3 #A New Friend

The life of a doctor and a father of a five-year-old have ups and downs of its own. But the last few days were the hardest, since we are moving to a new neighborhood, a new house. There is so much work to do that I lost count and maybe sleep. I guess that’s why my head is hurting badly now and then. But, I hope this is the last time we have ever moved. Marlene is growing fast, even as a single father. I want to provide her home, a family, and the love and care she deserves that I have never had in my life.

“Daddy, can I have candy?” I looked down, staring at the tiny beings beside me.

We are both shopping for our new house, and Marlene is an excellent company for that. I also have to design a room for her. Marlene is very tomboyish. She doesn’t like dolls or princesses, except her likes are cars and legos. Everything I would have wanted if I was a child, and in many ways, Marlene is like me.

“First, let’s buy some clothes for you. Then we can go for ice cream. You like it.” I said, caressing her head gently.

“Yea...” she grinned, jumping in joy.

We made our way towards the car, with Marlene strapped and secured inside; I started packing things when something or someone stumbled upon my body, falling on top of me.

I almost lost my balance for a second but somehow stood still, supporting the person who knocked herself over me. “Excuse me,” I said, but noticed her unconscious. I glanced around, hoping to find someone who might know her, but couldn’t seem to find anyone.

I checked her pulse, which was very low to normal; her face was dull, giving no color, her lips were dry and chapped, her clothes and hair messy too, eyes filled with dark circles. She seems to be hurt, if not physically, then mentally. Maybe she is running away from someone. I need to do something. I carried her to my car and to the hospital fast. It’s my duty as a human and a doctor, both to help the needy.

********

I opened my eyes feeling a sting on my left hand only to see it attached with an IV, with my body lying on a bed. I scanned the space I’m in right now, white dividers, white walls, white floors everything is too white, with the smell of medicines strong in the air, fuming my nostrils, making me feel nauseous, Hospital! What the hell am I doing here, and who brought me here?

“Are you okay?” someone said, and I turned my head to the source of the voice, coming face to face with a man in a white coat and gray shirt gazing at me with a clipboard in his hand.

“Who brought me here?” I said, trying to rise from the bed, only to start coughing out of nowhere. I tried to reach for the glass of water, feeling parched suddenly. But my hand can’t seem to be long enough to reach the glass. The doctor held it for me and brought it to the front of the mouth, helping me. “Thanks,” I said, sometime later swallowing an enormous amount of water in my mouth.

“No issue.” He said with a smile on his face. “It was me who brought you here, when you fell unconscious in my arms.”

“Unconscious in your arms,” I said, trying to remind myself exactly what happened.

“Yes, anyway I’m Dr. Brandon Marshall.”

“Jane,” I said, forgoing the topic of falling on his arms.

“Can I ask you a question, Jane?” I nod at his words?

“Who is Jared?”

Jared, Oh yes, it was all a dream. I was dreaming about Jared, though everything felt so real. How can it be all false? It felt so true to me. Everything feels so real, but the reality is Jared is no more and nowhere around me, and he will never be around me anymore. Holding me, kissing me, embracing me, adoring me, my Jared will never be with me anymore, along with any of my family members.

“How do you know about Jared?” I asked, bewildered by his question.

“I don’t want to intrude, but you were calling his name again and again while you were unconscious.” Dr. Brandon replied.

I nodded at his words. “Jared was my fiancé,”

“Was?” Brandon asked the question that I was trying to ask myself for days.

“He died in a car accident, along with all my family members.”

Brandon seemed shocked by my words. “I’m sorry… I know how hard death can be, but you can’t lose hope, not when you’re pregnant. Y__”

“Pregnant.” Did I hear him right, or was my mind playing games with me? “I’m pregnant.”

Brandon nodded his head. “Yes, you’re four weeks pregnant. I know it's hard, but I want you to not take so much stress. It’s not good for you or your baby’s health.”

I put a hand over my tummy gently, not trusting the fate and uncertainty of life. I’m pregnant with Jared’s child. Jared always wanted to be a father; he never had a family of his own, so he always wanted to create one of his own. But after so many attempts and one miscarriage, we both lost hope. But Jared always used to say the same thing every time we have a conversation about babies,

“Jane, it’ll happen on its own, we both are healthy, perhaps God doesn’t want us to have a child right now, so darling, we wait and try our best, and making babies is far more fun than having them,” Jared used to say, winking at me.

Those words used to bring back the smile on my face. But now, when I’m pregnant, Jared isn’t here with me to share my joy or the pleasure of having a child together.

“Don’t cry and Jane… take care,” Brandon said with a grin, cutting me off from my profound thoughts as he left.

I nodded my head, wiping my tears with the back of my hand, even though it hurt with Jared and my family not being here with me for our child. But this child gave me a reason, a hope to live.

And I’ll not take it for granted, I will live for this child, for mine and Jared’s baby, and, I will move on to fulfill Jared’s wish moving on in life, I will move on, not with another person but with my child, and start a new life, with my baby and our loved ones in my memories.