Chapter 17 - New Beginings

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.