Can't I Touch Your Heart?

Chapter 56 Into Your Arms

It was the summer of a new century, sweet autumn clematis was in full bloom outside an old, American house surrounded by Olive trees and Autumn clematis. It was the twenty-seventh day of June when I gave birth to three babies. The babies slept in a cradle, with the tinkling of the wind chimes above them. I lay on the bed and looked at the cradle surrounded by all my friends and my mom. Nine months of sacrifices and now I felt like I had the whole world into my hands.

"Just look at them," One of my friends was fawning over the blonde triplets, "They are beautiful!"
"They just look like your husband,"
"Yeah, they look like Harn," I smiled and got up, "That one is Maple, that is Loraine and that one will be Ember," 

"Which kind of name is Ember? So weird," Harnston entered the room and everyone else walked out.
"It's cute. It means a piece of wood or coal that is not burning but is still red and hot after a fire has died. That's the kind of person he'll be, brave even when everything else seems to fall, like a...like a sailor!" I laughed.

"You really like sailors, don't you?" He smiled.
"Well, it was my childhood fantasy to marry a sailor and explore the world," She laughed, "I was a funny kid,"
"All kids are funny," He peeped inside the cradle. Suddenly, one of the babies opened his eyes and looked at him. His face reflected into his Prussian blue eyes.

"Oh my God, honey! Look, his eyes are just like yours!" Aed squealed "I wished they would get your blue eyes, unlike my brown eyes. After all, your eyes are what made me fall in love with you at first sight,"
Harnston stared at Ember. He leaned towards him and picked him up.

"He is...very pretty," He smiled. 
I was happy I could have Harn's kids.

But that happiness was soon taken away from me when we Ember wouldn't stop crying. He won't sleep, he won't eat, all he did was cry day in and day out. So, we decided to have a visit to his paediatrician. He told us it was a stomach infection and gave him the required medication. He ate for a day or two, but as soon as the medication stopped, he was back to square one. His paediatrician had a thorough examination of him, his stomach was the problem and he recommended we take him to a specialist. 

Doctor Audrey, a pediatric gastroenterologist in Kansas. We travelled all night, and once we met her, she took one look at him and told us that it was something serious. I asked her if it was fatal, and she answered in affirmation. I had never felt more devastated. She had him in ICU, my seven days old baby, and did a CT scan, and what came out of it, I never imagined it.

"Your baby...He has a rudimentary stomach, it's not fully developed,"

What?
Ember was born without an upper part of his stomach that connected a normal person's mouth to their stomach. Instead, it was connected to his windpipe, causing him difficulties breathing too. He was immediately taken to the operation theatre, Loraine and Maple were taken into my mother's custody while Harn and I were in Kansas. She carried the surgery where she cut through the abnormal connection between the windpipe and oesophagus and then sewed the two ends of the oesophagus, forming a proper stomach. Another surgeon repaired the windpipe, a week after the surgery, he seemed normal. 

"He'll never be normal, some complications might emerge as his organs grow with his body.
And please bring him for checkups every six months so that we can monitor his body,"

We had spent all our savings that Harn has collected to startup his business on Ember's surgery and post surgery care. Harn was very upset. 
"It would've been better if we didn't have him at all,"
"Harn! Don't say that!"
"I will say it! Everyone else has kids too! Then, why only he is like this?!"

These things only bring the morale of a kid down. I never made him feel that he is special. Ember started speaking and walking much before his brothers. He was good with coordinate movements and could multitask. He would remember a promise made by me till the next month. I won't call him gifted though because he had special needs. He needed to eat more to gain enough nutrition for growth. He was always this weak, skinny kid who all other kids would bully to beat up. But Maple and Loraine would always protect him.