One Year Later
The obstetrician, Dr. Barnes, frowned as he moved the fetal heartbeat monitor over Erica's swollen abdomen.
"I seem to be only picking up one heartbeat, and it's quite faint," he told her. "I'm going to have to do an ultrasound to find out what's going on."
Erica felt a rising panic, which she struggled to keep under control. She lay on her back taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself as Dr. Barnes smeared the cold gel on her belly. Soon the now-familiar shadowy figures that were her twin sons came into view.
Dr. Barnes stared at the screen for a long time, then turned to Erica with a grave expression on his face. "I'm very sorry, Mrs. Shikov, but I detect no sign of life at all from twin B." Erica felt as if a knife had just been plunged into her heart. "And twin A appears to be in distress. As you can see, the cord is wrapped around his neck. I'll have to transfer you to the hospital right away for a C-section."
"Can I please call my husband first?" Still reeling from the shock of the obstetrician's devastating words, Erica was desperate to talk to Yuri. With shaking hands, she dialed the telephone number of the department store where he worked and asked to speak to him.
"Erica?"
"They're about to rush me into surgery, Yuri. One of the twins is...dead." She had to choke back a sob. "The other one's in trouble. They have to do a C-section right away to try to save him."
"I will come right away, Erica."
Erica was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital, which was a five-minute ride from Dr. Barnes' office, and prepped for surgery. Still numb with shock, the last thing she was aware of was the needle being plunged into her arm.
Suddenly she opened her eyes to see Yuri sitting by her bedside, gazing at her with tears in his eyes.
"Is...he...all right?" Her throat was so dry that she could hardly speak.
Yuri nodded. "Doctor say they get him out just in time. Cord was wrapped around his neck. He is alive, but doctor say that there may be brain damage. It is too soon to tell."
"The other one?"
Yuri began to sob, and Erica felt tears spring to her own eyes.
"He is so tiny, Erica," Yuri said after regaining his composure. "I never saw baby so tiny!"
"I want to see him!" Erica yearned to hold her tiny new son so fiercely that she could barely stand it. "When can I see him?"
"I will talk to nurse." Yuri left, and a moment later, the nurse appeared.
"How are you feeling, Mrs. Shikov?"
"One of my babies just died! How do you think I feel?"
"Your vitals are normal," the nurse said smoothly, ignoring Erica's outburst. "You're ready to go back to your room now."
"I want to see my son!"
"He's in the NICU. You're going to have to be patient."
"What about..." Erica couldn't bring herself to say the words.
"Pathology. I believe your husband is making the funeral arrangements as we speak."
Funeral arrangements. First her parents, then Toni, then numerous friends, and now this. Would the parade of death never end?
She was taken to her room on a gurney and transferred to her bed. The nurse poured her a cup of water from a Styrofoam pitcher and then left her alone with her thoughts.
After awhile Yuri reappeared, his shoulders stooped in sorrow.
"Did you see him?" Erica asked. Yuri nodded. "Does he look...very bad?"
"No. He just look like he is asleep. Doctor say that I can take you to nursery in wheelchair now." Erica wondered whether Yuri had told her the truth about the dead twin or if he was trying to spare her further grief.
Yuri helped his wife into the wheelchair and wheeled her out of the room and down the hall. She rolled past the large window with all the healthy pink newborns behind it. A nurse handed paper masks to Yuri and Erica, and Yuri pushed the wheelchair through a set of double doors to another section of the nursery, a section in which incubators were lined against the wall and various types of equipment were omnipresent.
She gasped when she first saw him. Yuri hadn't exaggerated. To her he looked no larger than one of Sonya's baby dolls. His head seemed disproportionally large, his arms and legs were as narrow as sticks, and fine, downy hair covered his body. Tubes ran up his nose, and he was connected to several monitors.
"Oh, my baby!" Erica sobbed. "Please, can I hold him?"
"I'm sorry," the nurse said. "His condition is very delicate, and stress must be kept to an absolute minimum. You may hold him when he's a bit stronger."
"But how could a mother holding her baby stress him out?"
"Any type of physical contact whatsoever could stress him out," the nurse replied.
Erica watched her tiny son's sleeping form for awhile, marveling at how pitifully still he was. Then Yuri turned the wheelchair around to take her back to her room.
"Take me to pathology," she said.
"I do not think that would be good idea," Yuri replied.
"Take me to pathology right now! I want to see the other one!" Erica was practically shouting.
With a heavy sigh, Yuri pushed the wheelchair onto the elevator and pushed the button for the basement. In the darkened hallways, the sound of the wheels on the tiles seemed to reverberate. Yuri pushed the wheelchair down an isolated hallway past a door labeled 'Autopsy Room.'
Suddenly they were confronted by a young man wearing white scrubs. "I'm sorry, but you're not allowed beyond this point."
"I want to see my son!" Erica demanded.
The young man disappeared behind a door, only to reappear with a similarly-dressed older man a few minutes later. "I'm very sorry," the older man told Erica. "Of course you may see him if you want."
Behind an adjacent door labeled 'Refrigeration' was a stretcher covered by a white sheet. The older man opened the door, wheeled the stretcher out, and removed the sheet.
He was just about exactly the same size as his twin brother, but unlike the living twin, his skin had a bluish tinge. Erica reached out to touch the tiny body. To her it felt as cold as ice.
"Good-bye, little one," she whispered.