Violet.(Kevin Hughes) Author’s Note:

I just wanted to introduce Violet to the Reader. I like her. So I believe there will be another “Violet” story soon.

*****


Violet was only six years old. Already people were asking if she was named after her eyes. She was six…so to her, her eyes were purple. Adults always laughed when she corrected them:

“Violets are flowers. Purple is a color. I like my purple eyes.”

And she did.

This is her story.

*****

It was a difficult birth. Life threatening. There was a chance that either the young Mother, the baby…or both, wouldn’t survive the birthing. With luck, and the prayers of just about everybody concerned…both survived. The young Mother would never be able to have another child. She had wanted at least two children, and hoped for three. She was to exhausted to think about what the future might be. Or bring.

Her husband sat helpless on one side of the bed. He held his sleeping wife’s hand in his. They had seen their baby girl for all of three seconds before she was rushed out to Neonatal ICU care. His wife hadn’t even been able to hold her…even if just for a second. Of course, he thought, after that thirty eight hours of horrible Labor, she was in no shape to even see, let alone hold her baby. She was busy fighting for her own life. Now, almost ten hours after the baby had come into the world…their joy had drowned in a sea of broken hopes, physical exhaustion, and sheer fatigue. So he sat. Hoping his wife would wake up stronger and rested. Wondering how his little girl was doing. The darkness settled in the tiny room as what little light from the window died its ritual evening death. Soft breathing, shallow sips of air echoed off the cinderblock walls.

The Doctors and Nurses worked with the Professional competent fury that only knowledge and compassion can create. This girl would Live! They almost shouted it out with the efforts they were making to make it so. There was something different about this baby…they all felt it. This little girl should be screaming from the pain and agony of tubes, wires, and needles being plunged into her body - but she wasn’t. She was calm. Almost serene. It calmed the Doctors and Nurses enough for them to want to try and save her. She was different. They just didn’t know how different.

*****

She was alert. The last three days seemed like a dream. A bad dream. But she was hungry, and not just for food…she wanted to see her little girl…that was a hunger older and stronger than the mere lack of food. Her husband looked like a pile of ruffled clothes as he slept in the recliner next to her Hospital bed. She smiled over at him. He had been by her side for the entire ordeal…and ate his meals off of her tray. He had to be exhausted and worried beyond belief. Had she been able…she would have crawled out of bed and climbed into his arms. She was still to weak. It was then that a Nurse surprised her and her thoughts turned to see what was next.

“Are you ready to meet your daughter?”

Her scream woke her husband up as he jolted upright, fists balled, looking for whatever threat was coming now. It took him a moment to parse out the situation.

“YESS! PLEASE! I WANT MY BABY!”

Her husband seemed to unruffled in front of her. He started to glow with anticipation…and then…they brought her in.

“Oh, God. She is so tiny!”

“And so pretty!” Chirped in her husband who was trying desperately not to crowd between Mother and Daughter…but still get a finger available for the baby to grip. To his immense delight, the baby did grasp his finger…and held on. It was enough. He cried. His wife noted those tears of joy? Relief? Wonder? But she was lost in her own exploration as she counted toes and fingers. The baby had curled up at her breast and suckled immediately. The Nurse noted that with both personal memories, and Professional detachment. Nursing. Good. Sometimes there is a problem either with the baby’s ability, or the Mother’s inability to nurse. From the gurgling sucking sounds coming from the baby, and the contentment in the sigh from the Mother…that was not the case here.

The Mom tore her gaze away from the miracle in her arms. She gave her husband a glancing sweet look. He returned it with unabashed joy…and continued to look down on his daughter. The Mother’s gaze shifted to the Nurse who was watching one of the few joys in Nursing…the beginning of unconditional love.

“What color are her eyes?”

The Nurse gave a wry smile.

“We don’t know. She hasn’t opened them yet.”

“Is that normal?”

“Well…sometimes birth trauma can set the time table back a bit. She’s fine. She will open her eyes when she is ready.”

The Mother felt a brief pang of fear. Four days without opening your eyes? She looked down at her little girl, greedily making up for having hospital food pumped into her tiny stomach by trying to empty her mother’s breast as quickly as she could.

“Hey honey, open your eyes. Mommy wants to see them.”

Even though she whispered those words barely loud enough for her husband (still staring at the two most important women in his life with a look just short of awe that danced on the edge of wonder) to hear. The Nurse just saw her lips moving. The sound to light to float over to where she was standing.

But the baby heard it. And opened her eyes.

“OH.”

Was all the Mom could say. The Dad just let out a puff of air. The Nurse came over to look…and she said out loud:

“Oh, My! Oh, my, my, my. What beautiful eyes.”

Without looking up the young mother agreed. The Father felt the tiny fist give his finger a squeeze. He bent and kissed her tiny hand…rewarded with a brief smile on his daughters face before she went back to suckling.

“Violet.”

The Dad patted his wife’s shoulder.

“Yes, that is the color. Exactly!”

She laughed and pointed with her free hand to the still feeding little tyke in her arms.

“No Silly. I mean that is her name. It matches her eyes. “

“Oh.”

It was his turn to laugh. Of all the names they had thought of, and the one they decided on…none of them were…well…Violet. But he knew it was the right name.

So he said it out loud.

“Welcome to the World Violet.”

“Yes, welcome to the world Violet.”

The Nurse gently excused herself from the scene…closing the door with barely a squeak.

She smiled as she walked back to the Nursery.

“Violet. Yep. It fits.”

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