𝒮𝑒𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝓇 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 <<Bruno Madrigal>>>

Chapter 22

"Mamá!" the door swung open and in came Carina and Julio who are assisting Marina on her walk all the way back home. "Marina's about to give birth!" she says.

"What?" Haidi's breath hitched, but she had no time to mentally celebrate as another person rushes towards their house. It was Agustín, Julieta's husband.

"Señora! Señora Haidi!" he stops upon seeing the midwife's children and in-law, having his own conflicting thoughts.

"Agustín?"

He snaps out of trance, "Señora, Pepa's about to give birth." Pepa's third child. And at the same day as Marina's.

Haidi looks at Marina, then glances straight to Carina. She and her both know what the look means, but Carina was ready to protest. "N-No, Mamá, I'm just a doula. I'm not ready to deliver a child on my own."

The old woman walks straight up to her and grabs her shoulders, "You are ready, you've been there with me many times before."

"But what if I do something wrong?! What if I didn't deliver in on time and the baby suffocates? What if... what if I twist the head and it ends up dying on me as I assist in delivering it—"

"You will deliver a baby today. You will bring Pepa's child into this world ..... I trust you, mí cariño," Haidi's hands brushed on her cheek, "You can do this."

It's been a long time that Haidi had shown affection to her in a way so gentle and reassuring, as a mother who loves her child. What has changed all of a sudden? Carina would've thought she's under hallucination if it weren't for the lightning that struck the tree that rooted across their house. It went ablaze and tumbled to the side of the road, thankfully no one got hurt.

"Hurry. Go aid Pepa. I'll take care of things from here," she finalizes, then leads Marina to the nearest bedroom for her labour. Carina looks at Agustín and nods, going to their own direction, up towards the hill where the Madrigals are.

They were just about to open the door but the gust of wind forbade them from reaching it, letting them tumble on the grass halfway down the hill. Agustín stops himself from rolling all the way down and catches Carina by the wrist, helping her get back up there with him. It was the same scenario as Dolores' and Camillo's pregnancy, hopefully with more hands on deck, they'd be able to survive this with no problem.

"We got the midwife!" Agustín yelled, then immediately runs to assist the others on washing out the rain.

Alma comes into the foyer carrying necessary equipment for labor when she notices that only one of the supposedly important people had arrived. "Where's Haidi?"

"She can't make it, Tía. Marina is also having contractions right now," boom erupted right outside the door where the lightning struck, making her almost jump out of her skin.

"Dios mío. Well, we'll have to make do without her, Pepa is already in so much pain." They reached Pepa's room on the second floor, and as expected, it is a total mess inside. Félix tried to soothe her the best he could, but sweet nothings can only do so much to ease the physical and mental stress. "Everything's set. Félix, help the others."

"He's. Staying. Here!" the mother in labor had gripped his sleeves tightly in her hands, the cloud surrounding the ceiling had darkened even more, making an impression of an ongoing war.

"Fine, then. Carina, I suppose you already know what to do. I'll deliver some arepas once Julieta has finished making it," and there goes Alma exiting the room.

The thunder brought Carina back to the task at hand, and so she prepared herself for the first time delivering a human child. Hopefully it all goes the way she've seen many many times before. She helped Pepa get into position, quite embarrassingly for the newly promoted midwife. Even her nervousness radiated so much that the woman laying on the bed had caught on to it, "Carina...will everything be alright?"