Every Memory

“I made her a promise,” Lenny said clasping his hands together. His elbows dug into his thighs just above his knees. He had been praying for hours. Kayla had gone into labor a little before nine at night. Now it was almost twenty hours later and he had heard little from the doctors. He was terrified. The thought of what could be happening within those doors had him nearly to his knees.

“Lenny.”

He looked up to see his mother. They must have driven straight through the night and day since he had called them the night before at eleven when the doctor had kicked him out of the operating room. The look on Lenny’s face showed just how lost he was. He was torn inside. This was his wife. The girl that he had dreamed about and loved secretly for as long as he could remember. And it was there child she was in there trying to give birth to. Their baby. It didn’t matter that this girl would never carry his DNA, to Lenny, she would always be his daughter. That was what she was meant to be.

His father sat down next to him. Neither man touched each other, they simply sat in silence waiting for one or the other to speak up first. “I couldn’t say anything,” Lenny finally confessed. The words were like lead in his throat as he clenched and rubbed his hands. “They told me to get out and I couldn’t tell her anything. I-I made her a promise and I couldn’t remind her of my promise.”

Raymond Markus reached out a little uncertainly before his hand settled on his son’s shoulder. “You’ve been praying?” he asked. Lenny nodded wordlessly. “That’s all you can do.”

He knew that his father was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. He had no control over the situation. He couldn’t go in there and simply sweep her away and make everything okay. Lenny pressed his forehead against his clasped hands and began to breath a little raggedly. It was tempting to just break down and cry. Would tonight be the night that he lost Kayla? The thought made him sick.

Lenny stood up abruptly and began to pace. He couldn’t stand still anymore. He just needed news. He had to know something, anything. Even the tiniest bit of information would have been good enough for him. It would have been something, it would have been more than he had at that moment. Every time someone came through the doors, Lenny would freeze and stare until his mind had processed who the intruder was. It never seemed to be who he wanted it to be though. So he would go back to his pacing.

Raymond and Melody Markus watched their son. There was nothing they could do for him. They knew that. After all, what he wanted was something that they couldn’t give. Instead, they could only be there as a kind of moral support as they prayed for him, their daughter-in-law and the child that she was trying to give birth to.

The door opened and Lenny froze mid-stride staring hard at the soul that walked through the doors. “Leonard Markus?” The man blinked and Lenny was already standing in front of him. The man jumped a little at the sight. He had never seen a man move that fast in his life. “I’m Dr. Lewis Thorton, I operated on your wife. She’s been moved to recovery and she should be just fine though we’d like to keep her for a couple days, just for observation.”

“A-and my baby?”

The doctor smiled. “A perfectly healthy baby girl.”

Lenny sighed with relief slumping back into his father who had come up behind him. “What’s her name?” Melody asked coming up to stand at her son’s side.

Dr. Thorton looked expectantly at Lenny. He knew what he and Kayla had agreed upon, but the name seemed too plain now. It wasn’t fitting anymore. “Miracle. Miracle Jeannette Markus.” Raymond and Melody nodded approvingly. Jeannette had been Kayla’s mother. It was only fitting that her memory would live on in the form of her first grandchild.

“Would you like to see your wife or your daughter?”

“Kayla.”

Lenny answered without even thinking. He needed to see his wife. He would see Miracle soon, but he had to assure himself that Kayla had made it through okay.

Dr. Thornton led Lenny out through the hospital. Not that Lenny was paying attention. He was on edge. He wondered what Kayla would look like lying in the hospital bed. Would she be frail? Would she be strong and alive? Would she even be awake when he went to see her?

Lenny was allowed to enter the room alone. A fact he greatly appreciated as he slipped the door open and looked at his wife as she lay in the bed. All thoughts of what she might have looked like vanished. She still looked beautiful. He hadn’t expected that thought to pop into his head, but it did as he walked towards her.

His hand slipped into hers and he felt a little pressure. His face lit up. “Kayla…”

A little smile touched her lips. “Hey Lenny.”

“I’m sorry they couldn’t let e stay. I wanted to be with you, but…they wouldn’t let me stay.” He crouched next to her bed. He could have gotten a chair, but he didn’t want to let go of her hand.

Kayla closed her eyes, her smile still dancing across her lips. “You didn’t have to worry. You made a promise. We have to grow old together. And then we have to die at the same time.”

“You remember that?” Lenny asked with a shaky little laugh. “We were so young then. I figured you would have forgotten it by now…I-I had wanted to remind you before I left.”

Kayla shook her head. “How do you think I made it through every day without you? Sometimes I wanted to forget, but I never did.”

“I’m going to keep that promise Kayla…I swear.”