Birth (Belle and Angela)
Ominous grey clouds stretched from horizon to horizon. Thick sheets of snow blanketed the busy, smog-ridden, early morning city streets. A blizzard blew throughout the many corridors and back alleys of the city’s factories and skyscrapers. Snowflakes chased by the breeze swirled, turned, and seemed to cower before the howl of the wind, each one eventually settling into the freezing cold comfort of the snow which had fallen before it.
***
“Push!” cried the midwife. “We’re almost there.”
“Belle, you’ve got this,” said Angela, with bold encouragement, holding Belle’s hand tightly.
Covered in sweat, and crying a river of tears, Belle put in her best effort to have her child come into this world once and for all.
“It’s a boy!” cried the midwife, slicing the tension in the air with a burst of excitement. “A very healthy-looking baby boy.”
Relieved, Belle sank back onto the hospital bed, exhausted from the effort she had put in to birth the child.
“Okay, so we’re just going to measure and weigh the little tyke first, then you’ll be able to hold him.”
Belle nodded.
“Have you decided on a name yet?” asked Angela, her eyes wide with anticipation.
“You, know,” began Angela as she helped Belle into a more comfortable position, “it’s customary for the first son to be named after his father. So what are you going to call him?” She leaned in closer to Belle and whispered, “It’s going to be Kevin, right?” She had an almost mischievous smile. “He’s such a fine boy.”
Belle, exhausted after having just given birth, looked Angela dead in the eye, her gaze sharp and focused if not a little cold and said, “Adam.”
Angela’s eyes widened as her blood boiled making her face go red, as her breathing intensified, but she just couldn’t quite control herself and shouted out, “Adam!?”
“Ma’am,” interrupted the midwife in a stern, yet calm and controlled voice. “Please, the mother needs her rest.”
“Yes, of course,” said Angela. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”
“Ma’am. Perhaps a walk out in the crisp winter air would do you at world of good.”
Angela paused for a moment to regain her composure. “You know, you’re right,” she said as she took some sharp, deep breaths and left the room. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Take your time, ma’am.”
“Adam, indeed,” she huffed.
“Mothers can be so troublesome sometimes,” said the midwife.
“Oh, she’s not my mother,” said Belle with a smile. “She’s a friend of the family. More like an aunt. My mother’s busy. She said she’ll come visit in a day or two.”
Another midwife came in with Adam Junior and said, “A very healthy eight point nine pounds, and a rather impressive twenty-two inches long.”
“I’m not too sure what any of that means, I just want to hold my baby.” Belle reached out to hold her child.
“Here you go.” The midwife handed over Adam Jr.
“Oh,” said Belle with an unstoppable smile. “He looks like his father.”
“Speaking of which, ma’am, not that it’s any of my business, but I don’t see, nor have I seen, any sign of the father’s whereabouts.”
“Oh, he’s—” she began, before she paused while she figured out how to answer the question. “He’s away,” she continued. On an extended honeymoon with his wife, she thought as she figured out what to say. “… on a business trip.”
“Ugh,” scoffed the midwife, “These men think of nothing if not the size of their wallet.”
“Oh, no, it’s not like that at all,” replied Belle in a reassuring tone. “It was just bad timing. It was either go on the trip or lose his job entirely.”
“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. I’m sure he’ll be as happy to see his son as you’ve been.”
Belle, her face a little scrunched, an eyebrow raised, looked around the room.
“Is everything alright, ma’am?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Hospital patient confidentiality demands it. What you tell me in confidence stays with me and me alone.”
“I slept with a now-married man behind his at-the-time girlfriend’s back.”
“Good heavens, woman,” began the midwife sternly, but quietly. “What the devil so possessed you to do such a thing? The devil himself, I suppose.”
“Well . . . ” Belle described Adam to the midwife in thorough detail.
“Not that I support such things, but he does sound like quite the catch,” replied the midwife. “Does his missus know?”
“I don’t know,” replied Belle. “I just hope they’re happy together wherever they are. They made a great couple, and by the way, may I call you by your name?”
“Of course, dear. It’s Heather.”
“Nice to meet you, Heather.”
“Nice to meet you too, Missus Thunderbringer.”
“Actually, it’s just miss,” she said, showing her bare ring finger on her left hand to Heather.
“Oh, good heavens,” said Heather, as she made the sign of the cross over herself. “Don’t get me wrong dear. You seem as nice of a girl as I’ve ever met, but you’re a sinner if ever there was one.”
“Well, it’s not my fault that Adam’s got such great taste,” she said as she gestured to her own face.
Heather’s eyes widened in shock. “The devil himself moves your tongue, miss. And be well careful of what you say in a place like this, Belle, because believe me, the walls have ears, if you know what I mean.”
Belle looked out the room’s door and noticed various health professionals walk by doing various things, occasionally moving a patient from one room to another.
“I thought you were under oath. About confidentiality, I mean.”
“The medical staff for certain, but no such rules apply to the patients, if you understand my meaning.”
Belle replied with a long and drawn out, “Oh.”
“I wonder how your friend who was here earlier is doing.”
“Oh, Angela? I’m sure she’s fine. She probably just went down to the coffee shop where Kevin works.”
“Oh, so there is a Kevin?”
“Yeah,” replied Belle with slightly mischievous smile on her face.
