Karl Baden
1994-1996
Untitled
[The Kid]

Page layout from unpublished book
variable
 
Provided by the artist - Karl Baden
10/12/93 Morning.
 
Liz is nauseous. She figures either she's caught a bug, or she's pregnant. Perhaps it's just nerves.
 
"When was my last period?" She knows I keep track these days.
 
"September 11th. Do you feel sick?"
 
"Well, sort ofà"
 
I remind myself that I have agreed to this, and that, somehow, it's supposed to make sense. Maybe we should just go out and buy the damn test. Why wait?
 
Liz is excited. "But I'm frightened, too," she says.
 
No fooling. I'm so scared I can barely stand.
 
11 pm.
 
Pull out the pregnancy home test kit. I read the instructions aloud. Fumble around with bottles and tubes. I'm staring at the tip of that flat, white stick. I remember feeling like this back in high school, waiting for my number to be announced in the Draft Lottery. I'm holding my breathà
 
Statement
 
"Liz and I became first-time parents as we entered middle age. Our daughter was born three weeks after Liz's 39th birthday and four days short of my 42nd. Our decision to have a child was the result of four years filled with discussion, negotiation, second guessing, threat and counterthreat, outright battling and, finally, agreement. We would both take this journey, Liz reassured me; the distant glow of our destination was sunshine and not the headlight of an oncoming train.
 
These are page reproductions, excerpted from 'The Kid' an unpublished, unabashedly biased and self-involved chronicle describing how we allowed our lives to change in a way that is at once commonplace and extraordinary.
 
All text in 'The Kid' is from my journal entries. The tale is told in my voice and seen through my eyes. I make no claim to objectivity. Hope and fear go hand and hand." (Karl Baden, May 19, 2007)
 
LL/19762