A Grey Dawn

Serendipity at its best occurs in the times of darkest despairs, usually preceded by a heart-throbbing agony, or as in the case of Humphy Baggot, in the times of remorse and regret. The furnace heated up as the constant buzz of ears yearning to stay low accompanied his remorseful heart, the irony of being deaf at its peak. His mind, although exhausted, couldn't stop playing the repeated images of the previous day, a day when the disabled orphan learnt the lies being told to his kind. A special child they called him when young, for deafness couldn't stand in the way of him and his jolly personality. The same personality was perhaps the reason he married his high school sweetheart at the young age of 21, just a year ago. Their boulevard being decided to be a busy roundabout in the middle of Nashville, for they wanted to exchange their vows amidst the busy traffic horns and harness bells, a sound which he couldn't hear, but was present during their first meet at the bus stop. Natalya was the only person who felt the warmth hidden somewhere deep inside this humongous structure, coated with frost and coldness, and she managed to let him feel hers till the day the realms parted them.

The baby was matured by one month and the labor had no intentions of arriving, which left the doctors with the only choice of artificially stimulating the contractions. Appointed a bed with an 'Iron' cradle attached, the couple laid themselves to a wakeful of happy future, already foreseeing their little girl's first word (which Humphy would not hear but feel), first steps and first day to school. Had it not been her turn, Humphy would've never left Natalya's hand to the operation theatre.

Minutes turned into hours, which triggered a secluded resignation of Humphy's patience as he rushed to the nearest doctor on an update. The baby has turned out to be having a nuchal cord, entwined around her fragile neck, triggering hypoxia. The disentanglement resulted into fatal rupture, eventually leading to a situation of crucial blood loss where only one life could be saved. The wife being unconscious, Humphy couldn't help but make the most crucial decision he'd even taken since the day he said 'I do'.

A child was all he wanted, but not at the cost of his only companion. 'Save the mother', he requested, and they rushed to fulfill his sober choice. The constant bangs of his feet stopped two hours later, with a news he couldn't believe. His beloved had exhausted herself to death giving birth to the baby.

It was half past twelve, the dawn of a new, grey day, as Humphy with a constant heart throb transferred his wife's last kiss onto 'Baby Natali's' red, chubby 'jowls'. Their bodies may have parted, but Humphy felt a similar warmth from the tiny soul draped in tears. The remorse for Humphy might have been serendipity for the mother, as her soul survives.