and dream about life as a parent, or enjoy your special time in the privacy of your own home.”
Alternating pink and blue words dimmed and brightened at the bottom of the screen pulsing in time to the gentle throbbing of a heartbeat.
ENROLL HERE FOR OUR FREE
NO OBLIGATION BUILD A BABY WORKSHOP
Ted pulled Jeanette closer. “What do you think, honey?”
“So many choices and options. To be honest, I feel overwhelmed by all of it.”
Ted kissed her on the cheek. “We don’t have to make any decisions now and we have nothing to lose if we try the workshop.”
“I still have lots of questions.”
“I’m sure they can be answered at the workshop.”
Jeanette remained quiet.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Ted whispered.
Jeanette shrugged and tapped the enroll message.
