Chapter 16 - One Baby, Two Babies

Leslie sighed and looked at the two babies sleeping contently in their cribs, for now that is. Having both of them asleep at once was going to be a miracle if the last two days were any indication. Two days, she had already been a mom for two days, she had also been in the hospital for two days … and that was probably ringing up quite a hefty bill... but she would have to worry about that later, she was too tired to think about it now. She just got comfortable and started dosing off when in walked the Dr and the Robinson’s. 

“How are you doing this Morning?” Dr. Mandez asked, as he came over and started to take her pulse.

“Tired…” Leslie sighed “if one baby isn’t crying the other one is, and then there’s Drs and nurses poking and prodding me at all hours, that of course is when I’m not worrying about how I’m going to pay for all of this. But other than that I’m fine!” she answered sarcastically. Goodness being tired made her cranky. How was she going to be able to care for two babies all by herself, and work?  How would they survive if she couldn’t work? What citizenship would her children have? Oh goodness, would the questions never cease. 

“Aw… aren’t they cute.” Mrs. Richardson cooed, and then turning to the Dr. “So you say she is completely healthy?” 

 “Yes, they’re all doing fine.” Dr. Mandez “should be able to go home sometime next week, if all goes well.” 

“That ‘s wonderful!” Mrs. Richardson exclaimed “So Leslie how are you feeling?” 

Leslie rolled her eyes, did that woman not just hear her tell the Dr how she was feeling? 

“I’ll leave you guys to talk”  the Dr. said as he walked out the door.

“Talk?”  Leslie sniffled a groan, she really needed to rest before the babies woke up again, would these people never leave. 

“Is there anything we can help you with, dear?” Mrs. Richardson asked again. 

They obviously weren’t going away to let her rest, so she might as well see if they could help her out, she needed to get some of her things from the hotel. “Actually I need someone to take a message to Hector, tell him I obviously won’t be back to work for a while and I need some of my personal belongings from my room. Would you guys mind getting them for me ? I’ll just write a quick list of the things I need.” 

“Sure we’d be glad too!” Mr. Richardson said “Just take your time and write it down!”

“So what are your plans once you get out of the hospital?” Mrs. Richardson asked, while Leslie pushed herself into a sitting position and started writing her list and note to Hector “I mean how are you going to take care two babies and work? Hector was already running you ragged as it was!”

“I’m not sure.” Leslie said with a sigh, “It’s going to be really difficult that’s for sure!” 

“I know we’ve talked about this before, but would you be open to an adoption.”

“No, I can’t give up my kids. They are the only thing I have left of Jamie!” 

“But you can’t take care of two children on your own. What if you gave up one of them for adoption? That would make it easier on you and give the baby a good life!”  

“I can’t split them up.” 

  “Well, you’re tired. At least think about it. A mom and dad could give them a much better life than you can here without a job and prospects.”

“I’ll think about it” Leslie said as she handed Mrs.  Richardson her notes, “I need to get some rest before the babies wake up again. Thanks so much for your help”    

The Richardson’s left and Leslie finally fell into a fitful sleep only to be awakened a few minutes later when one of the twins awakened. She took the baby girl out of her crib and shushing and rocking her, putting her to her breast to feed her. Exhausted and emotional Leslie hummed and cried, “How can they expect me to give you up, you precious little darling? But how can I take care of both of you?” she asked as her son began to cry.  And more and more the tears flowed down her face she kissed the baby’s head and laid her back down and picked up her son, again she cuddled and fed the baby, crying and deliberating over what to do. All the stress of the last nine months seemed to come out in those tears. The tears she hadn’t cried over her situation and Jamie’s death all came out and her emotions overwhelmed her. Finally she got the babies back to sleep. She pushed the nurse call button and when the nurse came to the room she asked that the babies be taken to the nursery so that she could sleep, then she would think and pray.

   After a couple of hours sleep, Leslie woke up feeling rested and after eating some food and she called the nurse and had the babies brought to her, she asked the nurse what paperwork she needed to fill out to get the babies’ birth certificates and passports. Within few minutes the nurse had returned with the necessary forms and Leslie began filling them out.  Looking at her two babies, now sleeping soundly, she deliberated over what to put on the forms, finally she decided. On the first form she wrote Child’s Name - Annaliese Marie Jamison, and on the second form she wrote  Child’s Name  - James Lewis Jamison . She filled out the pertinent information on herself and Jamie. Now no matter what happened at least her babies would have their names and American citizenship from their mother and Jamie would be listed as their father. 

That afternoon the Richardson’s returned without her things, Hector was holding her things hostage they said. They again tried to convince her that giving the babies up for adoption would be the best choice.  Leslie resisted, she wanted to keep her babies and she wanted to keep them together.  Again exhaustion takes over and the babies start to fuss. The Richardson’s finally left and Leslie fed and changed the babies and put them back in their cribs. And once again she fell asleep. She had only been asleep a few minutes when Mrs. Richardson returned to the room and asked Leslie to sign a paper, saying that she gave them permission to bring her things to her. Groggily Leslie signed and then as baby Annaliese started fussing again, Leslie got her out of her crib again and drowsily put her to her breast, while the baby started to eat Leslie’s eyelids began to droop. 

When she awoke she knew something was wrong her baby was not in her arms, frantic she punched the nurse call button over and over frantically searching for the baby, she saw her belongings sitting on the table along with two notes. One was from Hector saying that if she took her belongings he could not guaranty her room or job when and if she should return. The other was from Mrs. Richardson apologizing that they couldn’t do more but that they had to return to the States that afternoon and wishing her luck with the babies. Finally the nurse arrived and Leslie tried with her limited Spanish to explain that her baby was missing, the nurse kept pointing to Jamie in the little crib saying “This is baby!” finally the Dr came back into the room and told Leslie to calm own and sit down on the bed before she hurt herself. He explained the best he could that baby Annaliese was no longer with them, “you know what happened,” he said over and over “you signed the paper”. With that Leslie burst into tears again, coming to the only logical conclusion in her mind, her nightmare had come true she had fallen asleep while feeding Annaliese and rolled over on her, she did remember signing something but what it was she didn’t know. She asked if she could see her baby one more time to say good-bye and all she was told is “No, she is gone”.  Baby James awakened by the commotion, started to scream, the nurse handed him to Leslie who only cried harder as she tried to nurse him and console him.  God was definitely mad at her, she thought as she rocked the baby boy in her arms begging “Please, God don’t let them take him too!”

Chapter 15 - Life in Spain

Leslie sighed, as she snuggled into Jamie’s arms. He reached up and brushed her curls from her eyes and kissed her tenderly. “I love you Leslie Ann Jamison!” he murmured into her neck pulling her closer to him as if he couldn’t get her close enough.

Leslie stirred, and slowly the dream faded away, and reality intruded on her consciousness once more. She was alone. She stretched slowly trying to ease her aching muscles, her hand unconsciously rubbing her expanding stomach. The baby was at it again, the little one inside her was tumbling and playing, sometimes it seemed like the baby never slept. Once again she wished that Jamie were there to share it with her and tears rolled down her cheeks as she remembered the accident that had claimed Jamie’s life. She shook her head, she couldn’t let herself think of her loss, she would never quit crying if she did that. “Think of the good times” she reminded herself sternly. Fortunately for her, the baby chose that moment to kick her bladder. She quickly sat up, well as quickly as she could for being almost eight months pregnant, and waddled to the bathroom thinking “Maybe it’s a good thing Jamie can’t see me now. I feel like a huge whale! He’d probably say I was fat or something and then we’d have a huge fight!” 

Leslie turned on the radio more to drowned out her own thoughts than anything, even thoughts of having a fight with her husband threatened to drowned her in sadness. If it hadn’t been for the baby she probably would have let herself drowned in her grief, but as it was she forced herself to go through her daily routine. A quick shower, then she’d go down to the hotel kitchen for some breakfast, before she had to start serving breakfast to the hotel guests. Leslie sighed as she looked at her already swollen, aching feet it was only 6:30 and already her ankles were twice their normal size and Leslie would be on her feet till probably 2 or 3 in the morning serving tables and cleaning rooms. She knew that in her advanced stage of pregnancy, she should be getting more rest but what could she do, without her passport proving her citizenship she could neither get a visa to work legally in Spain nor get a job on base and worse yet she couldn’t go home to her parents or to the States to Jamie’s folks. The only reason she had this job is because she could speak English and a lot of the guests spoke English, and because she was there illegally Hector could get away with not paying her anything and she did the work of 2 of his regular workers. 

Once again she wished that she had just gone home to her parents and taken her chances with her dad’s anger. If she only she hadn’t lost her stupid passport. She glanced at the clock and saw she must hurry if she was going to make it down in time to eat something before starting her shift, Hector was extremely picky about her being on time and she needed him to be in a good mood today since she was going to talk to him about letting her work the front desk until the baby was born, and see what he would allow her to do after that, since he didn’t pay her any cash the only money Leslie had was what the guests would tip her.  She had been saving as much as she could but she was afraid it wouldn’t be enough to cover her hospital bill when the time came, plus she was worried about what she would do with the baby once it got here, would Hector let her keep it with her while she worked the front desk. 

Dizzily, Leslie griped the banister as she raced down the stairs to the kitchen, “I must be really hungry if I’m feeling this dizzy so early in the day” usually the dizziness didn’t hit until around 2 or 3 in the afternoon when Leslie had been running up and down cleaning rooms. She sighed and winced as a pain griped her abdomen. By the time Leslie reached the kitchen she could hardly walk she was so dizzy and the pains weren’t letting up either. Jaun, the cook, turned “hola, Bonitta, llega tarde.” Leslie groaned “Yes I know I’m late, but can I at least have some juice, I’m feeling a little dizzy this morning.” “Si,” Jaun replied “but you must hurry. Hector is saying he will give your tables away. The Richardsons are already down this morning.” 

Leslie grabbed a glass of juice while Jaun put the finishing touches on the Richardsons’ breakfast plates. Which she quickly placed on her tray and hurried out the door the Richardsons’ were a rich American couple who tipped very well, she couldn’t loose that table. Breakfast was busy and Leslie didn’t get a chance to talk to Hector afterwards either. Silvia, one of the other cleaning girls didn’t show for her shift so Leslie didn’t have a choice but to help clean not only her rooms  but all of Silvia’s as well, then it was back to the dining room to serve lunch. “At least I got some extra tips too.” Leslie said to herself as she tried to catch her breath before returning to the dining room with her tray. She saw Hector enter across the room and waved to him “Hector, necesito hablar con usted!”  

“What do you need now?” Hector said the distain for her evident in his voice. Leslie gasped as another pain squeezed her abdomen “Well, what do you need? I don’t got all day!”  

“ I need to trade with Angelica at the front desk this afternoon, I’m not feeling well and my feet are really swollen.” 

Hector laughed “you’re going to check people in, with your pathetic Spanish how are you going to do that?”  

“The same way I take my customer’s orders and get their food to them!” Leslie shot back she knew from experience that Hector wouldn’t back down unless she pushed him hard. 

“And what if I don’t let you trade, what are you going to do? quit? Come on, Bonita, you and I both know that is not an option.”  

“My name is Leslie not Bonita. And no I won’t quit but I might …” Leslie searched for the right words in Spanish finally she gave up and said in English “deliver my child on your dining room floor and that would not be good for business.” At the last word another spasm griped her and she nearly doubled over with the force of it. “Please, I need to sit down” she gasped. 

“Oh, fine” Hector scorned “You may sit down, after you finish the lunch service!” 

Leslie bit her lip to keep from crying Hector liked nothing better than to see her cry.  “Fine,” she said weakly as she lifted the tray and returned to the dining room.  She made it about half way to the Richardsons’ table before another pain griped her stomach, she tried to set her tray down but she simply wasn’t fast enough, the dishes full of food crashed to the floor and Leslie screamed as another contraction griped her stomach and water gushed down her legs. 

Hector burst through the kitchen doors, “You stupid little fool,” he screamed at her, “What have you done now?” Leslie stood there dazed and then sank into the nearest chair with glazed eyes, her eyes soon rolled back in her head and she slid from the chair unconscious of the commotion going on around her. 

“Someone call an ambulance.” Mrs. Richardson exclaimed turning to her husband she said “I told you something wasn’t right with her this morning.”  

Leslie woke up in the hospital being rushed down the hallway flat on her back on a gurney and an oxygen mask on her face, she tried to talk but couldn’t get the words out and she couldn’t understand what the doctors and nurses were saying, then she caught the word “Babies” Was something wrong with her baby wondered “Oh please God don’t let anything happen to my baby.” She thought as her eyes fluttered shut again.

A few hours later Leslie woke up and immediately she felt different, her stomach had stopped cramping, but after laying there a few minutes she also noticed that she wasn’t feeling any movement from the baby either. Panicked she forced herself into a sitting position and found a nurse call button that she punched franticly. Two nurses appeared within a few seconds “What happened to me?” Leslie asked “where’s my baby?” the nurses looked at her blankly “Bebé?” she questioned pointing to her stomach and then making a cradle with her arms she rocked them back and forth.  

“Ah…” the two  nurses smiled at her and started rattling off a  string of words in Spanish most of which Leslie didn’t understand “Lentamente, atendaemos lentamente, yo no entiendo.” Leslie said the one phrase that usually got people to slow down, explain themselves, and use gestures to help her understand what they are saying. This time was no different, both nurses stopped talking, looked at each other and one said something to the other who smiled and left the room quickly. 

The nurse who stayed continued checking Leslie’s vitals and chatter at her. She indicates to Leslie that she needs her to lift her gown so she can check her stomach, she points to an incision on Leslie’s stomach and holds up two fingers and says “Dos Bebés…muy bueno.” The second nurse returns pushing a small crib, followed by a third nurse pushing another crib, both smile broadly. “Dos bebés” they say again “Un niño y una niña” they said as they lifted the babies from the crib and brought them around to the bed and handed them to Leslie.  

Leslie looked at their little faces and with tears running down her face whispered “dos Bebés, whatever am I going to do with dos bebés?

Chapter 14 - The Meeting

Back in Tennessee, 5 years later

        Stacy paced nervously in the living room “Travis, Kevin, are you guys ready yet? We are going to be late!” she hollered. 

             Kevin walked up behind her placed his hands on her shoulders and gently kissed her cheek. “We’re not going to be late, honey!” He said quietly “we’ve got plenty of time. Just try and relax.” 

                “Relax !? How am I supposed to relax when we are headed to Memphis to talk to the FBI agents who are looking for our daughter-in-law and our grandbaby?”  

                “Grandbaby?”  Travis queried as he joined them in the living room “Mom, you do realize that Jamie’s ‘baby’ would be five years old by now?” 

                “Yes, I know.” Stacy sighed, “I was speaking in motherly terms, like you will always be my ‘baby’ no matter how big you get!”  she smiled and kissed him on the cheek “You know, Travis, I’m really proud of the young man you’ve become!” 

                “Thanks Mom. I love you too. Now can we get going? Now we really are going to be late if we don’t hurry.”  He said with a teasing grin.

                As they all piled into the SUV Stacy thought about the changes that had happened over the last month since they had found Leslie’s picture and called the FBI.  They had make a short trip to Cookeville and supplied them with all of the information they had; the papers that had been sent by Commander Taylor, Jamie’s  laptop, coat, the pictures, everything had to be turned over to the FBI. They had all been questioned both together and separately on their knowledge of the situation how they came to have this information, anyone they knew who might have any knowledge of Leslie’s current whereabouts, etc. Stacy still couldn’t understand it all, it was almost as if the FBI thought they were some kind of criminals. They weren’t given any real information about the investigation and were sent home with a vague promise that they would be contacted should anything new develop.  That had been weeks ago and then yesterday they had received a call asking them to come to the FBI Office in Memphis as soon as possible. Their appointment was a 1 o’clock this afternoon and they were all a little nervous the agent had been as nice as he could be he just hadn’t given them any clear indication of why they needed to go all the way to Memphis. 

                “Well,” she thought to herself “in a few hours I guess we’ll know.”

They arrived in Memphis well ahead of their scheduled appointment time, so in an effort to help Stacy relax her men decided to treat her to some authentic Mexican food from Las Delicias Mexican Bar and Grill. It was a family owned and run Mexican restaurant in East Memphis. “It’s got great food, relaxed atmosphere, smiling faces and according to this blogger ‘the best’ margarita’s in town.” Travis teased as he read the direction from his iphone. Stacy just shook her head at his foolishness, she knew her son had never drank any alcoholic beverage of any kind, because that’s just not something they did in their family. The dinner was delicious and the service superb, all in all Stacy found the atmosphere to be just what the ratings had said relaxing and comfortable.  They started off with chips and salsa with a side of the restaurants famous guacamole. Then Travis ordered the Fajitas Alambre, which was; Grilled steak, green pepper, onion, bacon and cheese with 7 small corn tortillas.  And Stacy and Kevin decided to split a tamale platter that consisted of; a pork tamale, a chicken tamale, rice, and beans. They were both too nervous to really eat anything but tried to make a good show of it for Travis’ sake. Of course Travis wasn’t nervous at all and ate everything he could even offering to help finish theirs when it became evident that it was way more than the two of them could handle. 

At precisely 1 o’clock they were standing in the office of Agent Wilson, who then ushered them into a larger conference room where another agent was already seating another group, a family it looked like, another couple about the same age as Stacy and Kevin, and four young men, the oldest looked to be about 20 and the youngest about 14, a young girl was also with them, about 9 years old. 

“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Jamison, I’m Agent Nickelson, so glad you could make it. Please have a seat.” The agent indicated the other side of the table from the family already seated. As they sat down Agent Nickelson smiled and said “I know you are wondering what this is all about and we will get to that in a few minutes, but first. Please, allow me to make introductions, Mr. and Mrs. Kingston allow me to present your son-in-law’s parents Kevin and Stacy Jamison.”

“Son-in-law?  Son-in-law? What Son-in-law? I already told you fools my daughter was not married!” 

“Mr. Kingston, please sit down.” Agent Wilson said calmly in spite of the fact that Mr. Kingston and risen abruptly out of his seat his face flushed with rage and was angrily pacing around the room. 

“Steven, please…” Mrs. Kingston pleaded nervously. “I’m sorry” she said, looking back across the table “I don’t know who you folks are but my husband is right, our daughter isn’t married. We would have known if she was.”

Stacy leaned across the table, “I understand, Mrs. Kingston, I felt the same way about my Jamie, but …” 

“Jamie?  You’re Jamie’s mother?” Mrs. Kingston exclaimed excitedly “what happened to your daughter?  We looked all over for her after Leslie disappeared, but no one seemed to know anything about her.” 

Stacy drew a deep breath and exhaled shakily, “My SON, Jamie, was killed in a drunk-driving accident on December 10^th the same year your daughter, Leslie, went missing!” 

“But… Leslie’s friend Jamie was a girl…”Mrs. Kingston stammered.

“Did Leslie ever say Jamie was a girl?” Travis interjected.

“I’m sure she did at some point…”

“No, Mom, I think he’s is right,” the oldest Kingston boy, Todd, interjected “I don’t remember Leslie ever saying Jamie was a girl, she never used a personal pronoun for her either. We all just assumed when Leslie said she had made a new friend that it was a girl ‘cause we could never imagine her making friends with a boy!”

“So you’re saying, that my god-fearing, straight-laced, plain-Jane, Daughter, hooked up with this BOY Jamie, lied to her loving parents and then just disappeared into thin air after this BOY died!” Mr. Kingston shouted turning around and bringing his fist crashing down on the conference table with such force that everyone in the room jumped, and Lilly burst into tears. “Let me tell you something, my daughter would never lie to her mother and I, she knew what would happen to her if she did!” With that he turned and stormed out of the room letting the conference room door slam behind him.

“Mrs. Jamison, I’m sorry for your loss, but I must agree with my husband on this one, our daughter would never have lied to us, there just must have been another Jamie.” Mrs. Kingston said as she gathered her things and Lilly and headed for the door.

“Mrs. Kingston, I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong,” interjected Agent Wilson again, “We have uncovered some evidence that indicates that your daughter, Leslie, was married to their son, Jamie and was pregnant at the time of her disappearance. So this actually could explain why we couldn’t find her since we were looking for her under her maiden name. Not to mention, we were looking for her in Germany, or the US it turns out that the kids were planning on taking their honeymoon in Spain, before they were going to surprise you all at Christmas!”

“Leslie was pregnant!! No! That’s impossible!”Mrs. Kingston stood up her face sowing the same indignation that had been on her husband’s before he stormed from the room. “I know my daughter and she was not pregnant! Come on Lilly, Boys I think we are done here!”  They all stood and left the room quickly. 

When they reached the elevator, Todd turned back; “Hold on Mom,  I left my jacket in the conference room.  I’ll meet you at the car.”  

“Well, I’m truly sorry ,” Agent Wilson was saying to the Jamisons as they watched the Kingston family leave , “I was hoping that perhaps they would remember something that would help us.” 

“That’s ok.”Kevin said standing to shake the agent’s hand “ you did what you could, it’s not …”  

Suddenly the conference room door burst open, and Todd burst in breathless, “Look I don’t know why my parents are acting all defensive about Leslie, they certainly have nothing nice to say about her in private, but I had noticed that Leslie was acting a little strange the last few months before she disappeared, and she had been gained a little weight. My dad had threatened to disown her several times if she were to do something stupid like get herself pregnant, so there is a good chance that if she was pregnant she just decided to stay away and not put the family through that!”

“Oh, really,” Stacy said somewhat worried now “had Leslie been heading for trouble before?”

Todd shook his head, “No,” He laughed, “actually, she hadn’t even had a boyfriend, to my knowledge.  She was always the dutiful daughter first, always cooking, cleaning, and helping mom. I mean, yeah, she and dad got into a lot of arguments especially after she moved in with the Hollands but I think that was more her trying to grow up than actual rebellion, anyway here’s my cell phone number. If you hear anything more would you mind giving me a call. I’ll see what I can do to get them to come around.”  

   

 “Thank you, Todd,” Agent Wilson said “as to the latest; we’ve contacted the American Embassy in Madrid and found out that Leslie’s passport was reported missing about a week after your son’s accident and that she applied for an emergency passport at that location, but that’s where the trail seems to end. We are alerting all the local agencies, to  the new developments in this case, but as it is merely a missing persons case and not of national importance I have no idea when we might actually be able to hear something. But I will notify each of you as soon as I hear something and if you think of anything else you will please let us know.”

With that he ushered them from the room and called another agent to escort them to the elevator. Where they said their good-byes, and separated, the Jamisons headed to Mt. Juliet  and the Kingstons to Little Rock.