Who Knew the Storm

Storm clouds gathered ominously on the horizon. Black and heavy, they held the late summer heat in close to the Earth. Bella fanned her face, but soon realizing that wasn’t going to do her any good, she set the fan down on the table and removed her shirt, revealing her bra, glowing white against her tanned skin.

The old woman fidgeted with the hem of her tunic top, then with the split ends of her long silver braid. Bella watched her for several moments before speaking. “Auntie Nat, are you feeling alright? Can I get you something to drink?”

Natalia didn’t answer, just stared at the gathering storm, her clouded blue eyes flashing black as they reflected the clouds. Bella picked her fan up from the table and fanned her aunt. “There’s something in those clouds. Can you feel it, Girl?” Bella turned her eyes to the clouds but only to look. There was nothing there, only electricity and heat. So much heat.

From inside the house, Cecily screamed, breaking Natalia’s concentration. “What is the matter with that girl?”

“Call the doctor.” Cecily burst through the front door, tears staining her pale face, her swollen belly heaving as she panted for air. Lightning divided the horizon into a several jagged pieces. “I’m having this baby. Bella, get the doctor.”

Natalia erupted, knocking her chair into the side of the house. “You get yourself back into bed.” Her blue eyes flashed in terror behind the developing cataracts. “That baby ain’t comin’, not in this storm. There’s something in those clouds, something in that storm. You get yourself back into bed and don’t worry no more about that doctor comin’ out here.”

Bella pushed between her aunt and her sister. “C’mon, Cecily, back inside.” She ushered her sister out of their aunt’s sight. “You’re having contractions?”

“What is that crazy old woman talking about, there’s something in the clouds? Has she been in the whiskey again?”

“She asked me if I could feel it. It’s nothing but the electricity in the air. Did you see that lightning? Something’s bound to burn from this storm. How far apart are they?”

“Just started. By the time that backwoods quack gets here, the baby will be ready for his booster shots anyway.”

Thunder clapped outside like rifle fire. Natalia flung open the screen door and flew inside. “You get yourself back into bed! You can’t be havin’ that baby in this storm.”

“Auntie Nat,” Bella took the old woman by her hands and led her to the kitchen. “Why can’t she have the baby now? Everything will be fine.” She filled two glasses full of ice and tea and placed one on the kitchen table in front of her aunt. “Drink this. It’ll cool you off.”

Natalia stared at the glass for a long time before swatting it off the table. It crashed to the linoleum, sending glass shards in all directions. “A heat-hysterical old woman, that’s all you think? Girl, that storm’s no regular storm brewing out there.”

Cecily staggered into the kitchen, holding her belly with one hand, the wall with the other. “What on Earth is going on in here? I heard glass breaking.” Before Bella could stop her, one of her swollen feet found a piece of shrapnel from Auntie Nat’s outburst. Blood poured out and created a sticky pool on the flowered linoleum. Bella grabbed the towel from the oven door and wrapped her sister’s foot in it, then helped her to the downstairs bathroom.

“Sit here, we’ll get that cleaned up.” She guided her sister to the edge of the bathtub and turned on the hot water. Cecily leaned over her stomach and turned it off again, replacing it with the cold water. “Cold water isn’t going to clean that out.” Bella argued.

“You stick your own damned feet in hot water, I want the cold.”

Thunder clapped outside. Natalia followed them into the bathroom.

“You crazy old bat! Look what your outburst did to my foot!” Cecily did her best to wave her injured foot above the side of the bathtub but her stomach got in the way.

Natalia ignored her niece and sat down on the floor, folding her legs under her with the ease and grace of a teenager. From inside her linen tunic she produced a handmade black velvet bag and poured the contents on the floor in front of her.

Forgetting the water running over Cecily’s feet, both women watched their aunt stir the collection around on the floor. Several smooth, shining rocks, ten, Bella guessed, none of them larger than a peach pit, each one a different color. Thunder clapped again and suddenly the three women were left with only the fading afternoon sun to light the bathroom. The house grew eerily silent. Bella had never ceased to be amazed at the amount of noise created by the mere existence of electricity. The only sound was a faint click-clack as Natalia continued to toy with her pebble collection on the tiled floor.

She sat like this for a long time, unspeaking, moving only to adjust the assortment, phased not even by Cecily’s pained scream as another contraction ripped through her gut. “That’s it,” Bella resolved, “I’m calling the doctor.” She stepped over her aunt and out of the bathroom.

When she returned to the bathroom and to her family, she found her aunt humming, or mumbling, she couldn’t be sure, and her sister struggling to bandage her foot. Auntie Nat’s hair had begun to fall out of her long, thick braid, framing her leathered face with wild, silver tendrils. In the failing light of the storm, she looked like a sanitarium refugee. Lightning struck and illuminated a feral face that no longer resembled the woman who had raised both women from adolescence.

“The doctor will be here soon, sister.”

“She’s gone completely mad.”

“The storm is ravenous.”

Both women looked from each other to their aunt. “What?”

Natalia found her feet with little effort and before either sister knew what was happening, she had Cecily by the shoulders and was shaking her. “The storm needs to feed. It is growing and needs to feed.” She screamed only inches from Cecily’s face.

“Is that what your pet rocks told you? Leave me alone.” She pushed the old woman off of her and withdrew from the small room as quickly as her injured foot would carry her. In the hallway she fell to her knees in the amniotic fluid draining from her body, holding her belly, screaming with the contraction.

“Cecily, breathe.” Dr. Alperen had let himself into the house through the screen door left open in Natalia’s wake. He squatted beside the screaming, sobbing Cecily. When the contraction had subsided, he lifted her to her feet and led her to the living room couch. Bella followed, asking the doctor if they could make it to the hospital. After a short moment of deliberation, he decided there wasn’t time. Bella helped her sister onto the couch so she could push the baby out and removed her panties, pulling her skirt up over her chest, exposing her to the doctor.

Natalia emerged from the bathroom, sobbing uncontrollably. Bella watched the tears stream across her aunt’s cheeks, wondering if the woman even knew they were there. Silver tendrils of her hair had found their way to her cheeks, adhering to the tears. Thunder cracked and the house shook from the force.

Dr. Alperen knelt on the floor in front of Cecily, whose feet were propped on the heavy coffee table. Bella sat on the piece of furniture to add weight so her sister couldn’t knock it over. Behind her, Natalia had dropped to her knees, wailing toward the ceiling. Ignoring her, the doctor moved forward, telling Cecily to push.

Outside, the wind had begun to scream above the women in the house. Rain pelted the walls and windows so hard Bella thought the glass might break behind the energy. “One more good push, Cecily, I can see the head.”

Cecily pushed and screamed. Natalia screamed louder, competing with the wind and thunder. The house had grown dark from the storm; Bella retrieved the emergency candles from the kitchen and lit them around the room. Cecily pushed again and the doctor freed the baby’s shoulders. Natalia had climbed to her feet and placed her hands on the baby’s head, pushing, trying to push him back inside. “Nooo! A life for a life. The storm is going to take a life in exchange for his life. Someone will die!” As she shrieked a window behind her shattered behind the impact of a hurtling tree branch.

“Get away from my baby, you crazy fool!” Cecily used what little strength she had left to kick her aunt in the chest. She toppled backwards over the table, landing on her back on the floor behind the doctor. Cecily pushed again, and screamed, and the doctor produced the baby. “It’s a boy. Congratulations.”

“Bella,” Cecily called to her sister. “Isabella, it’s a boy! Bella?”

Natalia shrieked. Bella lay on the floor next to the couch, the candle she had been carrying rolling across the floor away from her. Her face was frozen in a final, unseeing stare, a shard of glass protruded from a gaping wound in her throat.