The next day, Leslie awoke and was surprised to find that not only was
no one taking baby James away from her but that some mysterious donor had paid
her hospital bill in full and left her with $2,000 in cash for expenses once
she got out of the hospital. That with the cash she had set aside from her tip
money would surely help her get a fresh start. The question was where and how?
One thing Leslie did know was that she had to
get a passport for herself and Baby Jamie, for her so she could get a legal job
and for him so he would be a legal American citizen. She asked the Doctor when
he thought she and Baby Jamie would be well enough to travel. He told her that
he felt if all went well in the next week she and Baby Jamie would be released
and then it was up to her what she wanted to do. He brought her a laptop so she
could look up train schedules and find out what her options were as far as jobs
and living quarters were concerned.
The week passed
swiftly and at its end Leslie was no surer of what the future would hold than
she was at the beginning. All she knew for sure is that she would have to go to
Madrid to the American consulate to get her and Jamie’s passports. So her first
order of business would be to get a stroller and car seat for Jamie and then
she would purchase tickets for them to take the train to Madrid. After that it
would depend on how long it took to get her passport and what kind of jobs were
available. She really wanted to go back to the States, but she knew she would
have to save up a lot more money than what she had to buy two plane tickets,
plus she would need something to live on after she got there. “Oh goodness! It
was all so over whelming!” Leslie
thought to herself as she tried to figure out how she was going to carry the
baby, and all their bags. As she struggled and worked to pack everything in as
few bags as possible, there was a knock at the door.
“Entrar.” Leslie
said and stood back in surprise as two nurses pushed in a very nice stroller with
a car seat attached to the top.
“For you,” One of
the nurses said “we buy present for you and baby” Then she proceeded to show Leslie the extra
diapers filling the basket underneath and how she could put all of her things
in the basket and how the diaper bag could hang from the handles, leaving only the suitcase to pull behind her.
Tears filled
Leslie’s eyes, “Grazias,” she said over and over, “How can I ever thank you?”
The nurses just
smiled and helped her pack everything up, and walked with her to the lobby “we
call taxi,” one said beaming at her, “it take you to train station”
Leslie shook her
head, “Oh no, I can’t take the taxi, I need to save my money, I can walk, now
that I have this nice stroller I can manage to get us to the station just
fine.” She smiled bravely at the nurses who insisted that the taxi ride was
a gift from them and that she should take it. They loaded her, Jamie and her
things into the taxi and waved to her as it drove away.
Leslie was
surprised at how well Baby Jamie did on the train ride to Madrid, he had been
so fussy since they lost Annaliese, like he missed his sister. Leslie was still
sick with grief as well and knew that her mood must also be rubbing off on him,
but thankfully the rocking motion of the train seemed to calm him and he slept
the whole way. Unfortunately, Leslie was so nervous about losing him or any of
her belongings that she couldn’t rest or relax, even for a moment.
After they arrived
in Madrid, even though she was utterly exhausted, the first thing Leslie did
was hire a taxi to take them to the American Consulate. Once there she produced
the forms that she had filled out in the hospital for Baby Jamie and asked what
forms she needed to fill out for herself since she had no form of ID on her.
The man behind the window was very sympathetic but clueless as to how they
could possibly issue her a passport, and sent her up to see his supervisor.
After much consulting between several departments and various rule books, it
was decided that they would have her file for a new social security number and
once they had that they could issue her a regular passport and other forms of
ID. Leslie also asked what to do about the babies, she told them she needed to
get Baby Jamie registered as a citizen, but she wasn’t sure what to do about
little Annaleise, since the hospital hadn’t given her any paperwork like a
death certificate or anything. They gave her new forms to fill out and led her
to a small room with a table to allow her some privacy to deal with Baby Jamie
as she filled out the paperwork.
Leslie sighed as
Baby Jamie woke up and started crying again, she lifted him from his seat and
frowned when she felt the wetness of the back of his sleeper. “Jamie,” she
groaned as she turned him over and discovered that his dirty diaper had leaked
all up his back and down his legs. She attempted to change his diaper and
sleeper, without getting the mess all over herself and the table. Fifteen minutes later Baby Jamie was finally
clean and he hiccupped and slurped as Leslie tried to feed him and wipe his
tearstained face. He was such a sad little boy. Another thirty minutes and Baby
Jamie happy, fed, and sleeping soundly in his car seat Leslie sat at the table
and tried to hurry as she filled out the forms, she was so tired, her eyelids
started to droop, the pen fell from her hand, and she laid her head on the
table and slept.
Leslie woke with a
start; she blinked her eyes trying to figure out where she was and what was
going on. She glanced at the stroller relieved that Baby Jamie was still there
sleeping soundly, she stopped and listened trying to figure out what had
awakened her. Then it came again a gentle knocking at the door “ma’am, ma’am, it’s time for us
to close. Ma’am, can you hear me?”
Leslie jumped up
and grabbed her papers from the desk “I’m so sorry” she said as she pushed the
stroller the guard, “I must have fallen asleep there for a minute.” She smiled
at the guard and asked him where she could turn her papers in, and he pointed
across the room to the row of windows where she had been that morning. “Thank
you so much.” she said again as she
hurried across the room.
She handed her
stack of papers and passport photos to the clerk on the other side of the glass
who looked over them briefly and said “Do you have an address or phone number
that we can contact you at or mail the passport and social security cards to?”
Leslie shook her
head, “No, I’ve just gotten to town, I was going to look for a nice little
youth hostel to stay at until we got this taken care of, but I decided to come
here first. Is that a problem?”
“No, just come back
tomorrow once you have some contact information,” the man behind the window said
sympathetically “It will probably take two to three weeks, at least, to get
these back. I’ll just have them shipped here and you can give us a number where
we can contact you and let you know when they come in.”
“Thanks.” Leslie
said with relief as she turned and pushed the stroller through the front gate
of the Embassy Compound and hailed another taxi. This time she asked the driver
to take her to the nearest youth hostel.
The place he took
her was right in the center of Down-town Madrid and close enough that she could
walk to the embassy.
As Leslie counted
out the cash to pay the driver she wondered how much a night at youth hostel
was going to cost her. She needed to be really careful with her cash because
she had no idea how long it would have to last, getting a job would probably
prove to be pretty difficult especially since she had Baby James and no one to
watch him.
After the cab driver drove away Leslie to a
deep breath, reached for the door handle and after a bit of maneuvering got the
stroller and everything through the door. She approached the front desk and
sent up a quick prayer that the person working would understand English. Her
prayer was answered within minutes she found out that a dormitory style room
that could share up to 15 other women would only cost her 11 euros for the
night and it included a locker to store her things, showers and breakfast;
there was a coin laundry on the premises as well, which was a good thing cause
Baby James had already soiled most of his clothing. The only thing she needed
now was to be sure that it was ok to have a baby in the dorm style room. She
was told that of course it was ok they had moms with kids stay there all the
time and they would even rent her a small crib for an extra 5 euros a week.
Leslie let out a sigh of relief, ever since what had happened with Baby
Annaleise she didn’t trust herself to let Baby James sleep in her arms, but
felt he needed to get out of the car seat for a while too. She booked her spot
and paid the 82 euros for them to stay a week. After being given the grand tour
and storing most of their things in the locker and chaining the stroller to the
bike rack with a bike chain, Leslie carried Baby James in his car seat into the
bathroom so she could get a shower. After showering and changing her clothes
Leslie gave Baby James a sponge bath and dressed him in clean pjs. Then headed
to their room, fed him and laid down for a nap.
The next morning,
after only waking up twice to feed and change Baby James, Leslie rose early and
snuck quietly out of the room. Her room
mates had been a bit noisy when they came in at various times throughout the
night, but Leslie wasn’t too upset because they hadn’t complained when Baby
James woke up a few minutes after they had settled in and started screaming at
the top of his little lungs. She went down stairs and started a load of laundry
and then when to the kitchen in search of some food. Having skipped both lunch
and supper the night before Leslie was starving, and was happy to see a true
continental breakfast spread out on the table, Bread rolls, jam, fruit, sliced
meat, cheese, yogurt, juice, milk, the works.
Leslie smiled at the attendant on duty and asked hesitantly “Habla englies?”
to which he responded “si un poco” Leslie wondered how much a little bit was
and so limited her vocabulary to as few words as possible. She pointed to the
bread and fruit and asked “how many?” and pointed back to herself. He shook his
head “no you no have to pay” he said with a smile. Leslie frowned and then
laughed and said “No, no not how much, how many? As in how many of these can I
eat? Is there a limit?” The attendant laughed too “you eat all of it” he said
with a grin “I bring more for other guests!”
Leslie
carefully made her selections and sat down at the table. Going over her
financial status in her head after paying for the train trip up her from and
paying for their passports, and a week’s stay at the hostel, she knew her
finances were dwindling, but if she could grab an couple of extra bread rolls
and fruit at breakfast she could save them and eat them for supper as well and
then all she would have to pay for was lunch and she was sure she could find
something cheap and healthy for lunch. She knew she had to eat to keep her
strength up especially since she was the only source of nutrition for Baby
James. She needed to buy a cell phone
and then get her information to the embassy.
Baby James was in need of a few more clothes and blankets especially if
he kept peeing and pooping on everything, and she should probably try to get a
couple of nice outfits so she had something other than jeans to wear to an
interview, provided she got one, maybe she should wait on that though till she
actually had an interview, no sense spending money when she didn’t have to. After she went shopping and got the things she
needed she could come back and use the internet café to do a job search. How
thankful she was that Jamie had taken the time to show her how to operate a
computer. She swallowed hard just thinking of him shot a stab of pain in her
heart that made her want to go curl up in her bed and never get up again. She
shook it off, and spoke softly to the baby in the stroller “Ok buddy, let’s go,
we got a lot to do today!” She wouldn’t think about it she couldn’t let herself
feel the pain, she had to take care of Baby James, she had lost Baby Annaleise
but she wasn’t going to let Jamie down again Baby James would be kept safe. But
in order to keep him safe she needed money and in order to get some money she
needed a job, better get moving, she had a busy day ahead of her.