Stranded

Mara woke up to the sound of a gentle humming. She lay on her back on a soft bed, quite unlike the one she was used to sleeping on at home. She lay still for almost a minute, staring at the white ceiling as her current situation slowly dawned on her. 

She was in the hospital. She had gone through a lot in the delivery of her child and had passed out in the process. That was the most she could remember. Her first thought was the child and she quickly turned to see if it was beside her. But unfortunately, that was the wrong direction. Instead it was her stepmother she saw.

Mara's heart skipped a beat, knowing what that woman was capable of. Certainly, she would soon receive an earful of verbal abuse, so she tried to pretend as if she was still unconscious, but ooops! Rosa chose just that moment to glance at the bed.

"Oh! So you're awake, bitch? How do you feel now, eh? Don't bother to answer that. I have only two things to tell you. One, the piece of trash you gave birth to is on the other side."

Mara quickly turned and her eyes encountered the beautiful form of her sleeping baby and she sighed with a full heart. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of what this all meant. She was now a mother! She was now responsible for the life and future of someone other than herself. It was both a thrilling and depressing thing for her. But her stepmother didn't let her have this moment in peace.

"Now that you've seen the trash, here's what I have to say next. Listen very closely. I've been waiting here for hours for you to wake up and hear this directly from me. Your mother was a filthy worthless whore, just like you are."

Mara flinched and shuddered at the force with which the insult was launched, but Rosa went on, glad of the effect her words had produced.

"Do you know you're not my husband's child? Yes, you're not. Your whore of a mother had you for some tramp somewhere and imposed you on my husband. Now, listen and listen good. My husband and I do not want to see your worthless face ever again! Don't come to the house or we'll have you arrested. Don't call us either. And don't come anywhere near us forever!"

***

And don't come anywhere near us forever! 

And don't come anywhere near us forever!

The words were still echoing in her head even though they were said 24 hours ago. Since then, a lot of things had happened. After her stepmother left, she had spent the next few hours crying bitterly and bemoaning her ugly fate. What was she going to do now that she was rejected by her only family? Where would she go with her child? Since neither her father nor her stepmother had paid the bills at the hospital, she was also indebted to the hospital. But the doctor that delivered her of the baby had been kind enough to allow her stay till the next day. 

Mara knew she would have to leave eventually, but it still came as a shock when, the next night, she was asked to quit the bed to make space for another patient. One thing led to another and when it was found that she would never be able to pay her debt, she was turned out immediately. And now, here she was in a shopfront, on a dark cold night, the wind howling like a legion of demons. She sat with her back to it, trying her best to keep her baby away from the chill. Even though she covered it with every spare piece of material she had on her, it still cried unceasingly. 

Mara was at her wit's end. She had only a thin gown on and her teeth were chattering due to the icy wind blowing endlessly against her back, but all she thought of was how to keep the baby comfortable. 

She had absolutely no experience with child care, being barely an adult herself, so all she could do was rock the infant and press it against her bosom while chaffing its hand with her mouth to try to keep it warm. She was so engrossed with this activity when all of a sudden, she felt a searing pain slash across her back.

"Aaah!", she screamed aloud and began to shiver uncontrollably. Obviously, a speeding car had splashed ice-cold water on her!

Now, she knew it was raining and stormy too. She had not noticed the rain since she had been so focused on comforting her crying baby. She turned her head around and saw that a vehicle with its lights on was parked right there on the road. It was probably the same vehicle that had splashed water on her back. 

A clap of thunder struck, completely illuminating the road in a massive flash of lightning. What Mara saw made her heart sink. No matter what happened, this image would forever reman stuck in her head. A man was standing beside the car in the rain with a gun in his hand. And he was looking in her direction!

The first thought that came to her mind was that her stepmother had sent someone to get rid of her and her baby just to make sure she never bothered her and her husband ever again. In an involuntary act of protectiveness, Mara hugged her baby tighter. 

More and more peals of thunder struck, but there was no lightning to illuminate the area and the lights on the car were now turned off, but Mara still kept her focus on that direction. She was too numb to be scared. She was not afraid of death at all. She knew it would come eventually and it was better to die quickly through a bullet than slowly through cold and starvation which was what was certain to happen to her and the baby.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed on her face, momentarily blinding her. But it was not lightning, it was torchlight. Mara flinched as she saw what she was staring at: a hand holding the torch and another hand holding a gun!

"Holy Mary! Wh... what on Earth are you doing out here with a baby?", the man exclaimed, quickly putting the gun out of sight as he saw that he was pointing it at a defenseless young woman and a little crying baby.

But Mara said nothing in response. Not that she could if she wanted to because her lips and throat felt frozen. She could only sit there, shivering and holding the baby close to her chest as if she was a statue on a shaky foundation being blown by the wind.

"Hold on," the man said and then rushed off. In a few seconds, he returned with a coat and a large cloth. Without wasting time, he threw the cloth around Mara's shoulders and covered her head with some part of it. Next, he tried to take the baby and wrap it in his coat, but Mara refused to let go.

"I just wanna help. I won't hurt it," he admonished. But it was in vain. Mara still refused to surrender the baby. So he settled for covering it with the coat.

"Can you walk?", he asked, shouting above the noise of the thunder peals. Even though she heard him, Mara didn't or couldn't respond. The man took her for a deaf and dumb girl, so he simply helped her up to her feet with the baby in her arms.

The moment she gained her feet, the girl swayed helplessly, the cold seemingly overwhelming her as she began shivering even more than ever, her teeth chattering like castanets. But through it all, she held on to the baby with no thought of letting it go. 

"Come with me, please," the stranger begged, but as usual, Mara made no indication that she had heard him, so he took matters into his own hands and held her tight, shielding her and the baby from the howling icy wind and slowly led her out of the shopfront onto the road and towards his car. 

It was not very easy getting her into the car since she still insisted on holding onto the baby, but somehow, he managed to get her into the front passenger seat and then he jumped into the driver side and pulled the vehicle out of the area in record time.