LUCKY( A short story)

Chapter Nine

The building smelled of chlorine, sodium hydroxide, alcohol, and urine. She remembered that building all too well. She remembered that horrid day. She remembered the Hospital by Coco Lake. She remembered how bright, and how busy the place was. The girl was nine months pregnant then, and that day was her due. She was alone there. Her Father wouldn't look at her. He had gone to that café, and her Mother made excuses as she had rushed out in a hurry. In truth, She had left to help her old Aunt with her new wedding, and had abandoned her daughter and left her all alone inside the red House. It used to feel so small, and so little, but alone, and in pain, it felt as wide as a castle, and as mysterious as a maze. Looking at the stairs seemed from above, they seemed to forever go down. She couldn't see the end. Each step she had taken, three, four steps seemed add again, and again. Without warning, she started felt warm water trickle along her thighs, thru her pajamas, and down on the sleek wooden steps. She screamed, but there was no one to help. She screamed, but they had all gone.

She cried as the contractions inside her heavy stomach grew swift, and closer. She took another step down, and felt the agony rise again. She couldn't walk anymore. She tried to sit. Thinking perhaps that someone would return and have pity on her, but she slipped on her on water, and fell down the steps hitting her head, and stomach, and rolling down, and down until she reached the floor at last. There she stayed, helpless. She couldn't move then. She cried for help as she felt blood running down her thighs, and slowly filling the wooden floor around her into a pool of blood. "M-my baby...My baby...My..." Then she couldn't feel a thing. She dazed off as her whole world turn black.

She woke in the Hospital on a wheelchair to the sound of pulse machines, and the brightest of lights, the sound of doctors and nurses rushing around, and the smell, the strong smell of cleaning product, and urine—her urine and blood. Blood around her thighs had long dried. She was now being pushed forward through a long corridor filled with people some coming, others going. She looked up at who was pushing her.

"It's alright, honey," said the Old Nurse, "It's alright, honey. Rest. We'll get to your room soon. All will be alright."

"My...my...m-my," she stuttered, trying to speak.

"Don't say anything. We're almost there. You're hurt badly. Lucky, the medics got to you in time."

"B-b-baby. Baby."

"Baby?" said the Old Nurse, confused.

"My baby is...is he?"

"You're Baby's fine as horse. But you. You're not so much. The Doctor's debating whether tend to you first, and then let you give birth then. We don't know."

"I'm...I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Honey, you're not fine."

"B-birth first. I-I can wait. Birth."

"Birth. Well, we'll see what the Doctor have to say."

"B-birth f-first. I'm fine."

"We'll see. But I'd say to tend to your wounds first. Because, I think heard, you're still a day or two from birth, honey. Alright we're here. Can you stand?"

"I-I-I"

"It's alright. I'm gonna call someone to give us a hand," the Old Nurse said, and went rushing away. She looked behind her, and she saw a group of men and women waiting anxiously by a door.

"It's a girl," a Nurse announced a she stepped out.

"It's a girl!" said one of the men with tears of joy in his eyes. Everybody started hugging each one other. They were all a family. The entire family, Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, and Cousins—everyone was there to celebrate that woman giving birth. And here she was alone, and discarded.

The Old Nurse clicked her tongue as she came hurrying back.

"You said you're gonna bring someone to help us."

"Yes, honey," She let out in sigh, "Yes. Pretty busy day today. All hands on the deck. Couldn't find anyone free."

"Wha-what are we going to do?"

"Well," the Old Nurse sighed again, "We'll try and do with what we have. An old woman. And pregnant girl. Not the best due, but we'll try, honey. We'll try, honey. Hold on to me. Or wait, wait. I'll count to three."

"O-okay."

"One...two...three. God help us!" Said the old woman as she helped her up the first step, "Again. Ready, honey?"

"J-just a second."

"Take your time, honey."

Little by little, the two women climb the steps one breath after the other, "Stay here," the Old Nurse told her as she went down the stairs to get the wheelchair left behind.

"Don't worry. I'll stay here," the girl replied as she was getting her breaths back, "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."

The Old Nurse returned struggling with the rattling metal chair up the last step, and then she started to laugh all of a sudden.

"What?"

"Nothing," replied the old woman, grinning, "Nothing."

"What is it?"

"Nothing I just. I saw you sitting there. And I thought, here I am an old woman struggling with this godamn thing. And you're just sitting there. I almost forgot, and would've yelled at you to come and help me. Goodness. I forgot that you're worse than me. Ha-ha-ha." The two woman laughed, and started again.

She pushed the wheelchair towards her, and helped her in, "No more stairs, I promise."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

This floor of the Hospital seemed almost deserted—a complete opposition of the first floor. For an instant, it was just her and the old woman thru the long empty Hallway.

"Here it is."

She looked onto room. It oddly seem cold and barren and full of dust—more like a damp closet than a hospital room. The Nurse pushed her inside, and helped her into the stiff stale bed.

"A little dusty is all," she said with smile, "I'll be back with the Doctor." And then she was gone.

"Poor thing," she heard some of the nurses say about her as the old woman went, and told them this and that, "Poor thing," the other women would say, "Poor thing."

She waited, and waited for her turn with the Doctor, but neither he, nor the Old Nurse showed up to this rotten dusty room ever again. They had abandoned her just as everybody else. But at least she was in a Hospital—not on the proper floor, and with the proper attention, but it was a hospital nonetheless. And her Baby was fine. She was hurt in her head, but her baby boy was fine—that was all that mattered. As she sat there alone, she started to daze, and before she knew it she fell asleep. Suddenly, she woke up in a different room surrounded by three nurses and a doctor. She was dressed in white surgery clothes, and so were they, rather blue.

"Are there any next of kin present? Husband, boyfriend, father, Mother?"

"No, Doctor," said one of the nurses.

"Friends?"

"No, Doctor."

"She might need someone to take her home."

"We'll find someone Doctor." She couldn't reply, or see their faces clear under the white masks, and now, she couldn't see anything. It all turned to black, and she fell asleep again. She woke feeling something warm, and heavy laying on her arms. She opened her eyes to her baby boy sleeping. How sweet, and beautiful, he looked that day.

She remembered the night. She remembered her baby boy. And now as Lucky ran away shameful, she held her breath, and looked behind the tree.

"No! No! No! NO!" she screamed as she crawled away from it, "NOOO!"

"This is not my baby. This is not my baby. Where's my baby? This is not my baby!" She crawled again, and looked at the thing behind the pine tree, "This is not my baby! Where is my baby?! This is not my baby!"