Disclaimer: This licence isn't mine. The opinions express by the characters are not mine. I do not support nor encourage the illegal or dangerous acts or words present here. I can make a distinction between fiction and reality and I trust in my readership's ability in doing the same.
Chapter 39: Blueberry's baby
A few days after Apple Dumplin' departure, the Berrykin School opened its door. At this occasion, the Princess Berrykin gave a poignant speech about the importance of education and the luck her subjects were given to have at least an opportunity of discovering new horizons. She did not forget to generously thank Orange Blossom for her determination that had led her project to success, flouting the pitfalls and tongues wagging, and that will cover with honor both the Berrykin and Human community. She was sure Miss Blossom will fulfil the exploit of making Strawberryland even more peaceful, by giving the Berrykins a way to fight against natural disasters like serious diseases and threatening enemies thanks to modern technics, something that would help them to get out of their submission to imponderables that could be so deadly, before. She ended by exhorting the future students to do their protector proud by always being assiduous and hard-working, and to show her day after day, through their dogged work, that her investment had not been vain. As a conclusion, and to the public acclaims, she decorated Orange Blossom with the Royal Rutabaga, the highest distinction from Berrykin Royalty and which honored a life of labor. Orange Blossom was red as a beetroot, and she didn't know herself if she was delighted to be cheered by the whole Strawberryland, or embarrassed by all these honors she didn't think she was deserving. Indeed, she thought she hadn't done anything special: she had noticed an obvious injustice and had stood against it; she had just done her duty!
Other people weren't sharing general jubilation. During the Princess's speech, Strawberry Shortcake had first felt shame, because she had recognized Apple Dumplin' in the "pitfalls" that had been quoted. Then, her shame had been replaced by another feeling she could not name. She tried to be happy and proud for her friend, but she didn't manage to. Everything seemed to be so easy for Orange Blossom. She achieved everything she started! Everyone supported her and wanted to help her! But she was sure none of the Strawberrylanders had noticed she had been devoted to Strawberryland for her entire life. She had dedicated herself body and soul for her neighbors, embellishing their blank days with her tasty pastries, always ready to help them out or to comfort them when they were sad. But nowadays, she was forgotten, an anonymous girl in the crowd applauding someone else. Strawberry did her best to repulse from her mind the idea that she, personally, deserved all these laurels more than Orange Blossom.
From her side, Blueberry Muffin tried, too, to forget her worries. She term was only a matter of days now, and she was unable to work. She had found a way make herself useful by training the future Berrykin teachers, but they did no longer need her anymore now. And she didn't want to be a millstone for her friend. Giving birth, finding a foster family for the baby, going back to school… everything will be so quick for her. She would have to savor every moment she would spend with her friends. But she had to admit this future did not fit her. The baby she was carrying had been a source of intense worrying and questioning since the beginning, but Blueberry could not say she disliked her. At first, the foster family had been an evidence, but now she was seriously wondering if she could raise the baby by herself. They would both live in Strawberryland for ever, with no one to judge them… Yes, but what will she do to earn her life? Take back her job of bookseller? Will she have the time to do so, with a very young child? To the other side… this baby girl, she had carried her for nine months, and she felt it was beyond her strengths to entrust her to foreigners. She would feel like if she had abandoned her, this poor baby girl who didn't ask to come into the world, and only needed care… and love, more than anything else. If she could not love her own daughter, who would?
Blueberry Muffin needed some assistance to tidy Orange Blossom's bookshop at the end of the training courses period, and some Berrykin volunteers had come to her rescue. They were, as usual, careful and efficient; and in no time the little auditorium she had improvised was uninstalled, and all the books she had used were put back on their bookcases. Then they politely took their leave, and Blueberry Muffin found herself all alone in the desert room, where all the traces of her activity had been wiped away. And she was aware that, one way or another, she would be herself tidy in a drawer. After her daughter's birth, how would she be able to stay in Strawberryland? She had been forced to flee from college, and she would be forced to leave Strawberryland, too. For the neighborhood, she would only be the dumb girl, the one who had been stupid enough to find herself pregnant with a totally immature boy, who could not take on her child's education, who had to send this innocent little one on a foster family. What a humiliation! This was not the impression she wanted to leave to her friends. She dreamt to be an international correspondent, reputed and respected, but now the only reputation she would have will be to be a single and irresponsible mother. And she would not stand to see the compassion, pity or disdain in her neighbors' eyes. After her delivery, she would have to leave Strawberryland, to make a brand-new start in a city where now one knew her; and the image of the lost pregnant lady, unable to face the mire in which she had gotten bogged down, will be the only one that would be related to her name in Strawberrylanders' minds. As a little girl, Blueberry Muffin though she was smarted, because she was cultivated and cool-headed, but she could tell for sure she was the one who had bombed her life the most.
She sat down on a chair and started to cry. No one heard her. Orange Blossom was occupied with the Mart, and Strawberry and Angel were at the Café. She was totally alone.
She jumped when she heard someone entering the bookshop. She was not supposed to have visitors at this time! She nevertheless quickly wiped her eyes and tried to adopt a serene and smiling air. The visitor was Berrykin Bloom, who was making the most of his lunch break for bringing the book about medicinal plants he had borrowed a few weeks before back to the library. He felt embarrassed of being face to face with her, as he was fearing the moment her stomach would explode to free the baby; but when he guessed her sadness, he decided to stay a little bit longer with her, in order to try to cheer her up, after checking nothing strange was happening around her stomach.
-Why are you crying, Miss Muffin? Don't try to deny it. Is there something I could do for you?
-This is berry nice from you, Blueberry Muffin answered, feeling she was going to start crying again due to her emotion, "But you can't help me. This is personal."
-I'm sure talking about it would help you. You can trust me Miss, I won't repeat it to anyone.
Blueberry Muffin let a little sight out. She knew she could not explain to Berrykin Bloom the real cause of his pain. He would not understand, as he never had children and always have a flawless career. However, he was so kind with her, and she felt so alone, that she wasn't brave enough to repulse him. She decided to hide him a part of her troubles.
-You know, I think I'll move from Strawberryland during this year. I will miss my bookshop…
-Well, why do you want to move, if it makes you so disconsolable?
-Err…
Blueberry Muffin though very quickly.
-I'm not that sad of leaving you all, she said, trying to sound natural. "It is just I was feeling nostalgic and… err… I'm a bit tired now… I spent so many good times with all my friends here. But, you see, I also want to discover the world…"
-I can tell for sure we will all miss you, Miss Muffin. Your bookshop is definitively berry useful".
Blueberry Muffin stayed open-mouthed in astonishment. A Berrykin, thinking that books were useful?
Seeing her stupefaction, Berrykin Bloom snorted.
-Well, you thought Berrykins are an uneducated community, didn't you? In your defense, you are not totally wrong. Miss Blossom's school will make great changes in our way of life, for sure. But it didn't prevent us from being naturally tempted by art and aesthetics… and me the first.
Berrykin Bloom knew he had succeeded: Blueberry Muffin was no longer thinking about her sorrow.
-Berrykins love liberal arts? No offense to you, but they are not seen that often visiting museums, or simply borrowing books from me.
-Miss Muffin, we don't like arts this way. As I said, this leaning is natural to us, and we naturally feed it, that is to say that staring at a beautiful flower, or hearing a birdsong in sufficient for filling it. That's all. I am one of the berry rare literate members of my community.
Blueberry Muffin showed some interest in learning how Berrykins were called to learn how to write and read, as they saw no interest in it.
-You are partially right. Education, the way Humans understand it, is extremely elitist and it will be the first time it circulates so widely. In a traditional Berrykin community, it is reserved to a very little number of members of the elite. I had the luck of being part of it, thanks to my uncle who was Berryvania's gardener in chief.
-So, he taught you how to read and write?
-No. Berrykins are close to oral tradition, and I learnt my job by keeping repeating the same gestures, days after days. But I had the luck of having something else than the others…
-What?
-A voracious curiosity that made me follow lessons from Berry Big City's University. The teacher thought my presence would distract the other students and tolerated my presence provided that I would stay hidden on a cabinet.
-That's awful!
-She didn't want to have trouble with the other students. We were in 1800, and she was afraid her students would have not tolerated that a Berrykin could have the same benefits than Humans… But she was a tolerant woman, and we ended by becoming friends. Moreover, there, I learnt another kind of lesson. My methods of learning were not suitable for Humans' world. In my cabinet, my uncle wasn't here to repeat me what I had to know until I had retained it. The teacher announced what we had to know only one time, and her students had to remember everything for the following lesson, unless they were unable to comprehend it. You may understand there were too many things to learn by heart, and in so little time, that it was impossible to me to memorize everything…
-So, what did you do?
-I asked the teacher what I was supposed to do to remember everything, and she answered me I wasn't forced to learn everything by heart if I set down on paper what she said. When she understood that I was illiterate, she extremely kindly showed me how to write and read, but she hadn't had many times to give me. So, I had to do the biggest part of the job by myself, in my community, after my working day. I had been forced to learn how to write and read extremely quickly, in a couple of day, and this is how I discover that reading was extremely instructive.
-You don't read that much…
-That's right, but I never really had the time of reading what I reading wanted to. When I was young, I urged myself to go beyond my cousin Bertie, to show everyone how cleverer and more talented than him I was, and I was extremely selective about my readings-that is to say I gave preference to encyclopedias and handbooks that would teach me new ways of breeding plants. Reading was not a hobby, it was a duty… Then, I grew up, I got all the responsibilities you know… and I have not the time anymore to read. Oh, sometimes, at night, I read some poems before bedtime, but I never took the time to start, and finish a full novel. Too long. In fact, I must say that reading is rather useless, and my community counts on concrete actions from me.
As a bookseller and librarian, Blueberry Muffin could not let Berrykin Bloom say such things.
-Literature is not worthless, she said in an authoritative voice. "Thanks to my readings, I can experiment countless new things without living my living room. The writer's eyes and ears are where I can not be, and the book is like a telescope through which I can see evens and facts of which existence I ignored until now. Reading, even fictional works, makes me travel out of my prejudices. It makes me meet new points of view, new way of seeing the world, and calls my own points of view into question. Maybe a good novel won't bring me as many acknowledges as an encyclopedia would do, mister Bloom, but at least it would help me to know if the way I use them is right. And, unfortunately, this ability of truly analyze what you read, and not to simply repeat it like a parrot, is an inborn ability, that means you can not learn it in a book. The feeling of being… in a way… better after reading an enlightening book, I can not explain it. To put it in a nutshell, I think I won't feel living anymore if I was prevented from reading.
Berrykin Bloom patiently listened to her.
-I perfectly understand your point of view, miss Muffin, and I know you didn't want to offense me when you said I am wrong to ignore literature, and I won't charge you of wasting your time with your readings. But we all have to understand that Berrykins' universe is extremely different to Humans' universe. When I said that reading is "useless", I mean that it won't feed my community. We are extremely utilitarian people, and we rarely think of combining business with pleasure. And, to us, literature belongs more to pleasure than to business, because a book won't help us to pick the apples. If the majority of Berrykins does not bother to learn how to write and read, it is because they do not need it. It's not a big deal to be illiterate when you are aim to spend your life breeding tomatoes and cabbages, and you aren't even affected by this. I am the exception that proves the rule, because when our patches are confronted by an unknown disease, they need at least one person to flip through the almanac and find a remedy. The rest of the time, my skills stays unemployed.
Blueberry Muffin whistled.
-You must bore to death, she said. "You only live for your work, and have no hobby nor interest elsewhere. It is not a life, to me".
-Did you forget what I told you? Berrykins are extremely different to humans (but nevertheless equals to them). Our essence is to be gardeners and to serve our Mother Nature. This is for what we are born, we are living and we will die ; but it does not shock us. We don't even notice it, because it is how our minds work. According to your look, I can guess you think we are just like machines, right? You are totally wrong! Us, we take a lot of pleasure in doing what we do. Well, did you try to garden? Do you know how rewarding it would be when a plant cures thanks to your care? Have you once experimented the intense proudness of presenting the new species of fruit you managed to create with your grafting? You don't, I bet?
Blueberry Muffin was forced to admit he was right. But there was a last point she wanted to clarify.
-Humans and Berrykins love flowers, right? How can you explain that? Unlike a potato, a flower can not be eaten. So, what do you like in them? It must be their great colors, or their charming smell? Things that are not that useful. To be totally honest, they are… free. So, can you still maintain that all Berrykins do not have a natural taste for art and esthetics? Or… maybe a need they forget to fill?
-I can, because flowers are still a present for Mother Nature, and it is a duty for us to take care of them, he mischievously added.
Blueberry Muffin frowned.
-You are in bad faith, she said, upset.
Berrykin Bloom winked at her.
-Do not get angry, he said. "Of course, you are right. Berrykins love beauty, instinctively, without trying to name it beauty when they see it, like the flawlessness of a flower… or the satisfaction in front of a well-done work. But if I can confide you something, I'll catch up when I'll be on retirement. I'll do all that I hadn't have the time to do when I was working. I spent my life gardening, and reading in my spare time. Well! I'll try to spend my retirement reading… and gardening at my spare time, because I can't get along without that.
Blueberry Muffin wondered if it meant she had won the dialogue, when she remembered that Berrykin Bloom had initially planned to stop off at the bookshop and didn't mean to stay for so long.
-Weren't you supposed to go to the Café?
-Don't worry miss Muffin, I have got my lunchbox. Anyway, I think I no longer like to stay there. Its atmosphere changed so much since this poor miss Shortcake was forced to leave, and… this is like we are no longer welcome.
A few days later, Blueberry Muffin was due.
-Hold on, Strawberry Shortcake said, holding her friend's trembling hand. "Everything will be alright".
Strawberry was pronouncing the words she would have enjoy to hear, too. Seeing her childhood friend wincing in pain because of the contractions, without being able to relieve her, nor understanding was she was experiencing, was a difficult ordeal. She had no idea of what was going to happen, the risk Blueberry was taking, what she could do, and she could only stay sit next to Blueberry, waiting for the ambulance. Warned, the Berrykin Royal Family and Berrykin Bloom had rushed to the Café, where Blueberry's labor had started, to see what was happening.
-Is it berry painful, miss Muffin? The Princess asked.
Blueberry Muffin settled for nodding yes, but she felt angry against the Princess. How could she try to comfort her? She would never live what she was living, their reproduction was non-sexual!
-What will happen next? The Princess asked to Strawberry.
-I've called an ambulance, Strawberry answered, trying to hide her stress to the Princess and the two little girls (For some understandable reasons, Blueberry Muffin didn't want to be deliver by the doctor Nutby).
-We will go with you to the hospital, the Princess decided.
It was the thing Berrykin Bloom feared the most. The baby was certainly eroding Blueberry's stomach now., and its exit would be particularly… covered with blood. Maybe a doctor could suture her wounds and suppress her hemorrhage, but he was sure his own presence was not required; and he did not want to see this spectacle, which will be, too, extremely improper for the Princess and the two heirs to the throne.
-Your Majesty, he humbly said, "Your presence is needed here, in Strawberryland…"
-My presence is needed alongside my subject who needs assistance, the Princess replied, "And this is miss Muffin's state. As a Princess, my duty is to assist her during her rough time, and it would be criminal from me to abandon her now, when she is so vulnerable".
-No offense to you, Your Majesty, but I'm not sure You can help her…
-Maybe I don't know how to get her baby out of her stomach, the Princess retorted, "But I can at least bring her moral support throughout this trial… and I hope you will, too, Berrykin Bloom."
She had used such a tone that Berrykin Bloom understood he was stuck.
At the Berry Big City's Hospital, through the window pane, Orange Blossom, Plum Pudding and the four Berrykins could see what was happening in the delivery room. Strawberry Shortcake had decided she would stay in the field, bringing her support to her childhood friend, even in the most painful moments… both literally and figuratively. Blueberry Muffin was too out of breath to say it out loud, but she was so grateful to Strawberry, Strawberry who would never judge her, Strawberry who would never be afraid of staying next to her friend giving birth, when she was forgetting everything, what she looked like or what people was thinking of her, only feeling Strawberry's hand in her hand, and hearing the doctor's voice, telling her to push. Strawberry who never took care of appearance. Strawberry who would not think that the real Blueberry Muffin, the one who had lost her mask at the beginning of the labor, had lost all her dignity, with her uncombed hair, her seeping face and her yelps that certainly not sounded very human. And Blueberry was right. Strawberry was thinking none of it. For her, the only thing that mattered was to stay next to her friend, and to share with her the incredible arrival of the personification of Huckleberry Pie and Blueberry Muffin's common love.
Behind their window, maybe Orange, Plum and the Berrykins were more protected. Orange Blossom admired the purity of Strawberry Shortcake, always faithful to her principles, always ready for her friends, whatever they could have done, and if any disagreeable word had already crossed her lips, it was because it had simply never appeared in her mind. She wished she could reach a such level of ideal. Then, she wondered what she would have done if she had been in the delivery room, in Strawberry's stead. She though she would have cry, or fainted, or maybe both in the same time.
Plum Pudding's past of cheerleader resurfaced. She was muttering encouragements and advices to Blueberry Muffin, holding in tight the edge on the window. Orange Blossom stared at her and smiled. She was sure Plum Pudding was restraining herself from entering the room and teaching the doctor how to talk to a woman giving birth.
Sitting on the edge of the window, thanks to their tiny size, the Berrykins were not missing a thing of Blueberry's delivery, to Berrykin Bloom's great regret.
-Mum, what is Blueberry Muffin doing? Tourmaline asked.
-Darling, she's bringing her baby into the world, her mother calmly answered.
-I knew that, Tourmaline said impatiently. "But how is she doing that?"
-I guess that, due to the earth's pull and the baby's weight, her stomach tore, down, to let the doctor catch hold of the baby through the tear.
Berrykin Bloom didn't feel well after hearing these words. His stomach started to ache, just like the day when he had accidentally eaten a poisonous mushroom, before learning to recognize the edible ones. Breathing deeply, he moved away from the Royal Family, carefully avoiding to look within the delivery room. Trying to control his nausea, his weakness made him feel a little bit ashamed. The Princess Berrykin and her daughters seemed to perfectly stand the show, and to take a great interest in it. As for him, he could not understand why human anatomy was so complex. Everything was so easy for the Berrykins. He was born into a pure, pretty white flower, just like his father before him, like his uncle, and like the Princess. No pain, no cry, no blood. Just the happiness of greeting a new member in their community. He remembered the day the Princess was born. Her Mother was staying, berry unfazed, close to the Royal Rosebud. When it had finally opened up, the baby Princess had appeared, quietly curled in its bract, sleeping and smiling. Then she had slowly opened her tiny eyes. She hadn't even cry when he had swaddled her. Everything had been so… simple. So clean. Her Mother hadn't had to do all these… disgusting things Blueberry Muffin was doing. Why was it so hard for her to let the baby get out? Why did she had to hurt herself? Why did everything had to be so long and violent?
-Aren't you feeling well? Orange Blossom asked, noticing his pallor.
-I'll be alright, he answered.
Orange Blossom carefully put him in her hand and patted him in the back.
-Hold on, she muttered. "It is impressive for everyone."
Berrykin Bloom nodded, carefully letting his mouth shut.
-Do you feel like you are going to vomit?
Berrykin Bloom stayed quiet. He didn't want to worry her. Despite everything, Orange Blossom understood he was sick and looked around her to see if she could find him something to drink and, as a precaution, put a tissue in front of him.
-Hey Orange, Plum Pudding suddenly said, "Check out around here. I think it's almost over."
Orange Blossom, still holding Berrykin Bloom, came closer to the window pane. Blueberry Muffin was still rearing on the delivery table, holding closely Strawberry's hand. Even though they could not hear anything at all, Orange could see Strawberry muttering her fortifying words, and Blueberry yelling and whining.
-Keep going, Blueberry, Orange said. It was perfectly useless, but at this moment Orange Blossom did not care about that. At this moment, she was linked with Blueberry by an inexpressible feeling, the sharing of the same status of women. What Blueberry was experiencing, Orange could understand it, and feel it, as though she was there.
The midwife was more concentrated than ever. With a last hope, Blueberry braced herself on the table, letting a long sight out, before falling again on the back. Berrykin Bloom ventured to sneak into the room.
Crying out of joy, Strawberry Shortcake was shaking hands with an exhausted Blueberry Muffin. The midwife was holding a tiny, bloody, shouting baby girl.
This time, he could not restrain himself from vomiting.
The midwife gently put the baby into her bosom. For the first time, Blueberry Muffin could meet her daughter.
-She's adorable, Strawberry said, still sobbing and smiling in the same time.
Indeed, Blueberry's baby was lovely. She had stopped crying. She had already long, blue hair, scattered with brown strands, and when she opened her little eyes for the first time, frowning because of the light, Blueberry Muffin could see she had beautiful nut-brown iris. Her father's eyes.
-Welcome to the world, Blueberry Pie, Blueberry Muffin muttered.
To be continued…