Tires shrieked.
Someone screamed.
The horizon shifted.
Holy fuck!
Sharp blades of grass dug into Xiomara's back. A gale of air shot out of her lungs and out of her mouth. The echo of a scream lingered in her mind. The scent of burnt rubber. She blinked. Light filtered in. Clouds. Drifting. Birds. Blink blink. Flying. A voice. Soft. Melodious.
"Xiomara, can you hear me?"
Amelia.
Or an angel. She wasn't sure.
Flashes. Of a car. A red car, coming at them full speed. The driver. A woman. Natalya? Maybe. Everything had happened so fast. One minute they were walking on the sidewalk, and the next an ear piercing scream had filthied the air in the usually quiet neighborhood. And then a tumble, and her universe had spun upside down, the ground and the sky switching places for a second or two that felt like forever.
That beautiful voice came at her again and she turned her head toward it. "I can hear you. You're shouting."
"Oh, thank God. I was starting to worry for a second there." Amelia was next to her, kneeling on some unsuspecting neighbor's manicured lawn. Or maybe, nobody was home.
If this had happened where she came from, the entire neighborhood, including babies and old people would have been out of their tiny apartments the second that scream sounded through the atmosphere.
Xiomara sat up, but Amelia forced her back on the grass.
"I'm okay," she said, resisting any attempts to keep her down.
Amelia sent her a look that said I'm-not-so-sure. "I pushed you away from that crazy driver really hard, much harder than I intended to."
"Oh fuck. Donut. Is he okay?" Xiomara looked down at her body expecting to see her belly flat or something, or crushed like a watermelon that been hammered to death for an experiment on National Geographic. Which was stupid. It's not like her stomach would suddenly deflate just because she'd fallen rather hard on her back and got the breath knocked out of her lungs.
"Donut? I think you might have hit your head or something. Let me check."
"No, I did not. Donut is our nickname for the baby. Is he okay, please tell me he's okay." She looked down at her belly again. Yup. Still round. Still big. That was a good sign right?
"I can't t say for certain, but how do you feel?" Amelia was in doctor mode, choosing her words carefully.
"I feel good, baby-wise at least, because honestly I was expecting to wake up dead somewhere far away from here."
"Do you mind if I check your shorts for any signs of blood?"
"What? here?"
Amelia looked around them. "I don't think anyone's home, and if they are, I doubt they give a damn."
"Okay. Go ahead, but I'm not bleeding though. I feel fine."
"I don't want to take any chances," Amelia said. She poked around in Xiomara's nether region before moving on to examine her abdomen with careful hands. "Do you think you can stand? I don't see anything wrong with you that I can detect."
YOU ARE READING
Bona Fide Baby
Romance"Put your hands above your head and spread your legs," he commanded. Doing as he asked, she proceeded to lift her arms above her head and widened her stance. At the touch of his hand plowing through her wavy hair, she trembled, although it was Sahar...
