This is Forever
Four months later…
Incredible warmth touches my side and my chest. My limbs move with ease when I reach up and caress Isabel’s long hair. A clock close by ticks away the seconds. Something wet drips at an even pace. And the smell of antiseptic causes me to wrinkle my nose.
Where are we?
My eyes open to a blurry unfamiliar white hospital room that’s covered with flowers and balloons and cards.
Clear tubes and tape run along my nostrils and are twisted like ivy on my hand, crawling up my arm. I’m propped with Isabel in the hospital bed with me. She’s asleep with a sleeping baby that has thick ringlets of golden hair on my chest and another baby with black waves cradled on Isabel’s side.
Emerald and Sapphire.
My eyes shut for a brief moment.
I’m alive.
Elation and gratitude bubbles inside of me.
I made it.
I’m here.
Petrified of missing anything else, I blink my eyes open. They look bigger than newborns.
They’re a few months old.
My heart thuds painfully.
I’ve missed their birth.
Sally took that away from me.
That was my punishment.
My body fills with fiery heat that threatens to split me open but when I look at Isabel and she stares back at me with those hazel-green eyes a calming peace settles over me. This is my forever.
“Hey,” she greets quietly as if not to wake the babies, smiling her brilliant smile.
“Hey,” I say, grinning back.