RODE HEUVALS (PT.3)

Ambroos screams fill the room. They could pull tears from the eyes like an audible extraction. Some flinch at her cries of, “It hurts! Help me! The pain! Make It stop! Save me!”

Her husband Gerben caresses her face and holds her hand trying to soothe her but he is unsure how much actually is getting through to her. He is on the verge of tears and struggling with his composure.

Anuschka, Wilhelmina’s elder mother, takes pause from prayer after one of Ambroos’s ground shaking cries.

Anuschka announces across the bed in Dutch, “Gerben. It’s time to say goodbye. Take this time now for fear, my child, there may be no time again.”

He contemplates that Anuschka might be right. His tears can be held back no more and he holds Ambroos’ hand against his face as he cries like the sun will burn out. He is powerless. Gerben falls weak and crumbles onto the beds edge. Kasper and Jacintha watch and begin to hold each other closer. Ignaas and Pepijn stop mid conversation at the sound of Gerben falling apart. Both men drop their heads and become quiet.

Wilhelmina tells Ambroos through her weeping, “I’m so sorry. Forgive me my dear Ambroos.” She then falls into Tessa’s shoulder where her wailing is muffled.

The room is filled with a tension. Weary anticipation builds like a sickness in everyone tying their stomachs in knots and making them nauseous for the heartbreak to come. An air thick with change that an era of heavy melancholy descends on them. Gerben cries to Ambroos, “If ever I have stolen any of your days, I am sorry. If ever I have given you a day without love, I am sorry. Dearest, My dearest Ambroos. Where will love live in this world if you are no longer here. I am sorry ever you wished more of me. You were the reason food was good and the air filled my lungs. Without you! Without you my dearest Ambroos, fire will lose its warmth.”

The front door swings open again and Victoria enters the house. Only Jacintha and kasper look up while the rest grieve. Wilhelmina feels the light touch of a hand on her shoulder. She looks back to see Victoria standing over her.

“Oh Victoria, I did what I could.”

Victoria reaches over to feel Ambroos’ stomach. “Worry not. For your goodness is recognized.” Victoria raises her voice to get the attention of the room, “There is still hope. Gerben! With your approval, I would like to conduct an operation that has seen the survival of both the mother and child. An operation that has been practiced in the African region of Uganda for hundreds of years. I know this operation to be reliable. With help... I can save the life of your wife and child.”

“Then there is no time to waste!” Geertrudia says from the open door. Standing with her is Jacop and Zoe.

Victoria looks to Geertrudia to acknowledge her and then looks to Gerben who gives her a nod of approval.

“Ambroos,” Victoria says while turning to grab her hand, “You are the only person in this room for which their wants truly matter. I trust myself. I know myself to shatter disbelief upon reaching the fruition of my ambitions. Grant me your trust and tell me this is what you want and I will hesitate no longer.”

Ambroos, heaving in pain, fights to stare Victoria in the eyes. She stares assessing, sweat stinging her eyes and pain drilling through her chest and up her neck. “Miss. Victoria… I grant you my trust. Do what you must… but against all odds... save my baby. If nothing else... th-that... is all I truly want.”

Victoria then faces everyone in the room, “Like all things in life, there is no guarantee this will be successful. I take full responsibility for the well-being of Ambroos and her child. In order for me to conduct this operation I will need the assistance of only a few.”

At that moment Victoria acknowledges Bernardo entering the house holding carpentry tools and she tells Geertrudia, “I need you and Tessa to retrieve water from the well. We need four buckets of water. Bernardo I need you to go with Ignaas to his black smith workshop to burn your tools. Burning your iron tools will make them sanitary for use. Everyone who has worked the field today and wears dirt on their person must leave for the remainder of the operation. Anyone who wishes to stay must be clean and must promise to not get in the way of my directions. If we can do everything under my guidance then there is every chance that Ambroos and her child will survive. Please, I need your trust.”

At the entrance of the village Tessa and Geertrudia clamor to the well where together they heave the crank to collect bucket after bucket of water. At Ambroos home Victoria is preparing for the operation. Jacintha and Zoe and Wilhelmina are petrified in the room as they watch melting of sweat in their noiseless presence. Bernardo returns with his tools without Ignaas and asks, “Do we need anything else before we begin?”

Just then Yvonne walks in holding roots in her hand, “Miss. Victoria! I have retrieved what you've asked.”

Victoria instructs Yvonne, “I need you to clean those roots and then I need you to crush them into a paste with water nothing else just root and water. Quickly!” Jacintha, Zoe and Wilhelmina come to life as they join Yvonne to assist her with making the paste. They all go into the kitchen to begin work on crushing the roots. Ambroos is writhing with each howl when she is handed a bottle of wine by Victoria, “Drink as much as you can as often as you want.”After watching Ambroos drink an entire bottle Victoria waits for signs of intoxication.

Tessa and Geertrudia return with the water. Victoria proceeds to clean the carpentry tools, clean her hands and instructs Wilhelmina and Bernardo to clean their hands the same way as she uses water to wipe Ambroos stomach. Victoria waits only short while longer and sees, Ambroos is intoxicated.

“It is time to begin.”

With Bernardo on one side and Wilhelmina on the other Victoria takes a sharp cleaned blade and cuts Ambroos’ lower abdomen. She makes incisions through multiple layers one after the other. First through her skin then fat. When she arrives at muscle she cuts it vertically. She pushes the muscle aside and using hooks she has Wilhelmina and Bernardo pull the muscle aside only slightly. Another layer of tissue is exposed now, another cut, now another set of hooks for Bernardo and Wilhelmina to use occupying both of their hands. Victoria is at a point where she must operate with no assistance. She reaches in through the muscle and tissue to the uterus wall. Another cut. With her hand she separates the incision to see the amniotic sac. One more layer. She must be slow, only to cut the layer of tissue and nothing more. Just one more layer deeper... into Ambroos’ body... with a carpenters blade.

Ambroos can feel her intestines on the outside of her body. She is awake, flushed with vulnerability and pouring of tears. With her eyes closed she can feel Gerbin holding her tight gripped hand.

“Gerbin,” Ambroos ghostly whispers. He leans closer to her with the expectation that there is more to follow but nothing else comes. All she can do is look up at him through half lidded eyes, finding her anchor in his presence. Victoria begins to pull the infants head through the incision. A grueling guttural moan rises from Ambroos. The infant is now fully removed and Victoria hands the newborn baby to Wilhelmina and while in her arms Victoria swiftly uses knitting string to urgently tie it off and cut the umbilical cord.

She looks to Gerben as she hands him his newborn daughter. Ambroos, lying as still as a statue asks, “Why is she not crying? Why is my baby quiet?” Ambroos begins to wheeze and whimper.

Victoria answers her, “My Dear, fear not. You will hear your daughter’s cry soon enough. A moment… is all the wait.” Just then while Gerben holds his newborn daughter she belts out in a short single breath her first cry. Everyone in the room becomes washed in a wave of relief.

Ambroos’ eyes search the room, “That, is the most beautiful sound… I’ve ever heard.”

Gerben lowers the baby to her to see and he says, “Its the most beautiful sound because you are already in love with her. Everything she will do will be beautiful to you.”

Victoria is listening to the new parents as she cleans her hands for the next part of the procedure. She remembers loving someone so much everything they did was beautiful. She thinks on how she felt expecting a child, basking in the days she was counting down till she could hear their beautiful cries. It is not long before her joy becomes fleeting and she resents herself.

Victoria expeditiously begins work on closing up Ambroos. She instructs everyone to patiently wait outside while they begin the process of sewing her open wounds shut. Bernardo and Wilhelmina stay to assist and Gerben is sitting in a wooden rocking chair in the corner holding his daughter. After the last layer of skin is stitched Victoria massages the stitches with the paste made of yam root and cassava root. Jacop steps back inside and with a troubled voice asks, “My friend, were you able to save Ambroos?”

Outside of the house waiting is Wilhelmina's two young daughters Zoe and Yvonne, and her husband Ignaas. Huddled next to them are the four elder mothers and Geertrudia alongside Tessa. Kasper and his wife Jacintha are stress ridden with the group as they hold each other.

“I hope to see them both survive,” Ignaas says, “Poor is the man Gerbin. He will have no choice but to know pain, losing one or the other. Rhode Heuvals hasn’t seen the loss of a child in three years. Not since you, Kasper and Jacintha lost your seven year old daughter.”

“Isabelle,” Geertrudia says.

“Yes, Isabelle, may God rest her soul.” Ignaas nods in sadness.

“This terror is in the same vain as it holds such close remnant to Isabelle and how we still mourn losing her,” Geertrudia recalls to Jacintha who is touched by Geertrudia’s sentiments. She reaches out to hold hands with her. Jacintha says lowly, in an unused voice, “Happen what may, we will remain strong, as we will have each other in any darkness.”

Victoria with her calm demeanor swiftly walks outside with Jacop and Bernardo and Wilhelmina following behind her. She looks over everyone's worry torn faces.

“Ambroos...” she says, “… will have to heal for weeks to come but fear not for she will get to watch her daughter grow up.”

As she finishes her sentence Wilhelmina's two young daughters Zoe and Yvonne begin to cry out with joy as the rest of the women, the elder mothers, Geertrudia, Tessa, and Jacintha collectively holler out a triumphant cheer together as though they were all holding their breath. The elder mothers begin to hold each other light heartedly. Zoe and Yvonne jump together as they hold one anothers arms. Geertrudia’s face is pulled apart by emotion bellowing as she darts for Victoria to embrace her. Jacop, walks up beside her and rests his hand on Victoria’s shoulder. Zoe and Yvonne join in wrapping around Victoria when Ignaas says joyously from where he stands, “You are an angel of life, Victoria.”

As she hears him say that her eyes shoot shut. Her indifferent demeanor crumbles away. Droplets drip out between her lashes and a euphoric stinging happens under her eyes. Jacop puts his arms around Geertrudia and Victoria in celebration with them.

Here in this moment she observes the heart of this little village become stronger. That new life has joined their communal family without losing Ambroos in the process. There is but a short moment where she absorbs how moved these people have become, the impact she has made on their lives because they needn’t suffer to loss on this day. A short moment only before the flash of a lightning strike replays in her mind and she finds the blackness of the silhouette in her memories. Here she returns to her nightmares of the monster she created, climbing out of the fire absorbing the light into the abyssal darkness it carries. She thinks to herself as she watches these people celebrate in this moment, “I am burdened with frustration to how I devalue what little good I do in this world for I am undeserving of the praise for the atrocity I committed. In the late hours I sorrow in thought of what poor souls suffer now to the hell I unearthed upon this land.”

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