"Celeste"

     Celeste took a deep breathe.  The air in the hall was heavy, humid with her tears.  She let the thick air out slowly, clearing her lungs.  Her breathing filtered regret and sorrow, filtered out regret and memory.  Celeste raised her hand from her well padded stomach and looked down into her open palm.  The stain from the pressure of the door handle had receded, and she dried her eyes with the back of her hand, rubbing at the mask of gritty salt that had formed on her face.  As she stepped away from the wall from where she had been leaning on, across the hall from Erica's hospital room, she tried to stand up straight.  Celeste felt her body list to the left, a strong tower, but leaning with the weight of the past.  She slowly shuffled towards Erica's door, her feet carrying the burden of heart, mind, memory, regret and body.  Celeste lifted her hand and knocked.
     Her knock was answered by a scream from one voice, and then an answering echo screamed from another! Startled, Celeste grabbed the knob and rushed into the room!  "Is everything alright?"  Her voice probed the far corners of the room; hunting danger, tracking fear.  " Everything is alright!  You just startled us!" When the door opened, Dr. Swanzy had jumped up and swung around to face the door.  Her clip board was poised in her hand like an Amazon's shield, her pencil was held in her other hand like a spear, ready to battle whatever force was coming through the door.  "Everything is alright!"  And Erica,  Erica had fallen back on her hospital bed.  Her  face was bloodlessly pale, and she had pulled the bed cloths to her chin, a sadly inadequate defense against even the smallest storm!  "You scared me!", Erica whispered, her eyes swimming around in her head.  She then abruptly pulled herself back into a sitting position.  "I have to go home...now!  Where are my clothes?", she demanded, her voice rising, frantic...hysterical!  "I don't think that that is the best choice, Mrs. Gonzalez!  responded Dr. Swanzy, her voice soft, yet firm.  "If you won't call the police, I have no other choice, under the law, but to call the police myself."  "If you call the police, he will kill me!",  Erica shouted, her quivering eyes and body totally focused on Dr. Swanzy's words.  "He - will - kill - me!"  She screamed as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, steadying herself with her had on the bed's side-rail.  "Please! Please!  Don't call the police!  I beg you!  Don't call them!"  Erica took an unsteady step towards Dr. Swanzy, one hand clawing through the air.  Begging mercy...trying to stop what she knew was inevitable.  Celeste quickly stepped between Erica and the doctor, grabbing her flailing hand in her own, lending support as Erica began to sway towards the floor.  Dr. Swanzy grabbed her other arm and they attempted to put her back in the bed.  "No, let me sit up!  Let me sit in the chair!  I have to get out of that bed!  I have to get out of that bed!", Erica screamed!  "Sh-h-h-h!  Hush now, child.  We will set you in the chair.  Now calm down!  Calm down."  Dr. Swanzy made a nodded her head towards the chair, and she and Celeste gently lowered Erica into it.  "If you call the police...Pedro will kill me.  He will kill me!"  Erica again pleaded.  "I have no choice.", Dr. Swanzy quietly reiterated and gently patted Erica's shoulder.  The doctor caught Celeste's eyes, nodded, and then left the room.
     Erica sat in stunned silence! Purple, green and dark red bruises moaned from above the neckline of her sagging hospital gown and as they moaned, they caught Celeste's attention.  A cry of ancient sorrow rose from the pit of Celeste's soul and she knelt down in front of Erica, her aging knees adding their distress to this pain-filled hospital room.  Celeste placed both of her soft wrinkled hands across Erica's breastbone.  "He will kill you and this baby, my dear, if you go back to him."  Her hands radiated heat.  Her hands radiated soft electrical sparks that short circuited Erica's panic and slowed her heart beat.  It changed her breating.  It changed the messages of the synaptic fireing in Erica's brain and soul.  "How did you know about the baby?"  Erica's voice was low, the laying on of Celeste's hands a magic potion.  "I just know, child.  I just know.  You'd be surprised what I know."  "I have no where to go.  I have...I have eight other children at home...and I can't leave them."  Erica's speech became slurred, Celeste's voice a tranquilizer, leading her...leading her...."You will take them with you, my dear." Celeste said, her hands lifting to rest on either side of Erica's face, the circle of calm unbroken by their shift.  "You will take them with you."  Celeste's eyes held Erica's, and Erica felt like she was looking deep into the universe.  She felt vertigo, she felt turned upside down, she felt like she was spinning into a galaxy of infinite peace...of infinite possibility.  In those eyes, there was escape and dreams and hope.  "Where?" Erica faint whisper barely reached Celeste's ears. "Where?"  Celeste answered "To my house.  To home."