TheBanyanTree: THE HOUR

[Sharon Mack]

>From my other writing group.

PROMPT: (11/19/04)
Write a short-short story using the techniques described by Beverly
Lauderdale for your beginning and ending.  Challenge yourself to write
a
riveting tale that takes place within the confines of one hour.

************************

THE HOUR

March 1, 1979
8:00PM

I'm in the hospital writing this.  Phil has finally gone down to the
cafeteria and left me on my own.  The baby is sleeping peacefully at my
side.  Soon they will take him to the nursery for his billyrubin test. 
They think he may be jaundiced but he looks fine to me.  He has thick
black hair, soft as the down on a duck and it sticks straight up on his
head.  Phil keeps trying to make it lay down but no such luck.  His
eyes, when they're open, are not the usual baby blue but rich dark orbs
with no whites that you can see.  Dr. Kebejian jokingly made the comment
that I had had a puppy, so black were the baby's eyes.  It made me laugh
right in the middle of my stitching.

This boy, this son.....he is a small piece of my soul.  I have felt it
since the beginning of him.  I know him.  I know him better than any of
my other children.  He has left my body but he is still within me in a
spirtiual way.  His name is Philip Lee Mack the third.  Such a big name
for such a little boy, but he will fill it...of that I am sure!  Waiting
for him all those months was magic.  He grew within me and then when it
was time, he hurried to meet me.   One hour....yes, one hour.  That's
what it took for my son  to be laid upon my breast.  One hour for him to
seek nourishment once more from my body.  One hour until I actually
could hold this long awaited soul of my soul.  It was the hour.....the
hour that changed my life...the hour that I would come to remember
better than any other hour in my life.