Chaoter 18-Preston Estes

Author's Note

Sorry about it being a little late, work and all along with a major creative project.  I tried to develop the ties witht he mother a little bit more.  Please don't kill me when you get to the end.




Chapter 18

“Well?”

“Well what,” asked Nat as her mother turned to face her while taking off her coat.

“Aren’t you going to give your mother a hug, it has been ages since we have seen one another,” her mother said.

Rolling her eyes, Nat gave in to her mother’s demands.  She knew if she didn’t her mother would not let it go, until she got what she called a proper greeting between mother and daughter.  Nat stepped forward into her mother’s embrace, and tentatively put her hands on the taller woman’s shoulders.  The hug lasted for about thirty seconds, it would have been shorter, but her mother refused to let go.

“Now Nat, that wasn’t so bad was it,” she woman said as she stepped back.

“It was ok,” said Nat.  It was a little better than ok.  Nat felt a little better about her situation because of her mother’s assurance, but she will be damned if she ever let her mother ever know about that.

“Where’s Dad?  He didn’t come with you did he?”  Nat half expected the man to throw the door open and try to carry her back to California kicking and screaming.

“Goodness no,” said her mother. “If I brought him I would have to explain what was going on with you, and I knew that you didn’t want that now did you.”

“Thanks, but I know you are not here to just come for a visit.  Let’s get this thing over with so you can go back to California, and I can get back to my movie,” said Nat as she walked to the bed, and laid down.

She was already worn out, and they have not even got to the true reason for her visit. Her mother just nodded her head, and set down on the bed next to her.

“How far along are you,” asked the woman while glancing ather daughter’s hair.   It was greasy and untamed.  Had her little girl been taking care of herself.

“Three months and counting,” said Nat.

“Have you even thought about coming to California; staying up here, in an unfamiliar place, doing a highly stressful job is bad for both of your healths.”

“I’m not going back.  I have got too much at stake into this movie.”

“ ‘I,” said her mother.  “What about every one else?  As I recall it takes more than one person to make this movie.”

“Yes.  They have ust as much investede into to it as I do,” said Nat not looking at her Mom.

“Invested in it, they are, but nowhere near as much as you.  You are risking not only your health, but he health of the baby too.  Each and every day you stay here, you are taking a bigger chance at having a serious accident.”

“I need to finish this movie, it could make my career,” said Nat feeling like she was five years old getting scolded by her Mother.

“You need to let go of the past.  I know what this is really about.  I’m not stupid, I saw the earlier drafts in the garbage back home.  Your brother is dead, and you need to let him go.”

“I can’t.  Not until this movie is over; this is something that I need to do.  Im not like you and dad, I just can’t forget and let things go.”

“Its slowly killing you, Natalie.  You are pregnant now, but you are becoming much to thin, and your eyes are dull with lack of sleep, and you can barely breathe with even the lightest amount of exertion.  Its only going to get worse from here.”

“I can handle it.  I’ve done fine till done, and I will rest after the movie is done.”

“No you can’t.  You are going to be a mother soon.  You need to think more than about yourself Nat.”

“I’m thinking about other people than myself, I’m thinking about my brother since I’m the only one who has in the last year.”

Pain suddenly shot across her right cheek, as her face was forced to turn.  She brought her hand to her stining cheek, it was sore but nothing more.  There wouldn’t be a hand shaped bruise.

“Wake up Natalie Sophia Emerman! You are not the only one to think of him.  I think about him each and every day.  I see him at the dinner table laughing at the comic strips that he liked so much.  I see him leaving in that red truck going to work in the morning.  I even hear his last message running through my head each time I look at the phone.”

She looked up to her mother’s eyes and expected to see tears, but there was none.  There was only anger, determination, and sadness.

“We all have hurt Natalie.  Your father and I were hurt just as much as you were.  We cried and grieved our hearts out, but we eventually got over it.  We moved on.”

“How?” asked Nat.

“We knew that we had another child to look after, so we couldn’t have a pity party for the rest of our lives.  Just like you do now.”

Nat’s hand slowly went to her stomach, a slight pain shot through it, but she ignored it for the moment.

“I can’t give up on this movie though.”

“I’m not asking you too.  Im asking you to go back to California, rest, have the baby, and then give yourself some time to distance yourself from this.  The wounds are too new for this.  You can try again later.”

Nat stood up, ignoring the increasing pain in her stomach, and walked to the window.  She looked out onto the mountain an covered with snow.  The volcano was steadily releasing a thin white smoke.  The bay was calm, with a few boats on the water.

“What about the others.  They might not want to leave yet.  This means as much to them as it does to me,” Nat said while rubbing her aching stomach.

“They aren’t ready for this either.  They have only got a taste, and now they need to think about what to do.  If they like it they can come back, if not, well its up to them.”

Nat just stood quietly thinking.  Should she go back?  They were having so many difficuites right now, and with their one camera broken it looked hopless.  Would the others really except those reasons.  They could come back, but would they want too.  Her mother did have a point.  She thought of this as she reached a conclusion.

“Fine, I’ll talk to my team and let them decide what they want to do.  If they want to keep trying or if they want to leave and come back in a few years to try again,” Nat said as she turned to face her mother.

“That’s fair.  Now we need to-“

Suddenly the pain in Nat’s stomach grew to immense to ignore.  She fell to her knees clutching her arms around her stomach.  The pain came in pulses, and each pulse caused the world to go colorless, until it finished traveling up her spinal chord.

“Nat.  Nat.  Nat what is wrong,” her mother asked her.  She couldn’t breathe let alone answer.  She couldn’t even feel the hands of her mother on her shoulder.

Something wet, began to travel down her legs.  It was sticky and warm.  With her left hand she reached down to her legs, and touched the sticky liquid.  When she brought the hand back to her face, it was red.  Blood.  She was bleeding.  Suddenly the strongest pulse of pain traveled up through her body.  It was to much, and she blacked out.

The white lights were bright.  They burned behind her eyelids.  She tried to move in oder to get out of its path, but she felt so sore that she couldn’t move.  She hurt everywhere, especially in her stomach and nether regions. 

She heard someone talking.  Wanting to know what is going on, she opened her eyes.  She saw her mother sitting down in a chair next to her, holding onto her right hand.

“Mom,” her voice sounded hoarse and raspy.

“Shush honey.  You’re ok.  You’re ok.”

“Where are we?”

“You were in pain, and then passed out.  Eugene was nearby and called an ambulance.  You’re at the hospital.”

“Wh-what happened?”

At this her mother turned her head from her, and started at the ground as if it would swallow her up.

A doctor then walked in.  It was the same doctor from before.  The one who did the sonogram, except this time he was not smiling as he had been then.  He was frowning, a deep sad frown that had Nat worrying even more.

“What happened to me?  Is the baby alright?”

At this her mother and the doctor seemed to wince involuntarily.

The doctor looked up right at her and spoke the words that would change her.

“I’m sorry. The fall did more damage than what we realized.  It caused a puncture in the cervix cap.  Normally your body could have healed this quickly enough, but because of the medicine you had been taking and the stress it couldn’t.  This resulted in damage to the fetus.  Again I’m sorry, but the baby is dead.”