The Rosie Effect

by Graeme Simsion

‘I’ve called Dave,’ I said. ‘This is getting surreal,’ said Gene. ‘Now we’re relying on Don to look after the people issues.’

‘To find out what’s happened with Sonia and the baby, that’s why.’ ‘Emergency caesarean, as predicted. No permanent damage to either party.’ ‘What? How do you know?’ ‘Text message from Dave 138 minutes ago.’ ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’

Rosie walked to the kitchen and activated the kettle. The hot-chocolate cycle was commencing for the night.

‘Rosie’s ticket was non-refundable. She felt obliged not to waste the investment. It was obviously a factor in her decision to go home.’

Anyway, she’s wrong. It’s the sunk-cost fallacy. You don’t take non-recoupable costs into account in making investment decisions.

don’t know about any Skype message. What I know practically is that Rosie is a handful. And theory tells me that men don’t generally volunteer to take over a baby who doesn’t have their genes.’

‘Rosina. But we’ll call her Rosie. If the sonogram had been wrong and it had been a boy, he would have been Donato. She’s only here because of you. You and Rosie.’

‘Give it six months,’ said Gene. ‘It gets better.’ Gene seemed to have chosen a timescale that supported his argument, like a populist denier of global warming.

‘I think most couples,’ Rosie said, ‘even the ones that stay together, just accept that the relationship has to take a hit for a while.’

But I had concluded that being myself, with all my intrinsic flaws, was more important than having the thing I wanted most.

Gene laughed. ‘There’s a George in the movie. James Stewart. He does a lot for his friends. Allow me to testify first. When my marriage was

Phil decided to stay in New York for Christmas, sharing our apartment with Gene, as well as Carl and Eugenie, who were due to join their father for January.

‘We’re talking about his birth. Anyway, it stands for Baby Under Development. First: he’s not under development any more, he’s an actual baby, and second: he won’t always be a baby.’

‘Since you nominated only one problem, and it has been dismissed, I assume that he is now named Hudson.’

My friend Rod, who, with his wife Lynette, was the inspiration for and dedicatee of The Rosie Project, was my other sounding board. Our conversations as we jogged beside Melbourne’s Yarra River inspired the soundproof crib, the Bluefin Tuna Incident and the Antenatal Uproar.