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?
