Lucian's Children

CHAPTER 2

 At first, I was stunned and amazed when I received the results of my pregnancy test. Amazed at the fact that it took only one session of love making to fall pregnant and stunned as I was afraid that being pregnant would mean the end of our s****l endeavors.

Yes, I was starting to enjoy Lucian’s company and his body gave me pleasure. I had started to regret the business arrangement that had brought us together and had wished that we had met under different circumstances.  I wished I had the courage to tell Lucian that I had changed my mind and would rather consider a normal relationship with him than a business agreement. Instead, I had to tell him that I was pregnant and release him from our tryst.

I managed to keep the news from him for a few days, a few days in which we had i*********e as often as we could manage it. Yet as I was about to tell him one night in my bed, he placed a hand on my stomach. Lifted himself up to look in my face and smiled a knowing smile.  I knew he knew but could not bring myself to admit it to him. I feared losing him so much that I was prepared to live a lie a little longer. He kissed the tip of my nose, held me close and fell asleep.  I, on the other hand, could not sleep. When dawn broke, I knew I could no longer keep the news from him regardless of the outcome.

I was squeezing fresh juice when Lucian walked into the kitchen.  He was fully dressed, and his aftershave lingered in the air. I felt nauseous at the thought of not ever seeing him or smelling him like this again.

I finally gathered the courage to tell him about the pregnancy and his reaction was not what I expected.  He was happy, no ecstatic would be a better word.  He hugged me and kissed me until I had no breath left. As we kissed before going our separate ways, he promised to visit again that night. I could not have been happier.

At two and a half months along I learned that I was indeed expecting twins. I thought I was the luckiest woman on earth.  Lucian remained attentive and had started preparing for the children’s birth by buying cots and prams, toys, and clothing.  Our future relationship was however not mentioned once and although perturbed by it I decided not to rock the boat and rather be grateful for what I had.

At six and a half months I was as large as an elephant and during my visit to the doctor he proclaimed that the larger twin was already turned and moving towards the birth canal.  Until then I had not experienced any symptoms related to pregnancy and which my friends had so often complained about.  I had no morning sickness, no backache regardless of my size, no swollen feet, not a single complaint. I was so self-satisfied that I was taken completely by surprise when the doctor mentioned the possible complication. I insisted on looking at the sonar myself. In doing so I perhaps offended the doctor, but I did not care. The doctor’s finding was confirmed as I stared at the monitor. Yet both the babies appeared healthy, their heartbeats steadily audible from the machine. The doctor asked me to set an appointment for a week later for him to monitor the babies.

Rather worried at the latest revelation I arrived home to find Lucian busy assembling a baby compactum in the nursery.

I immediately told him about my visit to the doctor. If I had expected him to console me or to appear remotely concerned, I was surely disappointed. He waved the news off with a careless hand and told me all was well, and I need not worry. As he continued with his task, I stood in the nursery rooted to the spot, hurt by his careless remark.

Before the date of my next doctor’s appointment however, I had more reason for concern when I went into labor early one morning. I had woken up early and needed the bathroom. Trying to slip out of bed quietly so as not to disturb Lucian, I felt a stabbing pain in my abdomen. I rushed off to the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet before my water broke. Hysterically I called out to Lucian begging him to phone for an ambulance. Instead, he poked his head around the bathroom door and smiled at me. In that instant I felt like killing him but managed to remain calm telling myself that I had to do so for the sake of my unborn children.

I eventually managed to get up from the toilet and with my hand to my stomach stumbled into the bedroom.  Lucian was now dressed, and the bed was made and had a strange looking cover spread across it.

“What is this, Lucian?”

Without answering me Lucian approached me, smiling.

“Trust me.” he said and led me to the bed where he helped me to lay down.

“I need to go to a hospital Lucian.” I begged again.

“No, you don’t.” he replied.

“For God’s sake Lucian, you are an engineer not a doctor, I need a doctor.” I yelled at him.

Lucian appeared not to have heard me and instead sat down on the bed next to me and took my hand.

The stabbing pain I had experienced before now racked my body again and again. I cried out in pain and begged Lucian to phone for an ambulance, but he remained impassive.

The pain had become almost unbearable when he finally let go of my hand and got up from the bed. As I stared up at the man, I thought I knew so well by now I saw something which I still, so years later, cannot describe in words.  At first, I thought he looked expressionless, unemotional, and cold, but at second glance I realized that I had been wrong. The closest I have ever come to describing his expression was to liken it to that of a sergeant major on a parade ground. He started to murmur something which I could not understand. I watched in awe as he moved closer to the bed again and still chanting, he moved his hands over my abdomen. Too shocked to think clearly, I only realized once my two babies were safely in my arms that that was the moment my agony had stopped.

Lucian had deftly cut the umbilical cords, wrapped the babies in a blanket and cleaned me up. I had more than a few acquaintances who had delivered babies in the past and had made peace with experiencing some discomfort after giving birth, yet I had none.  I looked at my two beautiful children as they lay in my arms and almost wished I could experience a certain degree of pain to alleviate the feeling of being in a dreamlike state from which I could wake up any moment.

My boy and girl were as perfect as I imagined them to be. While they quietly suckled at my breast that night, I inspected them from head to toe. Not a single blemish was visible. Their almost identical little faces with their tiny snub noses and rosebud mouths were picture perfect.

Lucian was again his normal courteous and attentive self and appeared as if he could not do enough to ensure my comfort. I was so taken with my perfect babies and companion that I did not once even think of asking him what he had done to me while giving birth.

The children were two days old when we decided on names for them, something which, strangely enough, we had not discussed before. Marcus and Mary suited my two little lambs so well that I did not offer any resistance when Lucian suggested the names.