Page 3 of Flamingo Christmas

Sue saw the sadness her friend couldn’t hide and reached out to hold her hand. “You can share mine anytime. I told you that before. They love you and are always tickled when you drop by.”

“I do enjoy stopping in every so often and seeing how they’re coming along. Being in real estate, I’m often out their way.” Colleen turned to Jacquie. “In fact, I have an older couple who just put their house on the market and it sold in a week. They’re excited about moving to the assisted living home where your folks are now. Maybe we can get them together eventually. No doubt, they’ll be lonely too.”

“That’s a great idea. When will they be moving?”

“Next week. They want to be settled before Christmas. I really like these people. You can tell they’re still sweethearts after fifty-five years together. And they both have a good sense of humor. In fact, their only child is moving to Victoria to be close to them, and they’re delighted. They’d be perfect friends for your folks.”

While Jacquie and Colleen continued the discussion about Jacquie’s parents, Sue kept glancing at her phone, waiting to get a reply from her latest message to Art. Since the distraught father had reached out to her, she’d somehow imagined he’d be as anxious to get her answer as she was to hear from him.

Heartsore, she couldn’t help wondering what more she could do. After all, she had no phone number or way of connecting with him if he didn’t answer her email. Deciding she’d wait for a little while and then send him another message, she knew one thing for certain. It had suddenly become of the utmost importance for her to fulfill this obligation.

Chapter Three

Art Reyes was heartsick when he realized he’d lost his cellphone. He’d been in the hospital waiting room all morning, pacing from one end to the other and trying desperately not to give in to his despair… to keep hope alive.

Hanging on by a tiny thread, franticly trying to maintain his cool, they’d finally allowed him to be with his daughter Lisa, who’d survived her surgery and was taken to the ICU.

The last time he remembered using his phone was to contact a place he’d found online that sold all kinds of flamingoes. He had a desperate need for one to replace Lisa’s precious lovey, especially now when she’d be needing the comfort the stuffed toy had always given her.

He’d had to search all their pictures until he’d finally gotten a clear shot of Jingles, and he’d been able to include it in his request that they might replace the one he’d lost. Thinking back, it made sense that he probably dropped his phone in the waiting room and then forgot about it.

Once he’d gotten permission to be with his little girl, all else had been forgotten. Walking into her room, he couldn’t believe the condition of his beautiful baby girl. Though she’d been safely locked in the car seat behind him, her area of the SUV had gotten the brunt of the damage. Being t-boned by a drunk driver in the middle of the morning had been an unexpected shock.

Thankfully, his airbag had opened to save him from too much of the flying glass. But her poor face had many contusions and with blood spray everywhere, it had been difficult to make out her normal appearance. After he’d regained consciousness, only seconds after the ambulance attendants arrived, he’d begged them to help him free himself from the wreck. “I’m fine. It’s my daughter who’s hurt. Please. Help me. She needs me.” And so they had.

Witnessing Lisa’s condition in the ambulance had weakened his body to where every muscle had liquefied. With sirens screaming as they flew to the nearest hospital, he’d stayed back to give the attendant room to work. And he’d prayed harder than he’d ever done before.

Seeing her now, between the tubes and bandages surrounding her small delicate body, he had to force himself to stay upright and not collapse. Worried the nurses wouldn’t take kindly to him becoming another patient, he stiffened his back, gulped down the bile that threatened to appear, and swallowed the sobs stuck in this throat.

God help him, she looked so tiny in her bed. So defenseless. His little angel didn’t deserve any of this horror. The doctor’s had explained that she’d sustained broken bones in her left arm and her pelvic area. And because of the swelling, they couldn’t tell how badly her head had suffered. She’d taken quite a beating, and yet the car seat had thankfully done its job in protecting her, which gave them hope.

“Mr. Reyes,” said the doctor with compassion written all over his tired, middle-aged face, “we have to give her time for the swelling to lessen before we’ll know for sure if she sustained more head injuries. She took quite a jarring.”

“How long will it be before she’s awake?”

“We’re purposely keeping her out for now… to give her body time to heal. She’s a healthy little girl and has a good chance to mend fully.”

“But you can’t say with total certainty?”

“I have a good feeling, sir. Look let’s not go to the dark side unless we have to. Give her a few days, and I promise our staff will keep a close eye on her.”

What else could he do but agree? He’d known in his heart that if she died, he’d be dead inside too. He’d had the same thought when he’d lost Lisa’s mother, Janette, four years earlier. It had been his baby’s needs that had pulled him through.

Though Janette hadn’t always been a ray of sunshine, especially after she’d lost her first two pregnancies, Art still loved her and wanted them to have a family. He’d tried to jolly her out of her sudden irrational fears, but she’d become stubborn and decided no more. It wasn’t meant to be. Therefore, when she refused for them to use birth control he didn’t understand her reasoning.

Then she found out she was pregnant.

Once again, her worries stressed them both until she safely passed the first trimester. After that, she’d done the best she could for a woman who suddenly became wildly afraid of giving birth. Art stuck with her, helping her with everything, trying to make this time as easy as possible.

During those months, he secretly thought she had an unreasonable dread and had tried explaining that millions of women had babies safely every year. He’d even promised they would get her to the hospital in plenty of time for her to use the drugs that would help get her through the worst. And all had gone as planned except no one knew she’d have an adverse reaction to the drugs. Or that she’d collapse and die on the delivery table.

Unable to save the mother, the doctor’s had worked hard to bring the tiny baby into the world. When Lisa appeared, they’d passed her to him and from that moment on, he’d known why he’d been put on this earth.

He’d fallen so deeply in love with the child that even without Janette to help, he’d become the best daddy that classes, books, YouTube videos, and a lot of support from his parents could make him.

Being a father had taken up his whole life, and he’d thought until the day before that he had done a pretty damn good job. But then everything had fallen apart. That morning, his boss had issued an ultimatum. He had to start working in the office at least three full days a week.

Since he’d brought his infant home from the hospital, he’d been working from his home office and loved having the time to be with her. Accounting might not be an exciting job, but he’d been good at it and enjoyed the challenges of taking on such daunting work.

---