by Rod Foglio
couldn’t move, the pain in her lower back was so intense. When she regained her ability to think, she looked up to see Candy sinking downward in front of her, eyes fixed on her with a predator’s stare.
“Who are you? What are you? Tell me,” Eileen pleaded for an answer, but it was in vain. Candy grabbed hold of her head and cruelly banged it down onto the uncarpeted floor.
She lifted Eileen’s head up again, and placed one hand underneath the right side of her jaw, while the other took a wide grip of the left side of her head. The two women looked directly into each other’s eyes, and Eileen believed that she was about to die. “I can’t have you interfering in this tonight,” was all Candy said as she tensed her muscles and began to twist Eileen’s face away to the side. She stopped short of breaking her neck though, as she suddenly shrieked and loosened her hands. Dropping Eileen’s head, Candy fell backward onto her thigh and clutched her abdomen. Eileen clenched her jaw and moved away, keeping her eyes on Candy, who was now shuffling backwards along the floor away and toward the bed.
Seizing the moment, Eileen used the bureau to raise herself, while Candy sat on the floor unable to finish what she had intended to do to her. It was apparent that Candy was giving birth, and was having a hard time of it. Candy cried out, wracked in pain as the baby insisted on being born then and there, unwittingly saving Eileen’s life.
Eileen stared for a minute at her, watching her struggle with what was obviously an unimaginable amount of nativital difficulty. Then she rushed out of the room, running downstairs and into the kitchen, where she retrieved a butcher knife from the same drawer she had always kept them in. Holding the knife upwards in front of her face, she could see her reflection in it, which made her second guess what she should do. She had to protect herself, and Jason. She thought about calling for help, but rejected that. The screams from Candy radiated throughout the house. She had to get back up there. Making up her mind, she walked briskly back to the stairway, placed her hand on the railing, and began to climb, knife in hand. Candy’s shrieking continued as Eileen made her way up the stairs.
When she reentered the bedroom, Candy had already finished giving birth and was holding the baby in her outstretched hands. She looked to Eileen, then set the baby down between her legs and leaned back against the bed. Her eyes fixated straight ahead of her and her mouth dropped open.
Eileen approached with the knife outstretched. She watched Candy closely; whose eyes now gave a blank stare forward, past Eileen and into a world of her own. Candy wasn’t paying attention to Eileen now. Her breathing was labored, and then it weakened. She was no longer a threat. Eileen looked down at the baby and could see it was a boy. He lay calmly in a growing puddle of his mother’s blood. She kneeled to touch him with her free hand, still nervously pointing the knife towards Candy with the other. As she looked at the baby with fascination, she knew what to do next, so she brought the knife down to his naval and sliced off the umbilical cord.
She picked the baby up, being careful to keep the edge of the knife away from him. Cradling him in her arms as she stood, she allowed herself to calm down, and then cautiously left the bedroom. When she got downstairs, she went to the kitchen to dispose of the knife. While there, she wiped the baby down and wrapped him in a clean towel. Only after that did she call for help. She had waited on purpose. She wanted Candy to finish bleeding to death.
When the paramedics arrived, they took everybody to the hospital. Candy had indeed bled to death by then, and Jason was dead as well. An autopsy would reveal that he had had a series of strokes, the last one occurring that horrible night, when his wife gave birth to their baby son, possibly while Eileen waited downstairs before summoning the ambulance.
Dorothy drove to the hospital after them, where Eileen explained to her what had happened. Early the next morning, they stood next to each other in the maternity ward, both of their eyes red from crying over the loss of Jason. Their suspicions about the true nature of Candy, and the baby, would remain unspoken from then on. This was a bargain they made intuitively. They knew each other that well. Finally, Dorothy asked her, “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to raise him,” was Eileen’s quick response.
“By yourself? Can you do that again, at your age? And what about the girl’s family?”
“They’re not his real family, remember? Besides, I don’t think they’d want him anyway.” Eileen looked down at the baby inside the hospital basinet, he was wrapped in a blue blanket, and it was then that she noticed how blue his eyes were. Beautiful, hypnotic blue eyes, just like Jason’s. He was no demon, not to her. Everything could be explained away. And even if he was, she wouldn’t care. He was all she had now, and she loved him.
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