Memories of Summer

[A Memory of Summer: Melanie]

Soft summer rain is rolling down the window of a yellow city taxi as it drives thru a sleeping town. In the dark backseat is a highly pregnant woman sitting beside her one-year-old daughter which has her eyes closed and her arms around her mother's shoulders.

A green shine from the traffic light reflects on the woman as she turns her head to look outside of the other window. The taxi driver once again looks in the rearview mirror, but the woman is just as calm as when he picked her up a few minutes ago. She is wearing a pale summer dress as her child is still in her pajamas.

As they reach the hospital the woman with her big blonde curls takes the child in her hand as she has just woken up. She has just started to learn how to walk and with uncertain steps, she walks thru the glass doors.

Directly they are surrounded by nurses in white coats and if it wasn't for the stronghold between mother and daughter they would probably have been separated. A smaller nurse with dark skin tries to get the woman to sit down in a wheelchair but the woman is not interested in her offer.

"Have you heard anything from my husband?"

The nurses look at each other, but the only call they have gotten is a taxi driver saying he is picking up a woman in labor named Melanie Reed.

The little girl beside the nurse starts to cry and the woman quickly picks her up to keep her quiet. She pats her back and makes a calming sound and even though the girl doesn't stop cry completely, she is now just making small sounds.

"What is his name?"

Melanie turns her head as if that shouldn't be a question. It should be the sort of answer you give to a woman soon to give birth to her husband's second child. But she just nods her head, he will surely be here in a minute or so. He has to be, there is no other option.

"His name is Michael Reed. Mickey, are you sure you haven't heard from anyone named Mickey?"

The nurse shakes her head and ones again offer the wheelchair for Melanie to sit down in.

"Then we need to wait."

Melanie stands still and looks for a clock. She finds a black and white sitting over the head of the receptionist of the lobby. It ticks loudly as the only other thing hearable is the soft sniffling from her daughter Nancy.

It was five hours since her husband left their house.

A red drop of blood, just like a tear down a cheek, rolls down Melanie's left leg and before the nurse has a chance to react another one comes down her right one. Melanie doesn't react and instead starts to turn around as if she is about to leave the hospital.

"Miss I think this baby is in distress, we need to check on it immediately to make sure nothing bad..."

"We need to wait."

A loud gasp escapes Melanie's lips as she lets go of her daughter to grip her stomach. She falls down to her knees and feels the cold floor under her. But it is as if her mind is split, she hears and understands what her body is doing. She just doesn't understand why she doesn't feel the pain. She doesn't feel anything but the need for Mickey.

She is forcefully pushed down in the wheelchair as Nancy starts crying of not understanding what is happening. Melanie is stripped of her dress and put in a hospital coat and laid in a bed.

The room has white walls and the curtains are in a soft pink color. Outside the window, the before soft summer rain has turned into a storm and is now hardly whipping against the window.

A male doctor comes into the room as nurses are already running around in it. Minutes are passing by of panic and fear for the child's life. Melanie is sitting up on the bed and while her body is twisting and turning in the simple bed her mouth doesn't make a single sound, except for the constant sentence that is on her mind.

"We need to wait."

As the lamps above their heads start to blink because of the storm outside, tears slowly roll down the face of a broken woman.

She doesn't save them, she doesn't feel them but understands them from the burning trail they leave, but everyone else takes them as a sign of pain and push in needles in her arms.

"Melanie, I need you to push."

"We need to wait."

Melanie's voice is soft and calm as her eyes are still focused on the door at the end of the room. Any minute now, any minute he is going to walk thru the door.

He is going to kiss Melanie on her head and blame that he is late on one of the most important days in his life on that stupid car of his. They are going to laugh and she is going to crush his hand in hers as the pain is going to blur her every sense.

But nobody's walking thru the white door with a silver handle. No one is coming and as a child screams, a machine is beeping and nurses are congratulating the mother of a second daughter, something is slowly and unbearably breaking inside of Melanie's head.

"We need to wait."

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6th of April