the NEAR nightfall

 

Squeaking sirens over the no-man road turned the lights on all over the street. Peeping eyes through the windows targeted me as the ambulance stopped for my waving hand.

"It's been 40 minutes!!" 

I yelled, despite welcoming. The ambulance men wore no reaction over their faces. Instead, they unscrewed their back door open. A "THUD!!" was heard as a 6 feet stretcher rolled down the door.

I guided them to the house.

 I ran and held the trembling hands of the 30-year-old woman and said -"MAM! They've come. Don't worry! You'll be fine. Trust me, mam, you'll be fine."

She did not seem to respond. She seemed so stressed and screamed in pain. She said something to me, which I did not understand. All I could see was her tears and tears and all I could hear was her scream and "PAIN!". But one thing I knew was that she was not okay!

"Pain kills me " she screamed with one hand over her huge tummy.

Meanwhile, the stretcher met her. Two men held her arms and shifted her to the stretcher. They belted her tight and rolled her into the ambulance. They were about to roll off the vehicle, but they waited with half the door open for someone to arrive. 

I did not know it was me until they said they need a caretaker with the patient.

I hesitated. My legs shivered, a part of the cool weather, a part of fear.

I kept my bag aside and went inside the vehicle. The doors closed, the flashlights opened. We sped the road. 

It was a rainy night. Though the road was empty, the monstrous raindrops almost broke the windshield. I peeped through the hole to look at the driver end, he seemed calm. Maybe this kind of situation is common to these people. But not for me, Definitely not for the "Orange shirted people."

I still peeped into the hole, wondering about his calmness in this stirring situation. As I was watching him, suddenly his eyes widened. His legs screeched the brakes and his hands rolled the steers. A flash of heavy lightning broke not only the calmness but also a huge part of the ambulance as we ended up hitting a huge banyan tree.

The 5.25-ton vehicle drifted across the road and landed over the tree. Everyone in the ambulance drifted aside and banged ourselves with the windows. 

As soon as the ambulance stopped, I looked at myself. My right shoulder already started to bleed. I checked at the lady over the stretcher as she went unconscious. I panicked. I ran near her and held her hands.

"Mam! Mam! You alright?"

I reached out to her. She did not reply. I tried shaking her head and waking her up like she was sleeping. 

I thought the pain and the screaming of her would tense me more, But hell no. The silence......... It killed me up.

I turned to the labor boy and asked- "Was she okay?"

He checked something with her pulse and turned to me.

"She got drained. And also with the shock, she would've fallen unconscious," he said.

"Will the baby be fine?" I asked him.

He looked at me with no reply.

He tapped the driver's end signaling him to hurry up. The driver checked us up and immediately roared the engine. The ambulance went back for a minute and then roared forward.

I held her hands looking at her throughout the 10-minute journey.

The speeding ambulance halted at the V.K.R multispecialty hospital. The doors got unscrewed. Again the stretcher rolled out, this time with a patient. They slid her through the corridors. A handheld mine and told me to register her name and bed. 

As I looked at her, she was being shifted to a wheelchair, slowly she gained consciousness. I dropped my papers and ran to her.

"Mam! Mam! You are almost done. Mam, hold on!"

Meanwhile, she sat in the wheelchair. She looked down at the floor and looked at me with a teary face and nodding NO in slow motion.

I noticed there was bleeding between her legs. Some drops of thick red blood fell over the white tiles. 

My heart broke. A tiny drop of water ran from my eye and fell over the same white tile near the thick blood. I felt numb.

We lost hope.

About an hour passed, and still, she was in the operation theatre. Meanwhile, I gathered information about her with the nurses there as she was regular to this hospital. 

"She was not the mother of the child." 

was the first detail I gathered.

She was a surrogate mother. She is still not married. She accepted to be a surrogate mother for her friend who can't scientifically deliver a baby as some of her conditions were not appropriate for the baby to be in her tummy. So after years and years of struggle, this 30-year-old lady accepted to be a surrogate mother.

This blew my mind. Being a lonely woman and still giving birth to some other baby is not an easy job. To let a baby grow in her tummy for 9 months and give away to someone else ............ 

I just can't imagine how hard it is. Though she is a surrogate mother, letting a baby grow for 9 months successfully, and at the day of detachment knowing it has died........ 

She is getting through a lot of struggles. I wondered as I registering a bed in the main block. 

When I returned to the theatre, I saw the doors were open. I ran to it, No doctors were around. I could see only the 30-year-old woman lying over the bed with some plasters and was sleeping probably. There was a nurse nearby monitoring her. And to the right of the lady, there was an empty baby bed. Seeing which I again gained a tear in my eye. I went back and sat in a chair not knowing what to do.

"You bought her here?"

 A lady with a stethoscope asked me as I raised my head.

"Yes mam!" - I stood up.

"What happened? She was bleeding, she was already in half-consciousness and there were a lot of scratches all around."

She suddenly saw my right shoulder.

"Why are you bleeding? Who are you to her ?" 

That was a lot of questions shooted at a time.

"Mam I'm  just........"

Suddenly a screechy voice got my attention.

"Mam! she is awake." a nurse who was monitoring in the theatre came running.

The doctor went into the theatre. They forgot to close the door. Meanwhile, I stood there and listened to the conversation.

"Honey! you are fine now?" the doctor asked the lady. She nodded with a fake smile.

"I got shocked when I saw bleeding between your legs. As we undressed you I noticed those were from the scratches on your thigh. Seems you have met with an accident. You were not in a condition to cooperate with normal delivery, so we went with a cesarean.  "

The lady cared not to listen to the doctor. She just turned her head and saw the empty bed signaling-"Where is my baby?"

The doctor smiled.

"Your baby is perfectly fine. She was in a shock it seems so to adapt to normal environment, we have put her in incubator and now she would...." 

Suddenly a nurse crossed me with a baby in her hand. She thought I was the father and she gave the baby to me.

I was in shock. I looked at the lady and she smiled. I thought it was an "Yes."

I lifted the baby. It was a girl. She looked way more cute than I watched in movies. I held my hand near her fingers and she smiled in her sleep. I smiled with watery eyes. I went in and handed the baby to the lady. She cried with a smile and lifted her. She kissed her immediately. I stepped back admiring the beauty between the mother and the daughter. The baby swimmed with her hands as it woke up from sleep. It was so cute that everyone in the room smiled at her. The doctor interrupted the happy scene.

"Ughhhh... What just happend? Any accident?? and who is he to you?" she questioned the lady.

The lady smiled and looked at me.

"I ordered a Pizza " she said.

Your's deliveringly,

Mr.nothing