Excerpt: Julia, Unplanned

Julia, Unplanned

Part One

Amy came screaming into the world on October 28 1972.

Her parents, Adam and Julia, were ecstatic. She was their first child.

She was two weeks early and took only five hours to get out. Determination was written all over her scrunched up red face.

When Adam held her her tiny fists beat at his chest and she screamed louder. When Julia held her she scrunched up her long, glossy hair.

It was clear, right from the start, that Amy had her father’s features. He was ginger haired, pale and freckled. Julia was a beauty. A tall brunette with olive skin and a figure that could have earned her a modeling job. Even in pregnancy Julia was radiant.

Julia and Adam had thought that the pregnancy would be the hardest bit. Little Amy had other ideas.

Julia and Adam were well off. Adam was a lawyer for the Department of Public Prosecutions. He argued well in court, wrote clearly and efficiently and had an easy going manner. He was ear marked for success.

Julia had been an infant teacher at Friends School. Friends was the only Quaker school in Australia. Julia was both kind and energetic. She loved teaching little children to read. Julia’s other interests were art, music and theatre. She had been Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream the year before she fell pregnant.

Julia and Adam fell in love during their first year of Uni. They met while doing the Uni revue and married the year after, when they were nineteen. Their parents were not impressed.

“You won’t finish your degree,” Julia’s mother said. Julia just laughed. She didn’t understand why people thought it would make any difference.

And, to them, it didn’t. They seemed destined for a charmed life. But that was before the birth of little Amy.