shadows

black was her shadow (5)

Fanny was stuck between wanting to floor the accelerator and driving as slow as she possibly could, between getting to the hospital the fastest and driving the safest. And she drove just under the speed limit. Her hands were glued to the wheel, her eyes to the road, and the dull noise of the engine was the music they drove to. Not that either cared for music right now.

Emilia was stiff in her seat. Only her eyes darting about between the road in front and the window to her left. It was truly turning into the longest drive of her life.

When Emilia missed her period, and it occurred to her that she might be pregnant, she didn’t run to the nearest pharmacy. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the do-it-yourself pregnancy test kits. She didn’t trust herself. This was too big. She was in a bad place. She didn’t trust herself with anything. And so, she ran down. Called a taxi. Asked to go to the nearest hospital. The taxi driver dropped her off at Augustine’s General Hospital. It might not be the nearest hospital. But it was the biggest among those within the limits of what the middle aged man thought was near. And he believed his judgment because that was how terrible she looked. He didn’t doubt that she needed a hospital. A good one. And a good doctor. Two hours later, she walked out of the hospital with the reports confirming her pregnancy. She was in a daze returning home. Even that wasn’t as long as the drive now.

“Who’s your doctor?” Fanny asked suddenly.

The silence had gotten too much. And Fanny had finally gotten a grip over herself, enough to see what was happening with her friend. Whatever reprieve she found, was lost in a moment. Her nerves were taut. And she felt cold, like she was sitting in a freezer. She found her eyes darting too between the front and the window by Emilia’s side.

The question was her attempt at calming herself, and easing the tension.

Emilia gave the name of her doctor. And felt a kick. She gasped, even though she knew to be prepared.

“What?” Fanny asked worriedly.

“Nothing,” Emilia answered, shaking her head. “He likes the name. Every time I say it, or anyone says it nearby, every time the name enters my ears, he kicks.”

“Wow. He’s not out and already got a crush.”

The two laughed.

“Yeah,” Emilia said. “I think he’s going to have a lot of girlfriends.”

“And you’d be okay with that?” Fanny asked.

“I don’t think I’d get a say in the matter.”

“I will. And I will s***k his a*s if he has more than one girlfriend at a time.”

They laughed again.

“Maybe he’ll not turn out so bad,” Emilia said. “Growing up with just a mother”

“Two mothers,” Fanny corrected, cutting in.

“Two mothers,” Emilia said correcting herself. “Growing up with two mothers, maybe he’ll be nicer to both girls and boys. Maybe he’ll have only one girlfriend for all of his life.”

“I doubt such a thing is possible.”

“We can hope.”

The two shared a look. And a laugh.

And a brief silence followed. Broken by the sudden question.

“What do you see?” Fanny asked.

Her voice was the same. The smile was unchanged. Anyone else might think of it as just another regular question.

Not Emilia.

“The shadow,” Emilia answered, in all seriousness. “In the window.”

“It’s been there all along?” Fanny asked.

“Yes. All along.”

“What do you think that means?” Fanny asked. “Something’s going to happen along the way? On the street?”

The two froze.

“Hit the brake,” Emilia screamed.

Fanny did just that. The car’s tyres screeched, burned the road, skidded to a halt. There were a few cars behind. Which too screeched to a halt. The road was spitting fumes. And the silence that followed the explosion of noise was deafening. Then came the horns and the screams. None of them reached the two who caused it all. They were frozen in the car, looking out the windshield. Counting seconds.

And right on cue, a truck raced down a side street, cutting across the street at a right angle. And crashing on the other side. Not too far from the cars. If they hadn’t braked, their car would be in the way of the truck.

Silence fell once again. Fanny stared at Emilia in horror.

“Is it over?” Fanny asked.

“One of them is,” Emilia answered with a nod. “We need to get to the hospital.”

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s not comfortable.”

Emilia was rubbing her stomach, trying to calm her baby.

Fanny gulped down the nerves and the fear, and started the car again. And floored the accelerator. She was in doubt no more.

-

They made it to the hospital without another incident. Fanny helped Emilia inside.

“Do you still see it?” Fanny asked softly.

“Yes,” Emilia answered, nodding, and wincing in pain.

“We’re here. It’ll be over soon,” Fanny said, seeing her friend’s pain, and feeling it.

They were rushing through the lobby the fastest Emilia could. When Emilia grabbed Fanny’s arm, and pulled her to a stop. She shook her head in answer to Fanny questioning eyes. They stood still for half a minute, with patients and visitors and even doctors and nurses darting around them, some throwing questioning glances, most not bothering to give them another look. And then, a woman dropped her bottle of water while trying to twist the cap open. The water spilled. And another woman stepped in the water, slipped, and almost fell. The two women held onto each other and prevented the accident.

Fanny stared slack jawed at Emilia. Knowing already what this was. The shadow, again.

Emilia determinedly dragged them away from the stairs, walking the long route to the lifts. Fanny didn’t ask why. Didn’t even look toward the stairs.

They were in the lift, when Emilia’s water broke. There were two doctors in the lift with them, who immediately attended to Emilia. Helping her to the OB-Gyn department. Emilia was rushed straight to the operation theatre. And Fanny was directed to the waiting room.

The last exchange before they separated was Fanny asking with her eyes, and Emilia answering with hers. The shadow was still here.

It was nothing less than t*****e for Fanny in the waiting room. Almost two hours of waiting. Two hours that felt like two hundred. Looking at the doorway every time someone passed by and every time someone walked in or out. When the doctor finally asked for her, Fanny jumped to her feet and ran over.

“Is she okay?” Fanny asked, desperation colouring her voice.

“Yes,” the doctor answered, not caught by surprise. “There were complications. But both mother and child pulled through. We’ll be shifting her to her room in a while. You can see her then.”

“And the baby?”

“We’ve kept in NICU for now. Nothing to worry. Just a precaution. I can show you there now.”

“Yes please,” Fanny said, thanking him.

With the doctor’s directions, she put on the gown before following the handsome doctor into NICU. They stopped at an open crib, inside which a little boy was sleeping seemingly peacefully.

“He looks fine,” Fanny said.

“He does,” the doctor agreed, smiling dotingly at the baby. “He is fine. He did scare us for a minute. That’s why we put him in here. I think he should be fine going to his mother’s side in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Fanny said. “At least he’s got one of his mothers with him already. He’ll make do.”

The doctor looked at her deeply, but said nothing. And she didn’t even see him. She had only the little guy in her eyes. After a while, the doctor showed her out of NICU, and to the private room to which Emilia had been shifted.

“Is she really okay?” Fanny asked.

The doctor smiled at her.

“Yes,” he said to her.

He then proceeded to explain the complications during the delivery. For a while, they were worried about losing both mother and child. But they pulled through.

“She should be waking up soon,” he finally said. “You can stay with her. I’m sure she’ll want to see a familiar face when she wakes up. I’ll visit again, to explain to her too.”

“Thank you.”