‘I just don’t understand why I can’t stay here.’
‘You’re beginning to sound like a sulky toddler,’ Ally sighed. ‘I appreciate that you trust Angelina to take care of you, but even she couldn’t save you from a sudden heart attack. And it’s not fair to ask Marcella to mind you either. Besides, the cave hotel is sweet, but given you need to rest, it would be pretty depressing lying in there all day. So, why don’t you consider going to Geneva and letting Ma unleash all her pent-up maternal instincts on her patient?’
I looked at Ally, processed what she had just said, and sighed heavily.
‘Okay, but I’m only doing it for you, Ally.’
‘I don’t care who you’re doing it for, Tiggy, I just want you to be well.’
‘Oh Ally . . .’ I found my eyes filling with tears.
‘What is it?’ Ally reached her hand across the table to me.
‘Just that . . . I spent so much of my childhood watching life go on from behind my bedroom window at Atlantis. I really thought those days were over. I have so many ideas . . . plans for the future, all of which involve me being well. And if this thing –’ I put a hand over my heart – ‘doesn’t get better, then I’m not going to be able to do any of them. I’m only twenty-six, for goodness’ sake. I’m too young to be an invalid.’
‘Well, let’s hope you won’t be, Tiggy. Surely you can see that ensuring your future health is worth a few weeks’ sacrifice? And it might give you some breathing space to think about whether you want to go back to Scotland or not.’
‘I’m not going back to Scotland, Ally. I can’t.’
‘Okay,’ she sighed, signalling for the bill, ‘but at least we have a plan. So we’ll find a travel agent in town to book your flight to Geneva. And after that, we’re going to go and visit Granada cathedral, the resting place of my all-time heroine, Queen Isabella the First of Spain.’
‘She’s buried here?’
‘Yes, alongside her beloved husband, Ferdinand. Ready?’ she asked me with a smile.
‘Ready.’
*
The woman at the travel agent frowned as she checked her computer screen.
‘It is not an easy journey from Granada to Geneva, señorita.’
‘How long will it take?’ I asked.
‘At least twelve hours, maybe more, depending on connecting flights from Barcelona or Madrid.’
‘Oh I see, I didn’t realise—’
‘That’s ridiculous, Tiggy,’ Ally interjected. ‘You’re not in a fit state to spend that long travelling.’
‘But you came here from London, and you’re nearly eight months pregnant!’ I protested.
‘That’s different, Tiggy. Pregnancy isn’t an illness – unlike a heart condition,’ she reminded me. ‘Forget this, I’m going to call Ma. Wait here.’ With that she marched out of the shop, all action as usual, and already pulling her mobile from her bag.
I shrugged apologetically at the woman behind the desk and began flicking through travel brochures to hide my embarrassment, while I waited for my sister to return.
Five minutes later, Ally was back with a satisfied smile on her face. ‘Ma says she’s going to call Georg Hoffman and arrange a private plane to take you directly to Geneva tomorrow evening. She’ll text me shortly with the details.’
‘But that’s ludicrous, Ally! It’s not necessary, and besides, I don’t have the money for that kind of thing, nowhere near it!’
‘Ma insisted – she wants you back there as soon as possible. And don’t worry about the cost; just remember, we are all daughters of a very wealthy man, who left everything to us. Occasionally that legacy comes in handy, especially in cases of life or death,’ she added grimly. ‘Now, I don’t want to hear another peep out of you on the subject. Let’s get to that cathedral.’
Inside the Royal Chapel, it was cool and dark, and I looked up at the high Gothic arches, wondering if my family had lived here as far back as the time of Queen Isabella. Ally took my hand, and together we walked towards the white marble monuments, where Isabella and Ferdinand’s outlines were carved into visages of peace. I turned to Ally, who I had expected to be looking at Isabella’s image, transfixed, but she was already walking down a staircase. I followed her hastily and we found ourselves in a low-ceilinged crypt underneath the towering cathedral, the air cool and the walls damp. In front of us, behind a wall of glass, were a number of ancient lead coffins.
‘There she is, next to Ferdinand for all eternity,’ Ally whispered to me. ‘There is her daughter, who they called Joanna the Mad, and her husband. Isabella’s little grandson is also here . . . he died in her arms when he was only two.’
I gave her hand a squeeze. ‘Tell me about her. Now that it turns out I am Spanish, I need to catch up on my history.’
‘I remember seeing a picture of her in a history book at school and thinking that I looked a little bit like her. Then I read more about her life and I became obsessed. She really was one of the first feminists – she rode into battle alongside her husband, even though she had five kids. She brought huge wealth to Spain, and without her, Christopher Columbus never would have made it to the New World – but when he brought back Native American slaves, she ordered them to be set free. Even if she did start the Spanish Inquisition, but that’s another story. Anyway,’ Ally said, then winced and held her stomach. ‘I think we’d better head back to the hotel so I can lie down. Sorry, it’s probably a combination of late pregnancy and sightseeing.’
As we crossed the plaza outside, blinking in the bright sunshine, I heard a gravelly voice shout, ‘Erizo!’
I spun around, shocked, and saw an elderly gypsy woman looking straight at me.
‘Erizo,’ she said again.
‘Sí,’ I breathed. ‘How do you know who I am?’
Wordlessly, she held out a bouquet of rosemary, tied together with string, from a basket full of them.
I took it from her with a smile, and gave her five euros. Then she placed my hand in her rough one and muttered something in Spanish before ambling away.
‘What was that about? Did you know her?’ Ally asked.
‘No,’ I said, rubbing the rosemary between my fingers, the fresh herbal scent rising up to my nostrils. ‘But somehow she knew me . . .’
We returned to Sacromonte as the sun was setting and found Charlie, Pepe and Angelina in the little terrace garden.
‘It smells wonderful out here,’ Ally commented.
‘Are these some of the herbs you use in your work?’ Charlie asked Angelina.
‘Sí,’ she answered.
I noticed that Ally was stroking her extended belly tentatively and looking agitated.
‘Are you okay, darling?’ I whispered.
‘I think so. I just . . . need to go to the bathroom.’
As I helped my sister to standing, Angelina looked up at us, her dark eyes narrowing slightly. ‘All is good?’
‘Yes, I’m just going to help Ally to the bathroom,’ I replied.
As we made our way into the interior of the cave, Ally suddenly stopped and winced, one hand on her lower back, the other clutching at her stomach.
At that moment, a sudden gush of clear liquid spattered on the stone floor beneath her legs.
‘Ally, oh my God, I think your waters must have broken!’ Helping her to a chair in the corner, I shouted frantically for Angelina. She appeared in the kitchen two seconds later, followed by Charlie.
‘The baby, it wishes to arrive early. I deliver hundreds of them, no problem, querida.’ Angelina’s eyes were actually alight with excitement. ‘And you have the good British doctor here too. What better?’ She smiled, and I saw Ally’s face relax.
‘It’s a long time since I delivered a baby, mind you,’ Charlie added in hushed tones. ‘Should I go and call an ambulance?’
‘They cannot get one all the way up here but . . . let us see how many fingers you are, querida.’
‘The baby isn’t due for over a month . . . What if—’ Ally
was silenced as a contraction took hold of her body and she gripped my hand fiercely.
Angelina rose to her feet and pulled Ally to standing too. She took my sister’s face in her palms, staring hard into her pain-soaked eyes. ‘No time for fear,’ she said firmly. ‘You must use energy to help the baby. Now we will take you to my bedroom – more comfortable.’ She then proceeded to half carry Ally to the room at the back of the cave.
‘So, she is already four fingers!’ pronounced Angelina, having shooed us all out so Ally could have some privacy. ‘Too late to get her to hospital, but go, Charlie, and call ambulancia just in case of the problem. Come with me, Erizo. We get your sister up and we help her walk. Best way to make ready.’
So I did, and in the bedroom where I’d been born, I walked my sister up and down in the limited space until I felt my arm would drop off. Charlie and Angelina kept popping their heads around the curtain – Charlie to take Ally’s blood pressure and monitor her and the baby’s heartbeat, and Angelina to give her a tonic to keep her strength up and check on the cervical dilation.
‘I feel like I want to push!’ Ally shouted after what felt like days, but was probably only a couple of hours.
We helped her onto the bed, and I propped her up with pillows and cushions, while Angelina proceeded to examine her.
‘Baby come quickly. This is good, Mister Charlie,’ Angelina called to him. ‘She nearly fully open. Okay, querida, very close now. Ten more minutes and you can push.’
‘But I want to now!’ Ally screamed.
All I could do was sit and hold Ally’s hand and stroke her sweat-matted hair as the minutes ticked by.
Angelina checked Ally’s cervix again and nodded. ‘Okay, now no tears. Take big breath and squeeze your sister’s hand. Push on next contraction.’
A few minutes later, with my sister gripping my hand like a vice, Ally let out a huge shriek. A few more pushes and, finally, she delivered her baby into the world.
There were tears, congratulations and broad smiles all round as Angelina raised the squalling infant up from between its mother’s legs so that she could have her first glimpse of the tiny miracle she had produced.
‘It is boy,’ Angelina announced. ‘Okay size too.’
Charlie appeared around the curtain and went to Angelina’s side to do a quick check of the baby’s vital signs. ‘From the looks of things, he’s perfectly healthy, despite his decision to put in an appearance slightly ahead of schedule.’ He gave us all a relieved grin. ‘The ambulance is waiting at the city gates.’
Ally’s eyes brimmed with tears of joy as she asked to hold her son.
‘Ally, we just need to sort out the afterbirth and cut the cord,’ Charlie reassured her, walking up to the head of the bed to check her pulse. ‘A few minutes only, and he’ll be in your arms, I promise.’
However, as he’d been speaking, Angelina had already calmly dealt with the situation, severing the umbilical cord with her own teeth. There were traces of blood still visible on them as she grinned broadly whilst deftly swaddling the infant in a blanket. Somehow it didn’t seem macabre or barbaric, just totally natural.
Angelina handed the squirming parcel to Ally. As she did so, the baby opened his mouth as if to cry again, but emitted only a soft noise that sounded more like a gentle growl. Angelina chuckled and murmured something in Spanish.
‘She said he thinks he is a baby oso,’ Charlie translated.
‘Oso?’ queried Ally as she cradled her son.
‘It mean “bear”,’ said Angelina.
‘How perfect,’ breathed Ally. ‘And with all that wild dark hair, he looks a bit like one too.’
Tears welled in my eyes as I observed the poignant scene playing out before me. And yet again, I felt the hairs standing up on my arms and knew – even if we couldn’t see him – that Theo was present, watching the first few moments of his son’s life here on earth.
‘Would you like to hold your nephew?’ Ally asked me.
‘I’d be honoured.’ I took the bundle that Ally proffered towards me and on instinct I raised up the miniature human I was cradling in my arms, turning my gaze to the whitewashed ceiling of the cave and giving silent thanks to the powers above – whoever and whatever they may be – for the miraculous circle of life.
When Ally had drunk some water and Angelina had cleaned mother and baby up as best as she could, I sat on the bed with my sister.
‘I’m so proud of you, darling,’ I said. ‘And I know Theo is too.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, tears pooling in her eyes. ‘It was actually okay – a lot easier than I thought it would be.’
True to form, my amazingly brave sister had taken the trauma of premature childbirth in her stride.
‘As far as I can see, he’s perfect. The only thing we can’t do is weigh him,’ said Charlie. ‘I’d reckon he’s about three kilos.’
‘We can weigh him! We have scales in the kitchen,’ said Angelina.
So little Bear was plonked unceremoniously on the big, rusting scales that normally held potatoes or carrots or flour.
‘3.1 kilos,’ pronounced Angelina. ‘Ally, you want to go with ambulancia men to hospital?’ she said as I watched my sister latch her baby onto her breast.
‘No, I think that if you two are happy, then I’d like to stay here, please.’
‘Okay. You happy, Mister Charlie?’
‘I’m happy, yes,’ Charlie confirmed, having examined Ally and pronounced her as well as her baby. ‘I’ll go and send them away.’
Having made Ally as comfortable as possible, we left her to rest and get to know her little bear. Then we sat outside in the cool evening air and toasted the birth with a glass of manzanilla wine.
‘Watch the alcohol, Tiggy,’ Charlie cautioned me. ‘I’ll allow you just this one as it’s a special occasion.’
‘Thank you, Doctor.’ I raised an eyebrow at him.
It was then agreed that Angelina would sleep in Pepe’s bed to watch over Ally, and Pepe would move into Ally’s room at the hotel.
‘Can you call Thom tomorrow for me? I can’t get a signal here. His number is on this,’ she added, as she pointed me to her mobile phone by the bed. ‘And Ma of course. We’ll need to get the little one a passport to get him home – tell Thom my birth certificate is in a box in my file drawer marked “documents”.’
‘I’ll do it first thing. Now,’ I kissed mother and baby gently, ‘sleep well, both of you.’ I was about to leave the room, then I turned to Ally and smiled. ‘I think we both know now what Theo meant about being prepared. Night-night, darling.’
On my way back to the hotel, I paused and looked up at the Alhambra. It had stood there for almost a thousand years, solid as the earth it had been built upon. It had watched the trials and tribulations of us humans – from the Moors of a millennium ago, to Ally’s beloved Isabella of Spain, to me – and I suddenly thought that Ally was right, and that our lives were so very fleeting compared to anything taken from the earth. In the valley below me, trees had stood there for hundreds of years, and even after they were pulled from the earth, had provided furniture from their sturdy bodies that still remained long after the people that had sat down on them had passed on.
It was a humbling thought and the reality of it belied the power that humans believed they wrought upon the earth. The truth was, the earth was in charge and would outlast each and every one of us. And all I could do was to accept my place in it; that I was a mere snapshot in time, which was fine as long as I used my time here wisely.
What a lot I have learnt since I’ve been here, I thought as I walked into the hotel.
I had been intending to go straight to bed, but my mind was still buzzing with the enormity of the evening’s events. So after saying goodnight to Marcella, I made my way out onto the terrace and looked up at the stars.
I don’t know how long I stood there, lost in my thoughts, but I jumped when I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned to find Charlie standing behind me, n
ursing a glass of brandy in one hand.
‘Hello, you,’ he said softly. ‘You’re supposed to be in bed.’
‘I just wasn’t tired,’ I muttered, suddenly aware of how close he was standing to me. ‘Wasn’t it amazing to be there at the dawn of a life?’
‘It was amazing. It gives me hope that new beginnings are possible, in all sorts of ways . . .’
Before I could compute what was happening, his head bent towards me. The touch of his lips on mine sent an electric thrill through me, but as the kiss continued and deepened and my body melted against his, warning sirens began clanging in my head.
He’s married! His wife already suspects something . . . Tiggy, what on earth are you doing?!
I broke away from him abruptly. ‘Charlie, this is wrong. Your wife . . . your daughter . . . I . . . I can’t do this.’
Charlie collected himself with obvious effort, clearly chagrined by his actions. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. But if you’ll just stay and talk to me—’
‘No! I have to go. Goodnight, Charlie.’ And with that, I bolted across the terrace towards the safety of my room.
*
I woke very early the next morning, the events of yesterday coming back to me as though they had been a dream, but no, I could still feel Charlie’s lips on mine . . .
I groaned, and leapt out of bed to dress, trying to cast it from my mind. I went outside to search for a signal, so I could use Ally’s mobile to call Thom and Ma. Walking towards the city gates, I took in the smell of the spring flowers that were budding on the cacti and the trees, and with a heavy heart, tried to picture myself in snowy Geneva instead.
When I eventually found a signal, I called Thom, Ally’s twin brother. I had to smile at how like Ally he was – all practicality and action.
‘Right, I will get on the next flight,’ he announced, the joy evident in his voice. ‘Little Bear – or Bjørn, I should say! – has no passport to fly, so I shall have to come and help Ally arrange one. We’ll also have to register the birth as well. I will look up the nearest Norwegian consulate and make the arrangements.’
The Moon Sister Page 43