Dr Velascos' Unexpected Baby

by Dianne Drake

  “He’ll be here,” she assured the older woman. But Bella had the sinking feeling that it might be too late. “How would she get out of the village?”

  Gloria Elena didn’t answer, but one of the other women in the room stepped up. She was young, and very pregnant. Bella wondered if she might be the next victim of the woman in the white uniform. “Two roads,” the woman said. “Only two.”

  The one she had taken to get here, which was blocked, and another one. “How long ago did she leave with the baby?”

  There wasn’t really consensus on that question, but Bella had the impression it had been somewhere between two and three hours. Maybe even four. Was that enough time to get to one of the larger cities? Or meet a contact who would take Ana Maria on to the next person?

  “Is there a faster way to get out of here than by the road the nurse took?”

  “Through the jungle,” one of the women volunteered. “But that’s dangerous, if you don’t know your way.”

  Besides the obvious dangers, there was no way of knowing the woman’s destination. A huge lump formed in Bella’s throat. None of that mattered. She had to do something. But what?

  Then it came to her. Dr. Navarro’s office. Gabriel had mentioned that the nurse in Dr. Navarro’s office had contacted an adoption agency, so she would know. She had to know. “I have to get to Iquitos,” she said. “The fastest way possible.” Maybe, just maybe, if the woman who’d taken Ana Maria was traveling by the road, it would be a slow trip for her owing to damage from the earthquake as well as the practical aspects of caring for a newborn.

  “We can get to the road, but the fastest way is still through the jungle,” Pablo volunteered. “I can take you, if you want. If you can run faster.”

  Run faster. Could she? “How long?”

  He shrugged. “Slow, until we get to the road. Maybe three or four hours, if we hurry.”

  “Would it be faster going back to Lado De la Montaña and trying to get down the mountain from there?”

  “No. I think if you follow me, it will be faster. I know some different ways down, if you’re not scared going off the trail.”

  Off the trail and without her big stick. Well, there wasn’t a sane choice to be found here. There wasn’t any choice. “Let’s go.” Bella gave Gloria Elena’s hand a squeeze, then spoke to one of the women with a better grasp of English. “Have someone go tell Father Carlos that the nurse who works in Dr. Navarro’s office might know where they’re taking Ana Maria. Tell him to have the authorities in Iquitos find her. Also tell Father Carlos that I’ll need fast transportation when we get to the road, if he can arrange it.” If anyone could do that for her, it would be the resourceful priest. Chasing the nurse down the mountain, hoping to cut her off somewhere, or even getting to Iquitos in time to find help…Those weren’t good plans. In fact, they weren’t plans at all. Just desperate reactions to a horrible situation. But sometimes you had to act first, then let the plans catch up. You were right, Rosie. “And if you see Gabriel, tell him…tell him I love him.”

  At the beginning of their trip through the jungle, Pablo stayed much closer to Bella than he had earlier, although they didn’t converse. Concentrating on what they were doing was their only focus as they pounded their way over the ground, sometimes on the trail, sometimes off. It wasn’t easy for a jungle-dumb doctor from San Francisco who never even walked in the park, but at the end of the first hour Pablo led her into what seemed to be a fairly dense area of underbrush. Some he hacked away with a machete he carried…a machete that reminded her of Gabriel. And some they merely trampled underfoot.

  Somewhere into their second hour, Pablo stopped, and pointed to an outcropping of rocks jutting up from the earth. “Sit,” he said. “You rest for a while while I go ahead to clear the trail.”

  Sit, all alone in the jungle. Being guided by someone who wasn’t much more than a boy, and trusting him with her life. Because if they got lost…well, she wasn’t going to think about that. She just had to trust. And hope for one of those miracles she didn’t believe in. That’s all there was. So she sat there, watching a family of scarlet, red and green macaws bobbing in and out of the crags in the clay-colored rocks, nesting and tending to little ones, and totally unconcerned by her presence there. A large black beetle-like bug, nearly the size of her fist, wandered dangerously close to the toe of her shoe, and, like the macaws, didn’t seem all that concerned by her presence. Didn’t it have some instinct warning it that one tap of the toe of her shoe and she’d crush it? Didn’t the macaws sense that if she wanted, she could reach out and pluck their babies from the nest?

  Life was so precarious. For the bugs, or the birds…for her, and Gabriel. No matter what, life was always on the edge, so easy to tip one way or another. Sometimes, maybe even most of the time, the way it tipped was not under any particular control or, at least, not under the control of the person who wanted to control it. That black bug could have walked well away from her, and in its estimation avoided the possibility of being crushed. Or it could have hidden itself in the leaves, feeling protected there, only to have her step on it accidentally because she hadn’t seen it. For that bug, to live was to run head on into risks everywhere.

  And to survive was a miracle. Just thinking of Ana Maria in the arms of the woman who was stealing her…Dear God, she had to save that baby. No matter what, she had to bring Ana Maria back. Give her to Gabriel, and…

  And be that baby’s mother.

  For the love of Gabriel, and for Ana Maria, she could go to Chicago. They were what mattered. All that mattered. And she could fulfill Rosie’s dream another way. Use Rosie’s money to open that clinic and find other doctors to run it.

  It was all so simple when she let it seep in. Gabriel had said there was another side if she wanted to see it. “You were right,” she whispered, as she watched the bug disappear under a log. Loving Gabriel and Ana Maria was everything.

  It was a miracle, wasn’t it? They really did happen. And now she needed another miracle, a big one that brought her baby back to her and Gabriel.

  “Dr. Bella,” Pablo cried from down the trail. “I found it. Hurry. Come quickly. I found it.”

  “Found what?” Bella yelled, jumping to her feet. She took off running down the trail Pablo had carved out for her, as vines and branches reached out from the trail’s edge to slap her and cut her arms, wondering what she was chasing after other than her young guide.

  “Over here,” Pablo called. “Hurry.”

  He was off trail, in a particularly dense patch of undergrowth, and Bella thought it odd that he was beckoning her in that direction, but she trusted him to get her where she needed to go, so she veered into a dark, damp tangle of ferns and other vegetation she couldn’t identify, swatting away the cloud of gnats and mosquitoes that wanted to swarm her face as she ran. Twice she tripped over thick vines growing across the ground, but didn’t fall. Once she tripped and fell, then got back up and kept on pushing herself through toward Pablo.

  But as she got closer, a cold, down-to-the-bone chill shot through her and she stopped. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Then the jungle started swirling around her. Was it another earthquake, or was her head just growing light? She didn’t know. Couldn’t tell. But the cold suddenly melted away and she felt…overwhelmed. And protected. And loved.

  “Rosie,” she whispered.

  Her sister was here. Everything she’d wanted to find. And had dreaded.

  “Dr. Bella, look!”

  She felt Rosie’s arms wrap around her, felt her love. Felt everything she’d needed for so very long. Shutting her eyes, Bella allowed herself to feel all of it, to let it sink in. Rosie’s love, her pain, her choices. “I wasn’t ready to let you go, Rosie. I’ve fought against it all this time. But now…I have to.”

  “Please, Dr. Bella. Come look over here.”

  “I’ve missed you so badly,” Bella whispered. “And I’m so sorry for the way we argued those last few weeks. But I understand now. I know
what it’s like to follow your heart wherever it takes you.”

  “Dr. Bella, I can see some of the plane from here.”

  “I didn’t know how to go on without you. Didn’t want to, Rosie. I’ve been so lost and confused, and it hurt so much I wanted to die, too.” Bella wrapped her arms around herself, willing an image of Rosie to appear in her mind. But it wasn’t Rosie’s face she saw. It was Ana Maria’s. “My baby,” she whispered. She had to get to her baby.

  She’d come to Peru to find her sister, but that didn’t matter now. And Rosie wouldn’t have had it any other way. Bella understood that now. Truly understood it. “I love you,” she whispered, as she motioned Pablo over to her. “But it’s time for me to move on.” She’d told Natali Diego it was time to let go, and now it was her time. “Thank you, Rosie,” she said, choking back the tears. “Thank you for loving me and for being my sister. I’ll always love you…”

  Yes, it was time. She felt at peace with the decision. More than that, she felt at peace with herself. Maybe for the first time in her life.

  “You don’t want to see the plane? Gloria Elena said you came here to find the plane.”

  He was clearly perplexed, but she was not. “We can’t help them, Pablo. They’re…” In the past. “They’re gone now. And we need to find my baby.” Leave the past in the past and move on toward the future.

  “I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, stepping up behind her and pulling her into his arms.

  “I knew you would find us,” she whispered, lingering in his embrace for but a moment, taking everything she needed from it to give her the strength to move on.

  For the next hour, the three of them ran without speaking, conserving energy by saving breath, but Bella felt renewed as they ran the last leg of their short-cut through the jungle, Pablo leading the way, her in the middle, Gabriel just behind her. And as they emerged on the road leading to Iquitos, which was still a good way up the mountain and a long way from Iquitos, they had only half a kilometer to run before they found an old truck waiting for them. An old man from one of the villages below the mountain was waiting, insisting that he would drive, while Bella and Gabriel squeezed in next to him. Pablo declined to go, probably because he was anxious to get back to his village to tell everybody how he’d discovered the plane wreckage.

  So, once they were all en route, with Luis at the wheel, bumping and jerking down the road, Bella slipped her hand into Gabriel’s. It was an inadequate gesture, but given the circumstances it was all she could do. “We’ll find her,” she said, even though her voice was practically drowned out by the clanking of the motor. “I sent word to Father Carlos to have the authorities get Dr. Navarro’s nurse. She’ll know, Gabriel. Since she was part of this, she’ll know.”

  Brave words that she truly didn’t feel. But Gabriel nodded, even though he didn’t take his fixed stare off the road while they dodged the ruts and swerved around the biggest rocks.

  Several kilometers down the road they overtook another vehicle having the same trouble they were. It was a small car, moving along at a really slow speed even under these bad conditions.

  “Can you pass them?” Bella asked impatiently.

  Luis shrugged, clearly not understanding what she meant.

  “Pass them,” Gabriel translated, to which Luis responded with a big, wide grin, then stamped on the gas pedal. Stamping only increased the speed by a fraction, but Luis swerved out to pass the small vehicle, and honked the horn as they pulled alongside it. Bella glanced over at the woman, who slowed down even more to let them pass. She was fighting her steering-wheel, both hands gripped tight on it, looking straight forward. She didn’t even glance over as the truck pulled next to her, then went ahead. But Bella did. And that’s when she saw it. The woman was wearing white.

  The nurse!

  “Stop,” she shouted. “Right now, stop!” She was scrambling over Gabriel’s lap and out the door before the truck had come to a standstill, and running back toward the car, which was slowing to a stop now, too.

  The woman inside rolled down her window, but Bella didn’t give her time to speak. She simply yanked open the back door and climbed in, then pulled Ana Maria from the car seat. “My baby,” she cried, hugging the baby to her chest, then handing her out to Gabriel. “Our baby.” A true miracle.

  “I’ve talked to the police, and they’ve taken my nurse, Melaina Juarez, into custody. She says she knows nothing about this adoption agency, but I think she’ll tell me.” Dr. Raul Navarro was clearly suffering over this. “I’m so sorry about this, Gabriel. If I’d known…”

  “It’s not your fault,” Gabriel replied. He wasn’t going to vent his anger on the man. Raul had enough problems now, brought on by his office nurse. And, as it turned out, the woman Raul had also intended to marry. He was a good man and, as much as Gabriel wanted to kick the walls and scream, it wouldn’t serve a purpose. They had Ana Maria back now, and Bella was checking over her in one of Raul’s exam rooms.

  “But it happened in my office, by my…”

  Gabriel patted Raul on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, too.”

  “I’ll let you know what happens,” Raul said on his way out the door. “And, please, if there’s anything I can do…anything…”

  The poor man would be needing a lot of help himself. Gabriel felt sorry for him.

  “Ana Maria’s fine. Fit, happy and not even fussy.” Bella carried the baby over to Gabriel. “The nurse did take care of her. I think that’s why she drove so slowly, to protect her.”

  Gabriel took Ana Maria into his arms and held her like he’d never held her before. “She took good care of her because she was going to sell her.” He pulled the receiving blanket back and stared into Ana Maria’s face for a moment, then gave her a tender kiss on the forehead. “Those were the worst hours I’ve ever spent in my life. I almost lost her, and what you did…”

  “We almost lost her,” Bella corrected. She stepped into his arms, and the two of them embraced Ana Maria together, and embraced each other. “I now know this ends,” she whispered. “I finally know.”

  “So do I.”

  “Since the authorities are going to get word to Father Carlos, who will get word to your mother, maybe we could go to the hotel for the night. Just the three of us.” A family. Her family. “There are so many things I need to tell you, like I love you, I love you, I love you…”

  “Are you going for one hundred?” he asked, laughing.

  “One hundred or more. I love you, I love you, I love both of you…”

  EPILOGUE

  “IT’S a good place for her,” Bella said, standing at the gate to the little village cemetery with Gabriel. “I think Rosie would like being next to Lynda.” Her sister had a headstone now and Bella had gone to the grave several times these past few weeks, along with Gabriel, who was finally able to go to his own sister’s grave. It had taken the strength of two for either of them to face these realities, but they had found that strength in each other.

  Life was settling down in Lado De la Montaña. Homes were being rebuilt, lives being restored. In another week she would return to San Francisco to close her apartment and end her life there. Then she would return here to start a clinic. With Gabriel. Her husband.

  Father Carlos had insisted on conducting their wedding vows shortly after they’d returned to the village with Ana Maria. The wisdom he’d imparted, after he’d informed the good people of Lado De la Montaña to prepare the church for a wedding, was, “Why wait? You love each other, that’s not going to change. So why put it off, especially when the whole village is involved in it now? After so much sadness here, this is bringing them such happiness.”

  Father Carlos did have his persuasive, uncanny ways, because a week later, in a simple ceremony with new friends and new family, she and Gabriel had wed. “I think I understand how Rosie felt,” Bella had said, as they’d crossed the road to watch several men from the village nail together the boards of what would be their new clinic in a few weeks. “Whe
n that woman took Ana Maria…everything changed. I would have done anything to get her back. It was what I had to do, but not because I was obligated. That’s all my heart knew. Like Rosie’s heart. She had to come here, and that’s all she knew.”

  “You did everything for Ana Maria, even risked your life because you didn’t know what Señora Hernandez would, or could do.”

  The authorities had taken her into custody peacefully, as the “nurse” had protested all the way that Gabriel had given away the baby. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, but Bella didn’t think so. It was in the hands of the local authorities now, and she wasn’t dwelling on the unpleasantness anymore. Not with so many good things in her life now. “And me in the jungle without my stick. But I’m warning you right now, don’t count on me playing queen of the jungle again for a very long time. I’ve still got bug bites the size of Ana Maria’s little fist.” She pointed to a very tiny faded red spot on her cheek where she’d been bitten. The bite itself had long since healed, but she liked to remind him because when she did, she reaped a fine reward. “Right here,” she prompted.

  He kissed her there, then found another imaginary bug bite to kiss, and another.

  “I like the way you take care of your patients, Dr. Velascos,” she purred.

  “And I like the way my patients like to be taken care of, Dr. Velascos.”

  “You don’t mind staying here?” She’d told him she’d go to Chicago, because she would have. Home was with Gabriel and Ana Maria, wherever they were. Her real home.

  “I couldn’t stay anywhere else. Once I realized what truly mattered, this was my home again, and it’s the only place I want to be. Here, with you and Ana Maria.” He patted her flat belly. “And maybe another Velascos baby in a year or two.” He chuckled. “Besides, you’re somewhat of a local legend now, and I like basking in your glory.”

  “What you like basking in are all the alfajores, turrones, and lúcuma ice cream Señora Alcantara sends over every day.” She patted his belly back.