Your Advent Calendar 2021

Day 16

Ezim

Hello Corinne, now there are only five more calendar doors for me ...

Today we dive into the final section of "Suddenly we start again."
A few months had passed, their grandmother's funeral was behind them, and a special event was about to happen.
His dream now came true, faster than Takahiro had thought.

It was mid-February, the sky overcast with dark clouds and the harsh north wind blowing scattered snowflakes across the wide parking lot. Taka raised his shoulders and pulled his head in a bit to keep the creeping cold from getting to him. The extra-thick jacket hugged his lanky body, not letting him freeze, and his current short haircut was hidden under a thick fur hat.

The private clinic was located somewhere out of the big city. Many trees lined the paths around the massive building and if the season permitted it, the countless park benches would be filled with patients and their visitors.

With long strides, Taka decided on a direction and breathed thick clouds of breath into the sky. The white flakes danced around him, increasing in volume and frequency, so that a layer of snow soon formed on his cap.

"How long you think it will be before the child is born?" he wondered, dreamily lifting his face toward the swirling delicate formations of ice crystals. Actually, he should turn around, go back to the clinic so as not to get soaked, but he loved this sight of a white winter landscape. It had been ages since he had experienced something like this. "I must have been just a little boy ... ahh ... life is so beautiful ..."

He turned in a circle thinking of his partner and suddenly had an image in his mind's eye, of a tiny baby, with rosy, velvety soft skin, long thin fingers that seemed so delicate and fragile, yet clenched powerfully into fists. Then, a slightly scrunched face, with large eyes still half-closed and the uniquely curved lips reflexively moving and searching for food. And finally, the unmistakable masculinity that seemed completely oversized in his eyes.

Takahiro smiled to himself and shook his head slightly; this idea of Toru's son was so genuine and real that he already thought he could hear the child crying.

"Will I be able to love him? ... Like my own son?" he asked himself, and the whimpering in his head grew louder and more insistent. "Of course, I will love him much more. He will be unique, ... like Toru." Now he stopped for good and listened tensely. The crying was not imagination, somewhere nearby, muffled but clearly audible, a newborn was crying.

There was no one around, no walkers, no doctors, no one he could call attention to. As he walked around the corner of the next hospital complex, he found himself back in front of the maternity ward and right in front of the baby hatch.

An institution that offered desperate mothers the possibility to anonymously hand over their unwanted child to be well taken care of. Many of those who used this institution came from the drug scene or from poor backgrounds and nobody knew anything about the parents of the "foundlings".

Surprised to really find a crying bundle in front of the small sliding door made him panic. Who had brought it? Where had it come from? He could not observe a car or any other people.

"How could anyone refuse their own flesh and blood? And for crying out loud, why didn't they push it through the flap? ... Let it freeze in the cold instead." He was already kneeling next to the cardboard box in which the child lay, and he was frightened at the sight of the bluish-colored head. It looked as if the baby was holding its breath, only to cry out all the louder afterwards. Again, in his panic, Taka looked for someone who could help him, but in this weather and late in the day, there was no one to be seen. Should he call out? But if the child was not heard, his voice probably could not change anything.
"Hey, shhhh ...," he therefore whispered gently, so as not to startle it. "It's all right, ... I'll get you inside ... shhhh." And all at once the little one calmed down, turned its face to its rescuer and drew a pout with its full lips. "Oh, so sweet," it escaped him and automatically he reached into the bedded-out box and lifted out the bundle, slipped it under his already open jacket and gently pressed the little body against his chest. The icy wind could no longer harm the child and Taka breathed a sigh of relief. The baby's cheeks were now a rosy color and it even seemed to smile a little. Two large almond eyes framed by long dark eyelashes looked at him, surprisingly, very brightly, with an intensity that suddenly sent goosebumps down his spine. "It is ... terribly cold ... let's .. better go inside," he said in a trembling voice and made his way to the front door.

It began to stir now, and the baby arms that had been under a blanket before began to appear. Thin fingers, so small and delicate reached out to his chin as he tilted his head toward it and tickled the few hairs of his beard on it. A quick glance at them, let him stop, perplexed. He was already in the long hallway of the reception hall, in the bright light, now staring in disbelief at the baby's clenched fists.

"This ... this is ... ridiculous." Immediately he pushed away the image that was creeping into his brain like a hallucination. "There was nothing ..." he muttered, and to get rid of the thought again, he slipped his index finger between the tiny hands. Reflexively, the little child clung to the offered hold and literally sucked himself to him. A hot shiver ran through him, like an electric shock. Taka had to close his eyes for a moment and take a deep breath. The sudden realization overwhelmed him, filling his heart with so much warmth and awakening long-forgotten feelings in him.

Little Mina seemed to be a foundling, though her origins were clearly not from this planet. So why did Taka, who was no longer an alien find her, and exactly on that day when Toru's son was born?

Now it is getting exciting. The day after tomorrow we will start with the new story and maybe learn a little more about Mina.