Page 171 of Now and Forever

Eric is now looking as flustered as can be. He tells Simona to stay with the kids. Then, paying no heed to my sister’s protests, he takes her in his arms and puts her in the car. In twenty minutes, we’re at the hospital where Marta works. She’s waiting for us. But my sister sticks to her guns. The baby can’t be born here.

Still, nature takes its course, and, five hours later, a precious little girl weighing almost six and a half pounds is born in Germany. After getting through the ordeal of childbirth with my sister, who refuses to be alone in a delivery room with only strangers she doesn’t understand, I walk out, looking disheveled, and search for Eric and my father. They both look so serious.

“God, that was horrible!” I say.

“Darling,” says Eric, concerned, “are you all right?”

“It was terrible, Eric ... Terrible. Look at all the hives on my neck!”

I pick up a magazine from the table and fan myself. It’s so hot!

“Sweetheart,” my father growls, “stop with the silliness and tell me how your sister’s doing.”

“Oh, Papá! I’m sorry,” I sigh. “Raquel and the baby are great. She weighs almost six and a half pounds. Raquel cried when she saw her, and I laughed. It’s wonderful!”

Eric smiles, my father too, and they hug. Eric congratulates him. But I’m still in shock.

“The baby is precious ... but I ... I’m dizzy.”

Frightened, Eric holds on to me. My father takes away my magazine and fans me.

“Eric.”

“Yes, darling.”

I look at him, my eyes wide.

“Please, darling. Don’t let me go through that.”

Eric doesn’t seem to know what to say.

Then the dizzy spell passes, and I’m myself again.

“Another girl. Why am I always surrounded by women?” my father asks. “When will I have a little grandson?”

Both men look at me. I blink.

“Don’t look at me. After what I’ve seen, I don’t want to have kids, no way!”

An hour later, Raquel is in a lovely room, and the three of us go to visit her. Little Lucía is precious, and Eric drools over her.

I look at him. Since when does he like babies so much? After asking my sister’s permission, I delicately pick up the little one.

In the evening, my father says he’ll stay with my sister and baby niece at the hospital. I call him Daddy Duck when I say goodbye to him, and he laughs. Eric and I get in the car to go home. I’m exhausted. Eric drives in silence while a German song plays on the radio and I look out the window in a trance. Suddenly, when we get to our neighborhood, he stops the car on the right side of the road.

“Get out of the car.”

I blink and laugh.

“C’mon, Eric. Now?”

“Get out of the car, baby.”

Amused, I do as he says. I know what he’s going to do. Then “Black and White” by Malú comes on, and Eric turns the volume up as loud as it goes. He stands in front of me.

“Would you dance with me?”

I smile and put my hands around his neck. Eric pulls me close to his body as the music plays.

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