I was up at seven the next morning and went for a run to burn off the restless energy and stress build-up. I thought I was being followed for a half mile of my run, but the car turned off before I got too worried.
There was a message on my phone when I got home, asking me to call one Rene Devereaux, from Loup-Garou at my earliest convenience. Rene had been listed as the President of the non-profit, so they weren't trusting this to an underling. Good, more answers that way.
I called. "I'd like to speak to Mr. Devereaux please."
"Speaking. Thank you for calling so quickly, Miss Huppert."
"I'm glad you called so soon. I feel like I'm in a pretty desperate situation here."
"How so?"
"Lost my job, and two weeks of searching haven't given me any leads into a new one. Can you tell me how much you're paying me to be a surrogate mother?"
"Two hundred thousand per child, with a one million dollar bonus if you have four."
Two hundred grand per kid. I would have needed at least a hundred, so that was good. A million bonus if I have four. Did they want a breeding factory?
"You want more than one child?"
"If the first one's results are satisfactory, more would be beneficial to us."
"You aren't selling children on the black market are you?"
He laughed, a nice laugh. "No, these are strictly for couples who would otherwise be infertile, my own family, shall we say. Before we proceeded, we'd need you to have some medical tests, to determine if you can produce children, at our expense, of course."
"I've got maybe three months before I have to declare bankruptcy and move out. Do I have to wait until the child is delivered before I get paid?"
"If the medical tests are okay and you agree to the terms of our arrangement, we can assume your monthly expenses and pay you a thousand a month for things like groceries and gas against your final payment. All medical costs related to the pregnancy will be assumed by us."
"Will this be done by in vitro fertilization?"
"We can discuss those things if your medical tests come out well. We need to know if we can proceed before determining the method. Are you willing to take the medical exam?"
"Where?"
"You can use your own gynecologist if you wish. I'll text a list of the things we need done and an address where they can bill us for the work. I'm sure you'd be more comfortable with your own doctor, than some stranger. You'd have to come off birth control if you decide to proceed."
They weren't scaring me away yet. "I'll make the appointment as soon as I can get in."
"Thank you, Miss Huppert." He hung up.
I made an appointment for a week from now, sliding into a cancellation. One week closer to destitution, but I kept up my job search, just in case. I received a text with the instructions. A lot of it was medical, for the doctor. They needed my results mailed to a Maine address, and there was a billing address. I printed everything out.
***
"Don't bill this to my usual insurance company," I said when I showed up for my appointment. "I lost my job and don't have insurance anymore."
"Will that cause a payment problem, Miss Huppert?"
"I don't think so. Someone else is paying for it. Here are the billing instructions." I handed them the payment info from Loup-Garou.
"This is an unusual name," she said, looking at the instructions.
"It's a non-profit; sounds foreign, doesn't it?"
"It's French. It's the French word for werewolf."
"Like Lon Chaney, or 'Werewolf of London' werewolf, howling at the moon, werewolf?"
"One and the same."
"That is kind of a weird name. Why would anyone name a non-profit after werewolves?"
"I can't answer that." She called the number and after a brief conversation, it was confirmed they were paying for the doctor visit.
When they brought me into the exam room, I handed the nurse the list of things they wanted checked.
"It looks like you're thinking of getting pregnant," Sharlene, my doctor's nurse said, reading the list.
"I'm thinking about it," I said. "How much trouble is it getting my IUD removed?"
"No trouble at all. Easier than installing it in the first place."
"If it seems like I'm going to be able to bear children, why don't you remove it?"
"I'll tell Dr. Andrews."
I was poked, prodded, had blood drawn, peed in a cup, and had a number of other tests done before they put me on the table and the doctor went poking around my po po.
"The exterior organs look fine," Dr. Andrews said. "Are you sure you want your IUD removed?"
"Yes. Guess I'll be going with condoms for the time being."
"Make sure you use latex condoms and use with a spermicide such as Nonoxyl 9. It increases the effectiveness of the condom."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"How sexually active are you?"
"Not very. Last boyfriend I had was in college. I've had a couple sexual encounters since, but nothing to write home about. The result of too much alcohol and too much horniness, I guess."
"I hope you were careful."
"I didn't have that much alcohol. I took precautions. I need you to send the results of my tests to these people," I said, handing her another sheet of paper.
Dr. Andrews looked at it. "Did you sign a HIPPA release?"
"When I checked in. How long before you have the results of all the tests?"
"About a week."
Another week closer to pauper. My job search hadn't come up with anything. I'd have about two and a half months of funds left in two weeks.
"That's fine, but the sooner the better."
I went back to my townhome to wait for the results. I went jogging every morning, and I still couldn't get over the feeling I was being watched. Worse yet, I thought I saw a damn big dog running in the woods close to my route. Scared the bejesus out of me, but it never approached, so I tried to ignore it.