The Summer of Bells: The Essences Saga - Book #2

Summer: Chapter 36

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Chapter Thirty-six

As it was, Silas did not drink from the bottle of whiskey. It sat in the middle of his tree-trunk, coffee table, and he stared at it. He stared for a very long time at it.

Finally, he got up, unscrewed the unopened cap and tipped it over the kitchen sink. The last drop didn’t want to leave the bottle, but he shook it, and the amber bead rolled down the drain.

He grabbed his bat from the closet and set off for the batting cages. Benji, the owner, would be closing up in a little while, but this wasn’t the first time Silas had shown up for the extra swing time. The man lived in a trailer out behind the cages, and though he would take Silas’ two hundred dollar bribe money, he would understand.

The last time Silas had to bat out his frustrations, he managed to rescue a four-year-old from the clutches of an abusive father only to watch the child die from head trauma as paramedics worked to revive him in the front yard of a run-down home. Benji would understand.

*****

An hour later, as Nicole tried to stir vaguely from her medicine induced stupor, Dr. Moore acted on his suggestion for an episiotomy and snipped the skin and muscles at Nicole’s vaginal opening. The contractions continued to bombard the young mother, and soon with some schooled pushing and the deft hands of the elderly doctor, a beautiful baby boy was brought into the world.

I cried as I held an exhausted Nicole, and the tiny infant was laid on her chest. Wrapped in warm blankets, Nicole held her son and smiled as she sobbed.

As procedure goes in a maternity ward, the baby was removed and checked over for his health. Nicole turned to me and bawled. “I’ll never see him again…he’s so beautiful…and perfect…and God, I love him already…”

I had no words to console her. I could only hold her and rock her tired body in my arms. She finally cried herself to sleep, and the nursing staff came in to clean her body and change the soiled sheets and Nicole’s hospital gown. Though I didn’t want to, I sought the comfort of the night air outside the hospital doors and called the House to announce the arrival of Baby Harper.

Everyone was ecstatic, but no one asked the obvious question: Would she keep him?

I didn’t know the answer myself. Mr. James had been alerted when I took Nicole to the hospital earlier that evening, but he had yet to arrive or contact me.

He was waiting for me when I returned to the maternity ward. “Ms. Meyer,” he said, his fake smile plastered to his face. “I wanted to thank you for all you’ve done—“

“Cut the crap, Mr. James. What’s the verdict?”

He turned a startling shade of green. Confrontation was not his strongest suit, by far. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing heavily, but he continued to smile. God, I wanted to slap him!

“I have found a family willing to accept the…the baby…and you may take Nicole home with you when the doctor releases her.”

“So that’s it?”

He smiled. That was all the man knew how to do. Just smile. My heart clamped tight. It was too late.

A heated voice carried from the nurses’ station, “Where is she?! Where’s my daughter?”

Linda McKay rounded the corner and stopped when she saw me. “You! Where’s Josephine?”

“Mrs. McKay,” I began. She stopped short of me.