Birth
"Isn't he beautiful, Erik?" she asked him as she cradled the small bundle to her still damp breast. It had been swathed in black, for black was what was available.
"Yes, Christine."
"I want to name him after you, Erik."
He did not answer her and she glanced up at him, brushing back the hair that stuck to her glistening forehead. "Please?"
He sighed softly. "Yes, Christine…"
She smiled at him with what was left of her weary energy and then turned back down to continue to gaze at the face of their first born child. "He resembles us both, Erik? Don't you think? He has your eyes."
She managed another smile then as he stared back up at her, wide-eyed and unblinking. She pressed a kiss to his tiny forehead.
"Yes, Christine," Erik answered. "I suppose he does…"
"Erik," she whispered softly, but to the child. "That is your name. My darling little Erik."
The man at her side bent over her. "You ought to rest, Christine… You have been greatly strained… You need to recover yourself…" He reached to take the baby from her arms.
"No." She held the little black-wrapped thing all the more tightly to her breast. "Not just yet. Please, just let me hold him a little longer, Erik?"
He sighed again and withdrew. "Of course, Christine…"
"He didn't even cry. Did you notice, Erik? Babies usually scream like demons when they are born, but he is the perfect angel." And then she began to hum a Christmas carol.
"Yes, Christine," he said softly, moved. "Of course I noticed…"
She smiled up at him with sudden thrilled energy. "He will be a musician like you, Erik." Then she looked back down at the baby again as it gazed back at her. "Isn't that right, little Erik?" She laughed with a carefree merriment. "However will we tell the two of you apart! We must think of a pet name to call him while he is young, Erik." And she began to hum once more.
"Christine…" Erik began seriously, but then he stopped before he spoke and all he said, in the same soft tone, was "Yes, Christine."
For how in heaven or earth could he ever bear to be the one to tell her that the reason the child resembled him so was because it had been born dead.