The dirty Rain

HEROIC ACTS

It will be a sunny day with the weather forecast predictions, this store will be busy with those who only comes to my mother stores only on sunny day. But what could be the posibble reason why some of my mother friends only visit her on sunny days? Only them can answer that question. Chloe was full of thought as she cleaned up her mother groceries store been careful not to allow any of the neatly arranged good fall on the ground.

At the vegetables and fruit section, she carefully removed the cotton materials used to cover each tray to expose the fresh fruits with their attractive and mouth watering aromas. They were so enticing that anyone would die to have a bite of them. She carefully folded the covering cloths before proceeding to open the front door and changed the hanging signs to "Open" she smiled with the satisfaction that customers will soon rushed in to do their sunny day shopping.

She sat down behind the counter, opened the cash drawer to check the contents and compared the record with the previous day closing cash records. She nodded her head in agreement with the figures, put the ledger aside then closed the cash drawer tightly. Hardly has she finished that the door of the store swing opened. The first customer of the day was a middle aged man who lives few houses down the street from the stores. Chloe stood up with sign of respect as the man moved towards the counter and exchange greetings.

"Doctor Chloe, how are you today" the man said with a grinning smile that exposed his too large gaped teeth big enough that a small size candy would pass the space without stress.

"Good morning to you Sir. I told you not to call me a doctor didn't I"

"yeah! You said that, but to me you are the doctor that saved me so I had given you that title either you like it or not"

They both bursted into laughter as they shook hands and the man held into her hand for few seconds before letting go.

"Others may misunderstand your intention when you call me Doctor, and I have other bigger fish on my plates than for another person to rushed a pregnant woman down to our house during the midnight in a raining day" Chloe said jokingly as they both started another round of laughter.

"You are kinda right about that, but I wonder why you didn't go for medicine instead of the course you are doing now"

Chloe smiled as she shrugged her shoulders "I kind of love research work and working with chemicals and reagents and animals than prescribing and standing for hours operating on humans"

"Chloe, you are some kind of strange person, I bet. You always go for tough choices even when easy ones were staring you in the face. That's how it has been since you were a kid"

"I heard that a lot, but I don't see those things as tough I just choose what I enjoyed doing"

"Hmm! You are really a peculiar person"

"Okay I will note that in my today's complementary report. What do you want to buy" Chloe said as she used wisdom to change the topic. Because on a hot sunny day like this which only comes probably once a while, most people who came visiting the store seems to talk a lot as if the rise in temperature would be dissolving every fragments of words stored in their stomach. Unless you changes the topic just few minutes of initial chat will ended up into hours of unending talk like a diarrhoea patient expelling all the content of the intestine.

"Oh! Do you realised I almost forgot what I came here for. Hmm?" the man said as he looked around the store with the mind that he might remember what he came to but by looking at the store contents.

Chloe shook her head as she smiled and thought. Today is going to be a differently freaking day with lots of interesting people to attend to.

"I think I wrote it down somewhere" the man said as he reached for his pocket and brought out a piece of paper. As he went through the content, he drew the paper so close to his eyes that you will think his eye ball will enters the paper.

"Chloe I can read a damn thing written on this paper!" as he drew it closer to the eyes trying to read the content.

Chloe couldn't control the laugher as she used her hands to signal to the man "Captain bring it here let me go through it for you"

"Thanks doctor, I don't know what the hell went wrong, I wrote the words myself but can just understand a danmed thing I wrote" he said as he handed over the piece of paper to her.

Chloe took the piece of paper and went through the content then looked up "You said you wrote this yourselves, you wrote it boldly so how come you can't read it." she said laughing as she read out the contents and the man nodded in affirmative.

" Should I packed the whole goods together or separately so that you can see them when you get back home" She said jokingly as the both laughed.

After she has packed and the man paid for the goods. They both shook hands again as the man walked towards the exit.

"Chloe she said you were the best person she ever met the last time she called" the man said as she turned his head at the entrance and gave her a thumb up.

"Oh! She called, okay happy to hear that. Please send my warm regards to her anytime she called"

"You bet, I will surely do that" the man replied as he walked out of the store.

Chloe sat back at the counter as she recalled the events of that day which made the man to call her doctor, she smiled. It was a mixture of an ugly and happy events. It was few days after her twentieth years birthday. When she finished high school she took some college exams and went on to undergoes training on midwifery courses where she became a certified birth attendance and pregnancy delivery coach.

What prompt her in the first place was when she was in elementary and high, the school activities involved what is called career day in which each students will dress up and meet with invited parents of a particular profession who will chat with the groups of students that would like to be in that line of profession in the future.

Her choice back then was to be a nurse who cares for babies, she loves babies. During that time she was so good in the career classes that one of the parents who was also a nurse volunteered to be her mentor and put her through the program, which she did after her hight school. However like a bird full of adventures to see the whole world, Chloe, despite the large numbers of pregnant women who thronged the hospital city where she was practicing in the Eastern part of the country she could not find satisfaction in sitting down waiting for another child to come. Barely a year practise, she quit the job and came back home for further studies.

The events that earned her that "doctor" tittle happened some month after she was back from her resigned job. It was around midnight, it has been raining heavily late in the evening with heavy winds that caused damage to some infrastructures in Newringa Town. Most phone lines where down the road closed due to fallen poles and trees and to worsen the situation few minutes to midnight, the electricity was cut.

The family were all in bed when there was a very loud knock on the house main door. The knocking continued for some times despite the falling rain which forced Frederick and Nina out of the bed. As the couple walked towards the doorstep to see who the visitor could be, the groaning coming from outside the door made them to quickly opened the door.

It was a sorry sight as the door opened. Captain as they fondly called the man was standing soaked by the rain carrying a Lady who was half n***d in his arms with blood visibly seen on the ground.

"What the hell happened Captain was your house damaged by the wind please come in quickly" Frederick shouted as the man struggled to get the lady on his arm into the room. Nina quickly reached out to help him and they laid the lady down on the couch.

"She is my daughter, she came visiting early today from the South. As you can see she is pregnant but she will not be due for the next three weeks. I don't know what went wrong about an hour ago, she was complaining of stomach problems and suddenly she felt a push and the water sac bursted and amniotic fluid was coming down. " he replied as he held the lady hand to soothe her pains.

" You mean the baby is coming? " Nina said as she turned to the lady who could only whisper due to the pains from the contractions

" I think so " she replied

" Let's get an ambulance and take her to the hospital!" Frederick said as he rushed to pick the car key from the table and made for the door to bring the car around the entrance.

"Mate, the whole street down several blocks is no go. I have tried to drive my way through from my place down the street, I barely managed to cross the street that how I landed at your door. As far as I ran to check, the whole street down were blocked with fallen poles and trees " the man said in a dejected tone.

" I thought your wife would be some kind nurse since she sells things at the store that's why I knocked so hard on your door "

The painful cry that came from the lady lying on the sofa sent shivers down the spine of all of them as they rushed to her side and bent down to hold her.

" Papa am dying, please safe me the pain is too much for me" she barely finished her statements before she cried out with a loud agonising sound typical of a woman in labour.

The first cry woke Chloe up from her lovely night rest in her room just few feets from the living room. She looked around and wondered what and where the sound could be coming from. The second cry made her jumped out of the bed and ran out of her room towards the sitting room where she thoughts the sound was coming from. She was there in a moment staring with surprise in her eyes at her parents and the unknown visitors.

The emergency lights placed on the wall illuminated the room as they all turned to look at her as she moved closer almost trembling. She was few feet away from her mother when Nina realised she was half n***d.

"Dad mum what the hell is going on here!" she said almost shouting

Her mother pull her closer, then wrapped her arm round her to cover her nakedness and calmed her at the same time.

"So sorry dear, everything is alright just a Lady in labour" Nina said as she gently pushed her away towards her room.

"What do you just say, she is in labour, let me see" she said as she tried to free herself from her mothers hug and take a look at the person lying on the sofa not aware that she was half n***d .

"Not like this, you are wearing just pants" Nina said with a raised eyebrows tighten her arm round her to prevent her from pulling off

"What!" it was at that moment she realised her appearance and quickly turned with haste back to her room to put on some dress.

She hurriedly put on a gown, covered her head with a cap and rushed back to the living room. The lady was wriggling in pains with her eyes popping out as she turned on the sofa groaning louder and louder. As Chloe stood over her to check the builging stomach. Captain looked at her parent with obvious questions in his face. Having understood the expression, Frederick smiled

" she is a certified midwife, specially suitable for this condition"

"Oh! For goodness sake why don't you mention that earlier" the man replied as he bowed his head in relieve.

"I could not remember that before everything happened so fast" Frederick replied with obvious relief shown on his face

"Papa what did they say" the lady in labour asked turning to her father who was holding her hands in tight grip

"The lady is a kind of doctor that delivers pregnancy"

"Really oh! Thank God" she said as the news seems to bring her a little relief.

Chloe carefully parted the lady hips after she had worn a disposable examination gloves in her hands. With the foetal scope in her, she reached for the lady's belle to check the heartbeat and the position of the foetus after which She gently reached down to the vigana to check how far out the foetus was. She nodded in relief as she withdrawn her hands removed the gloves and smiled in relief.

"Everything is fine the baby is nearer however it will be better if we can moved the patients to a better position, this couch is too soft and the blood will mess it up pretty bad." she said looking at her audience with a Professional look in her face.

"A harder surface? Will a medical mattress be okay?" captain asked

"That will be very helpful, but where do we get one?" Chloe replied

"I have one in my house, I bought it sometime back when I was having some kind terrible back pains, the doctors recommended it and said I should be sleeping on the danmed thing until my back heals. It was kinda too hard for me but it does the magic"

"Can we get it down here fast, since it will not be advisable to move the patients down to you house in this condition" Chloe said

"Consider it done! " captain replied as he dashed out of the house to get the mattress. By then the rain had stopped.

Chloe turned to her parents, there was this look on their faces which made her smile "you are looking like you seeing someone else"

"I have never seen my little girl do this before so you look kind of strange" Frederick said smiling

"Wow! Is that so, so all my years in training you did not come visiting?"

"that was when I was posted to Asia, I spent three years in an overseas project have you forgotten?

"Oh! That's true daddy "

Nina was not even listening to father and daughter talk as her full attention was focused on the lady lying on the sofa" It's like the pain has reduced " she asked the lady

"Somehow, but am still feeling the contraction " she replied her voice a little better than before.

"The next episode will be harder and the baby will be out "Nina said using her palms to wipe off the sweat on the lady's forehead.

All what she could do was to nod

Captain suddenly charged in with the mattress on his head" where should I place it " he said

" Right here," Frederick pointed to a larger space behind the sofas which serves as a passage for anyone moving towards the bedrooms

As they placed the mattress on the floor, Chloe used a cotton wool soaked in disinfectant to clean the surface, after which she signal to the other people to move the patients there.

After some minutes, the pains seems to return as the lady cried out in pains. Chloe reached down to check the birth openings she quickly tapped her fingers as she signal to the others "the head is coming"

They all rushed to her side except Frederick who stood back with fear

"You need to push now, okay now push!" Chloe said as the woman complied.

There was a serious concern in Chloe face after some minutes of the woman trying endlessly to push with the baby head not coming out.

"Mum, this lady is not really pushing, the force is not reaching down to the baby" she said to her mother

"Baby girl please do something to help her" Nina replied her daughters almost pleading.

Chloe stood still for some seconds, she used the back of her hand to clean the sweat at her forehead as if trying to think.

"Get me a bed spread fast" she said suddenly to her mother with urgency in her voice, Nina in turn ran to get it from the nearest room and came out shortly with bed spread in hand then hand it over to her daughter.

"hold the other end we need to make it into a rope fast. Keep turning clockwise, I turn anticlockwise" she said as the large bed spread took the shape of a rope.

She collected the thing from her mother and hand one edge to the woman in labour.

"listen carefully, hold this end well, have you play thug of War game before? That's exactly what we are going to do right now. Mum hold the other end" she said as she moved the things to pass between the woman opened legs. The woman holding one end while Nina held the other while she kneel few feet away from the spread legs

"Both of you pull right now , don't ever let it drop from your hands" Chloe said like a command as both pushed in opposite.

The woman gave a deep groan as the force of the pull on the bed spread like rope, transferred a pushing force down the stomach to the womb. The baby head immediately appeared from the virginal as Chloe carefully supported the baby head and the neck with her palm as the rest of the body slipped out with the slimming fluid mixed with blood.

The great relieve as the baby came out made the woman in labour dropped off the rope which made Nina who was still holding on the other end in sitting position felt down with her back on the floor. Notwithstanding, the sigh of the baby made everyone bursted into laughter with the men hugging each other in sign of celebrations while Nina was still lying on the floor laughing.

Chloe put the baby on the mother's chest as she clipped and cut the umbilical cords. The placenta was expelled few minutes afterwards. The atmosphere was that of celebrations as Chloe sucked off the nose and mouth of the baby, cleaned and wrapped him with towels while Nina took over the remaining process of caring for the baby.

The morning was a busy one as the emergency workers removed the obstacles on the road to allow vehicular and human movements. The woman was already breastfeeding her baby when the ambulance arrived to move both mother and baby to the hospital for necessary checks.

A knock on the counter by Nina who had entered into the store through the back door that lead to the main house brought back Chloe mind to her immediate surrounding.

"What on heart were your mind so much absorbed in this early in the morning morning that you did not noticed me enter the store" Nina asked her daughter in a slightly angry voice.

"Mum, you are here, just some random thoughts from the past nothing serious" Chloe replied smiling at her mother

"Has anyone came calling?"

"yeah the captain was here to buy something"

"Okay, now go inside the house and get your breakfast, it's fried rice and grilled chicken. No cold drinks please! " Nina said pointing a warning finger at her daughter.

"Am cool mum" Chloe said as she dashed out of the store to take her breakfast.