Summary

In "Chance," the father and the mother learned that their baby might not be normal. The father weighed the probabilities. The doctors could not "tell them the exact odds" (3). The mother said she "used to be afraid of" stretch marks (3). She now had worse things to fear.

The doctors ran tests, but could not tell if the baby would be okay. The parents talked to a genetic counselor. The baby's condition was so rare it was impossible to tell what might happen.

Though the father "studied physics once," he was now a writer and a teacher (5). When he studied the "list of things the baby might have," he cried (5). He wondered what the baby would grow up to be.

The genetic counselor said the condition might not be hereditary. She said it was simply "Very bad luck" (7).

Every day, the father ran past...