Entry 2 - The Honeymoon
The soft warm wind came directly from the Sahara Desert, less than 40 miles away across the narrow entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It carried with it the slightly burnt smell of Africa. This was tempered and sweetened by the heady perfume of the night flowering jasmine, which bordered the topmost edge of the beach. Even at midnight the sultry airs caressed their bare legs and the tiny wavelets were only slightly cooler as they splashed playfully about their feet.
Richard and Jane Collins, man and wife for all of fourteen hours, strolled happily along the deserted beach, he holding her tightly with his right arm, and she held his waist with both of hers. His new wife's above average height complemented Richard's tall, muscular figure, but her glossy fall of long black hair contrasted sharply with Richard's much shorter fair hair. They stood for a while and Richard looked up at the midnight blue of a Mediterranean night, ablaze with a myriad of stars, and thought that this moment was absolute perfection.
They had dined that evening at the fish restaurant, which took up one side of the Village Square. The warm air was filled with the noise of the local families as they too ate their Saturday evening meal. Children of all ages sat with their families adding their shrill chatter to the volume of noise that usually accompanies such gatherings. The elderly but very attentive waiter deftly removed their used plates and with a flourish produced the menu. "¿Quieres algo mas?"
"Just a coffee, Jane?" murmured Richard. "Yes," replied Jane "Then we'll stroll along the shore line before ..." She stopped, and blushed prettily. Richard seemed not to notice, as he ordered the coffee and asked in halting Spanish, for the bill ... A sudden rush of bare feet through the sand interrupted his thoughts, as several children surrounded them and one, taller and bolder than the rest, was pulling urgently at Jane's right arm.
This older boy began shouting at Jane.
"¡Venga! ¡Ven te conmigo! ¡Venga! ¡Rapido!"
The rest of the children took up the torrent of Spanish until Richard called out a commanding "Stop!"
With a sudden heave Richard broke the older boy's grip and stepped in front of Jane. Summoning up his rudimentary Spanish, he demanded what the youth wanted from them.
"¿Que es lo que te quiero?"
He was then pushed aside by several of the children, and they seized Jane and started to pull her away up to the wooden promenade, which ran parallel to the water's edge, screeching and tugging at her slim body. As the gap widened between them, Richard shouted at the top of his voice:
"¡Para! ¡Espera! ¡Voy ayudarte!"
At his offer of help the children suddenly quietened. The older boy came up to Richard and said in a very agitated voice, pointing his nose in the Spanish manner at Jane.
"She! Come quick! Baby come!"
The boy's urgent pleading struck a chord in Richard's heart, and grasping at Jane's hand he allowed himself to be scrambled away along the promenade away from the Hotel's private beach and into a darkened part of the coast, where no self respecting tourist ever ventured after dark. Stumbling, half running, half staggering, across the now unkempt beach, the two adults let themselves be rushed about a half a mile, to where a low building topped with palm branches loomed out of the night. The tiny light of a guttering candle guided the throng to the doorway, and Richard and Jane found themselves thrust into a minuscule room, which contained only two pieces of furniture, a bed of dubious structure and a rickety chair, which was creaking under the strain of supporting an old woman.
Richard's eyes grew accustomed to the gloom and he was able to make out the other occupant of the tiny hovel, a girl of about 15 who lay on the bed, covered only with a white sheet.
The girl's eyes reflected the candle's flickering light, and Richard could read the pain and terror in their dark depths. Jane who had recovered from the recent turmoil, bent and whispered softly.
"¿Y como te llama, mi niña?"
The girl's voice, surprisingly firm, came back.
"Me llamo Amparo". Then with a gasp of pain, Amparo sat up and sobbed "¡Ay, Dios mio, que mi niño viene!" "The child is coming, darling." whispered Jane, and Richard, with a glance at the old lady, and a quick "Con permiso" towards Amparo, he lifted the sheet from her lower body and was just in time to catch the tiny head as it protruded from the juncture of girl's thighs. With another scream of pain, Amparo's lower body spasmed again and Richard quickly supported the rest of the child's slippery body, and deftly turned it to prevent the coil of the umbilical cord from cutting off the child's first breath.
"It's a boy" cried Richard, and Jane passed over the tiny pair of nail scissors which was about all she carried in her evening bag. The snip of the scissors and the child's first cry came in rapid succession, and whilst the baby nuzzled his mother's breast for the first time, Richard waited until the successful appearance of the placenta signified that the birth was complete.
Amparo's eyes had lost their terror and now as she gazed into her son's face, she leaned over to Jane and whispered shyly. Jane's face lit up and she said to Richard,
"Amparo wants to call her baby after you!"
"I'd be honoured" said Richard, and looked on fondly as Jane gave Amparo the translation "Ricardo" ...
The eastern sky was now a roseate pink as they finally regained the promenade about an hour later. Richard gave Jane a hug and held her close.
"Some Honeymoon darling!"
"Yes" giggled Jane, "I wonder how the children ever knew that you are a Professor of Obstetrics at Queens University?"
"Hmm.," said Richard "And I wonder if young Ricardo will ever learn that he was helped into this world by Professor Richard's star pupil, the lovely Jane?"...
The sun broke above the perfectly straight eastern horizon as they wandered in through the ornate main doors of the hotel. The eyes of the old waiter who doubled as hotel receptionist raised towards the ceiling as they passed, engrossed entirely in each other. He had marked them down as honeymooners at the restaurant, and now he smiled quietly to himself. A glance at the clock on the panelled wall behind him told him the there was only a few minutes before he could get away from his long night's labours, and return to the edge of the shanty town along the beach where he had lived for so long. Another thought struck as he watched the young couple embrace by the lift doors ... Amparo's baby would be here soon, he really must get a doctor or at least a midwife for his favourite grandchild.