No Easy Answers

This story is based on true events, names and some details were changed to protect those involved.

"Amie, Carly is pregnant." The words still echo though my head from that day in November. The fear in Dustin's voice is something I will never forget. The fear in his voice is nothing like the fear Amie would experienced for the next two years.

Carly was in the eighth grade the year Amie was a senior in high school. Though she was younger than Amie was, they were inseparable. They spent so much time together. Someone once said if they where to ever get into a fight it would not last long because it would take so long for them to return each other's stuff that they would be friends by the time they had returned all of it. Young, tall, short blond hair, she was everything Amie wanted to be. Amie never thought things would turn out the way they did.

Dustin and Carly started dating when she was a freshman in high school. They were meant for each other, too. Carly was the cheerleader type and Dustin was six-foot tall, dark haired, with the football-player build. Dustin was Amie's roommate, after she graduated, and only because of Carly. Dustin was as lazy as an old dog on a hot summer day. He never did anything! Dustin was the same age as Amie, the age difference between Carly and Dustin was never an issue between them or their parents. None of us ever noticed because Carly was "mature" for a fourteen-year-old. Amie sometimes blamed herself for Carly growing up too fast.

Dustin and Amie were not roommates for very long. Amie was working for the forest service. As the days got shorter, so did the work load and Amie was soon laid off. Dustin could not budget his money. He would spend money faster than you could say Mississippi. He went to a strip club with his rent money and spent it on a lap dance. The day we moved out we were still friends but Amie still knew she would never live with him again.

Carly was a junior the year Dustin said those words with such horror in his voice. Dustin was to turn twenty-one that coming February. In Utah the legal consenting age is eighteen. This meant because Carly would be sixteen when the baby was born the state of Utah could press charges against Dustin. Dustin was scared of jail as most people are.

Shortly after Amie broke up with her boyfriend, Dustin and Carly stopped talking to her. They were friends with Matt, Amies ex-boyfriend, and they decided that Amie had done Matt wrong by leaving him from someone she had only meet a few days before. It was April when Carly called Amie's house wanting a favor. Carly was now five months along in her pregnancy, and they had decided to go to Colorado for an abortion. It is a federal law that abortions can not happen after the first trimester. Carly was a lost puppy dog by now. She was listening to worries of her boyfriend and to what her mom was saying. She did not want to give up her "life". The day Carly called Amie for a favor she asked her to call the Planed Parenthood Clinic in Colorado. She stopped by the next morning with the phone number. Amie was not alone. Travis, Amie's soon to be husband, and his friend Ken were there that spring morning. Amie didn't call the clinic for them. Amie knew that the clinic would not be able to do what the young couple wanted done.

That was the last Amie heard from them for sometime, they denied that Carly was pregnant. "Her brother started that rumor" or "Amie is spreading that because we are still friends with Matt, and we don't like Travis". Everyone could see she was pregnant; the once skinny girl was now as big as a house and was still trying to hide it. Carly had to help Dustin move into his new apartment in August, and the neighbors all talked about her and her size.

Dustin's belief that Amie was spreading rumors about Carly being pregnant drove him to do something that she never though he would do. Amie had been at work at the local video rental store on that balmy day in August. Dustin broke into her house and stole two things, one being the new digital camera that Travis and Amie had received as wedding gift and the other a DVD. Amie did not know who had come into her home that day. She called the police and placed a report that the items were stolen. A mutual friend found the items in Dustin's apartment, and called the police.

The phone calls and visits started after that. The cops showed up after they had confiscated her belongings, and told her that Dustin said he had done it because she was spreading rumors about his girlfriend being pregnant. She told them that she was not spreading that rumor, and that she knew Carly was pregnant. The cops did not believe her.

Amie was at work when Dustin's mother came to visit her. It was not a visit she would have normally wanted from her. She was fuming when she walked in, Amie could see her breathing flames when she stepped through the door. She had just stepped off her broom and was ready to fire away. Amie have never heard a woman swear up the storm that she did. She told Amie that Carly had just put on a "little weight" and she would not stand by and let me spread rumors about such a nice girl. Amie told her many times that she knew Carly was pregnant. She told her about the phone number she had brought her. Even Travis tried to stand up for her but the woman would not listen to them.

Dustin called the same day his mother came in to have her words with Amie. She was still at work when she received the phone call. He wanted her father's number to tell him he was sorry for what he had done. Amie knew that her father did not want anything to do with him; she refused to give him the number. She then went on to ask why he told the cops about the rumors. She told him that they both knew that she was about to have a baby. She told him that she did not know why he did not just admit it and lay in the bed he had made for himself. Dustin told her it was none of her business. Amie confronted Dustin about the rumors she had heard about what they planed to do. Dustin continued with the "its none of your business" act. Amie told him where to go, how fast to get there, and to never call her again.

It was a few weeks later when Amie saw Carly for the first time since April. She was walking out of the little country store with some milk. She was skinny again. She had given birth, but what happened to the child? Rumors started to fly as they do in any small town, such as the one they lived in. Amie was told that she went to the hospital and turned the baby over for adoption. She was also told that she went to California and had a partial-birth abortion. A partial birth abortion is where the baby is only partially born then the fluids that keep its brain alive are drained. This kills the baby and the state that allows it is California. The worst had not yet been heard. Nothing would ever prepare Amie for the phone call she would receive almost two years after she saw Carly that day.

Amie and Travis had moved to North Carolina and was enjoying a new life. She was sitting in front of her computer talking to her dad on one of those instant messenger programs. The words flashed up on her screen. "Amie, I just got off the phone with the police. They are looking for you. They said it had something to do with someone you went to school with." Who could be they be talking about? A million things went though my head after that. The phone ringing brought her out of her thoughts. She checked the Caller ID, "Duchesne County Sheriff's Department". All her questions were about to be answered, she would have never expected what she was about to hear.

The detective had called to ask Amie about Carly and the missing baby. Her questions were answered, though she answered more of theirs than they did Amie. She retold the story word for word. She told them that she had tried to warn his mom and the officers that worked on her stolen property case, but they did not listen to her. She told them about Carly telling people that she would find a way to get rid of the baby. She tried to get more information on what was happening, but they would change the subject. When she got off the phone after about an hour of questioning; she still do not know what had happened.

Amie started calling and emailing people in Utah trying to find out what was going on. She found her answer less than twenty-four hours after the call that changed her life. A good friend and the granddaughter to the mayor of the small Utah town had found her answer. She emailed Amie and told Amie her grandfather had been contacted by a local television station. The reporter had asked him if he would like to comment on the child that police believed to be buried in the mountains outside the town. After that email the flood gates were opened. Amie received emails and phone calls, one after another, because Carly had been Amies best friend. To the best of Amies knowledge what happened is: Carly called Dustin and told him her water had broken and he needed to get to her house fast. The couple and Carly's mother, her mother was a nurse, delivered the baby in their home. The baby was claimed to be still born. The three took the dead newborn, wrapped it up in a blanket and placed the baby in a box, then buried it.

News reports stared to come in about case. The latest information Amie knew is that the baby may have been buried outside Carly's home, the baby was a girl and was only about twelve inches long. The child was small due to the habits of the young mother; she smoked, drank and did drugs to try to get rid of the baby.

Amie still replays the "what ifs" in her head. If she would have tried to talk to more people, would that little girl be here now? If she would have tried harder to keep in touch with Carly, would Amie have had ended up there when Carly had the baby? If Amie would have made that call that day, would it been better? Amie still wakes up at night in tears because of what has happened. Carly was Amie's best friend and she never thought this would happen. Amie has been trying to have a child of her own for a while now with no success. Every month Amie hates Carly more and more. Hate is a strong word to use when talking about someone, but when does one person cross from really disliked to hated. Amie will hopefully know what happened to that newborn soon. Until then she prays and hopes that they get justice for what they did.