"Zdenka, run and find Dr. Palacký. Hurry!" Susana said. Zdenka grabbed her shawl and ran out into the busy street. It was morning, and the street was filled with carriages, horses, and people walking quickly. Zdenka disappeared into the bustle, and Susana ran back up the stairs to her mother's bedroom.
The midwife was standing over Susana's mother who lay in the bed shaking.
"He'll be here soon, Mother," Susana said. "Zdenka just left to get Dr. Palacký."
Susana's mother didn't seem to register the words. Her eyes were closed, her brow furrowed, and her jaw clenched. When the next round of contractions began, she rolled painfully to her side and groaned. Susana pulled her mother's thin hair out of her face and wiped her pale forehead with a damp cloth. The midwife kneaded her back with her sturdy fists until the contractions subsided. A long exhale escaped Susana's mother, but she didn't open her eyes. She seemed to be concentrating her efforts in preparation for the next assault.
Susana tried everything she could think of to ease her mother's pain. She placed warmed towels on her mother's back, brushed her hair, got her cool water to sip, and held her hands, but nothing seemed to make a difference. But most of all she debated.
In her mind, she had gone back and forth about whether or not to show her mother the letter. In the eleven days since she'd found out about her father's being in debtor's prison, Susana had visited him six times. It broke her heart to see her father sitting on a wooden bucket in a damp cell. He said he didn't understand why he was there, that he didn't have any debts to his name, that there had been some terrible mistake. He said his bookkeeper was going through all the records, making reports, and working with an attorney to prove that they had the wrong man. He was sure that it would all be cleared up soon and that he would be home. But he didn't want his fragile wife to worry, so he asked Susana to continue to let her believe that he was in Vienna.
After the initial shock of finding her wealthy and respected father in a squalid cellar of a prison, she had focused all of her energies on helping her mother to get through childbirth. She knew it wouldn't do to give her mother a shock at such a time. It would be better to explain that her father's trip had run into unexpected delays and that he would be back as soon as possible. Her father hadn't wanted to deceive his wife. He had never done anything to deceive or mislead her and didn't want to do it now, but Susana convinced him that it might help to have an encouraging note from him with a promise to be back soon.
The letter was in Susana's bedroom, in the drawer of her nightstand. She could run and get it and read it to her mother now. Her mother clearly needed strength. At the same time, would it really help? If it didn't help, she would have to explain things later, and her mother would definitely not like being lied to.
Another round of contractions came and went. Susana's mother seemed to hold her breath through this one. At one point, she was so still and pale that Susana shook her to make sure she was still breathing. When it was over, Susana stood up and walked to the window. Her eyes darted around the street searching for any sign of Zdenka or Dr. Palacký. Nothing.
"Now," Susana's mother said weakly. "I have to push now." She made a growling sound, and the midwife helped her move onto her side. Susana leapt to her mother's side and grabbed her around the shoulders. Susana began crying when she heard the sound her mother made. It sounded like agony had been unleashed from all the previous hours of suffering. But in the next moment, her mother made a gasping, laughing sound at the same moment a baby's cry was heard in the room.
The midwife waited for one more contraction to push the baby's shoulders out, and then the baby slipped out effortlessly. She placed the squirming pink infant onto Susana's mother's chest. It was covered in whitish-gray wax and squished up its little eyes as it howled its protests. Tears rolled down her mother's cheeks. She seemed too weak to hold the baby. Susana wiped the baby clean with a towel while the midwife let the umbilical cord cease pulsing.
"You did it, Mother!" Susana cried. She kissed her mother and kissed the baby and then flew to the end of the bed to kiss the surprised midwife. She danced around the room and shouted for joy. "You did it!" She poured a glass of water for her mother and insisted that she have a drink. She held the tiny baby boy tightly so he wouldn't feel cold. She looked down at her pale mother and saw her eyes for the first time in hours.
They were wet and luminous. "Thank God," her mother said. "Thank God." She touched the baby's back, cradled in Susana's arms. Then she touched Susana's dress and fell stonily asleep.
The next two days were absolute bliss. Susana spent nearly every waking minute with her mother and the baby. At a rare moment when her mother and the baby were both sleeping, Susana went out in the garden and cut a huge bouquet of flowers, and Zdenka arranged them in a tall vase and put them in her mother's room.
"Was I as cute as Caspar?" Susana asked her mother. The baby pulled at her pinky finger and tried to put it in his mouth.
"Yes," her tired mother said. "Every bit. Though it's hard to believe you were once that small." Color was returning to her mother's face, so Susana felt that it was time to leave for a little while to go tell her father the good news.
"Mother," she said, "would you mind if I got out for a bit? Just a walk?"
"Of course, Dear. You must feel so cooped up in here. Just make sure you take someone with you," she said. She stroked the baby's head. "You know, I was thinking that maybe I would like to go outside tomorrow. It's been months since I've had any fresh air."
"Really? That would be wonderful!" Susana said. She kissed her mother's cheek. "I'll be back soon," she said.
Susana found Zdenka in the kitchen and whispered to her. "Cook, I need Zdenka to help me with something. I'll have her back in about an hour," Susana said.
"Very well, Miss," Cook said, barely looking up from the bread she was kneading.
Zdenka grabbed her shawl and followed Susana out the door.
"Where are we going, Miss?" Zdenka asked.
"We're going to the prison to tell my father about the baby," Susana said. "I only wish we could bring the baby himself to show my father. He'll be so excited."
It was early afternoon, though it seemed darker and later. A light mist fell from the heavy clouds overhead. Susana pulled her hood over her head as they rounded the corner onto Orli Street. Her enthusiasm dampened as they walked up to the stone prison.
"Hello, Miss," the guard said. He was a heavy set man with prominent eyebrows. He stood at the door leaning against a pike.
"Hello, Sir," Susana said. "I've come to see my father."
He continued to lean on the pike, and she wondered why he paused. He narrowed his dark eyes as he looked at the cobblestone beneath the point of his pike. "Sir?" she said.
"I'm not sure I should let you see him," the guard said. "He's ill."
"Very ill?" Susana asked.
"Several prisoners have taken ill in the past few days," the guard said. "I'm afraid it wouldn't be safe to let you go in."
Susana searched his face. His eyes refused to meet hers, and she knew there was more than he was telling her.
"Why don't you run along home and try to come back in a few days," the guard suggested. "Perhaps he'll be feeling better then."
"Sir, I have very important news for my father. Just give me two minutes with him. Just two minutes."
The guard looked at the girl in front of him. She held her hands clasped together in front of her chest. She was looked so hopeful, and she was pinning her hopes on him. He had the power to grant her simple wish.
"Very well," he said. "Klaus, take these girls to see Mr. Loboda, Cell 3." Another guard appeared from the dank interior and he motioned for them to follow him. They tiptoed down the damp dark hallway past two other cells. The first cell held an entire family. Two children played with a game with some small black stones while their parents napped on their cots. The second cell was empty. Susana hastened to the third cell and grasped the iron bars with her gloved hands.
"Papa?" she whispered.
"Susana," a raspy voice said. "Is that you?"
"Yes, Papa, it's me," she said. "Can you open the door for me?" she asked the guard who stood behind her. He shook his head.
Susana smelled the putrid smell of vomit coming from the cell. Her father struggled to a seated position on his cot. He was barely recognizable, though she'd seen him only a few days before. His hair was scraggly and matted on one side. Chunks of vomit dotted his beard. His eyes shone too brightly against his pale skin.
"Oh, Papa," Susana said. "How long have you been ill? What can I do for you?" She turned to the guard again. "Do you have any medicines for him? Any blankets?" The guard again shook his head.
"Are you all right?" her father rasped. "Your mother?"
"She's well, Papa. The baby was born. His name is Caspar, and he's healthy, and mother is gaining strength."
"Ahh, I can't tell you how I've longed to hear that report," her father said. "Thank you for telling me, my dear. You haven't told your mother I'm here?"
"No, Papa," Susana said.
"Good girl," her father said. "It won't be long before it's all straightened out and I'm home again with you and your mother. And the little one, too. Caspar. That was my father's name," he said. He coughed and turned to the wall and wretched.
Susana turned her head away so she wouldn't have to see him.
"You'd best go," he said. "Kiss your mother and the baby for me. I'll be better company next time you come."
"Yes, Papa," Susana said. "I love you."
"I love you, too, Dear Heart," he whispered. The guard led Susana and Zdenka back down the dank hallway and out into the gray misty afternoon. Susana breathed deeply the fresh air outside. She felt nauseous from the smells inside the jail.
The next morning, Susana sent Zdenka to the jail with a basket of medicines and a wool blanket for her father. She also sent a letter from her mother telling her father all about the baby and how she was feeling well.
While Zdenka was gone, Susana prepared her mother for a walk outside. She helped the servants to get her all dressed and put on her shoes, which she hadn't worn for so long. With Susana on one side and a servant on the other, they helped her walk down the long stairs. Once she was outside in the misty morning, she breathed deeply and held her face to the shrouded sun. "Ah, I feel alive again. This is wonderful," she said. She took a few tentative steps into the garden and then shrugged off the help from Susana and the servant. Susana's mother slowly walked up and down the aisles of the rose garden. She stooped to smell the yellow roses and caressed the plants lovingly.
The baby's cry came from inside the house. "I'll get him, Mother," Susana said. She went inside to get the baby and soon emerged, carrying little Caspar in her arms. When she was just a few feet from her mother, her mother bent over suddenly and grasped at her abdomen.
"Mother! What is it?" Susana cried. The servant reached for her, but Susana's mother was already on the ground, writhing in pain.
"What's wrong?" Susana cried again.
"It hurts!" her mother said.
"What? What hurts?" Susana asked. The baby started to cry again.
The servant called to another servant in the house. The gardener came quickly and picked up Susana's mother and hurried to the house. He laid her down on the nearest sofa, and another servant sent for Dr. Palacký.
"Did the pain just start? Where does it hurt? Is it only in your abdomen?" Susana tried to hold her mother while holding the baby, and the baby got in the way. He pulled at her mother's disheveled hair, but she could only clutch at her stomach.
The minutes seemed interminable. When would Dr. Palacký come?
But before he could arrive, Susana's mother stopped struggling. Without a word, she slipped away. Her muscles relaxed, but her brow remained furrowed. Susana was left holding baby Caspar, whose wrinkled red face cried out in rage.
At that moment, Zdenka threw open the front door. Everyone heard the deep sound of the tall door hitting the wall and looked to her expectantly, thinking it was Dr. Palacký. She stood there in the center of the doorway, a small silhouette surrounded by the yellow morning light.
"I have a message," she said in a small voice.
"Well, what is it, Child?" one of the servants said impatiently.
Zdenka walked into the room where Mrs. Loboda lay still and white on the couch.
"No," Zdenka said, shaking her head.
"What's the message?" the servant asked again.
Zdenka lifted her hand to reveal a folded piece of paper. She handed it to Susana, who was still trying to calm the frantic baby.
Susana shifted the baby to one arm so she could unfold the paper. She turned it right side up to read. The room was absolutely silent except for the after-sobs of the tiny baby in her arms.
"No," she said, an echo of Zdenka's reaction to her mother. Zdenka was now on her knees in front of Mrs. Loboda, her capped head buried in Mrs. Loboda's dress.
"No!" Susana yelled.
She handed the baby to the nearest servant and ran out the front door. She couldn't see clearly through her tears but kept on running. She started to trip on her long skirts, so she bunched them up and held them in her fists as she ran and ran and ran. Her heart pounded and still she ran.
As Susana ran, the servants back at the house picked up the paper Susana had dropped before she burst out of the house.
"What does it say? Can anyone read?" they whispered to one another. "Zdenka, what does it say?"
Zdenka looked up at their worried faces. A faraway look had transformed her round face. "I can't read it, but I know what it says. Mr. Loboda is dead."