This short story was written in response to Fandango’s One Word Challenge. Today’s word is: Seed…

Billy Grimes sat in a waiting room alongside his fiancée, Jenny, hand resting on hers, while thinking about the appointment with the therapist he’d just had that morning. 

It was the usual affair, with the usual array of questions, attempting to tease out if Billy still carried ‘the anger’. 

They’d covered his history again. He had to detail everything from when he had started a life of crime. Had it been a résumé, the long list of ‘experiences’ would’ve made for some pretty impressive reading. However, that was not the case. And for someone like Billy Grimes, who had served his time, found a way to turn his life around and move forward, it was always an uncomfortable experience to recount his past.

He spoke of the first time he stole a car with his friends when he was twelve. And how much fun it was. He detailed some of his thefts and some of the booty he’d come across and sold or kept for himself. He spoke of the numerous fights he’d initiated and a rough estimate of how many noses he’d broken over the years. 

The therapist had asked him if he wished that part of his life had never happened, to which he’d enthusiastically said ‘yes’. 

He lifted Jenny’s hand and kissed the back of it. He smiled at her. 

She’d come at just the right time. Funnily enough, she was a Probation Officer when they first met and had been assigned to his case. They hit it off immediately. He hadn’t been looking for anyone, nor did he think a girl like her would want to be with someone like him, but somehow the stars aligned. 

From that day, he began to sort himself out. He left that murky world behind and eventually they moved to the other side of the country to be near her parents, who, to his relief, accepted him as much as Jenny did. 

A nurse popped her head out from behind a door and called them in. They were led into a room for the Ultrasound, and both Billy and Jenny watched with joy at the tiny foetus bobbing around on screen and the thrusting of its healthy heartbeat. 

Billy had played his part in creating life. His seed was developing perfectly, and in a few short months he’d have a mini-Billy to love. To show it the right way to do things. To give Billy himself an even greater reason to continue on the path he’d found. 

He thought about the therapist’s question and if he wished that part of his life had never happened. He thought about the car thefts, the broken noses, the many bags of swag; all the times he’d flown off the handle. He recalled the jail time. 

And yet, had that part of his life never happened, he would never have met Jenny. 

He’d never had started a new life with her and sure as heck wouldn’t be looking forward to becoming a dad. 

He’d still be up to his old tricks. 

Every ill intentioned decision he’d made in the past, every pocket picked and car stolen. All the fists thrown and blood shed. And for all that to have happened and life still somehow meandering its way to this boxy little room, here with Jenny, he realised something in that moment.

He wouldn’t change a thing.