The Curse of Dr. Zola
Chapter 29
Interlude-1958
"How could you be so stupid?" Mary Engel shouted at her daughter.
Willa's face was streaked with tears; her eyes were red from crying for days. "I wanted to tell you before now, but I didn't know how. I knew you'd be so mad at me."
"You're damn right I'm mad. What were you thinking?"
"I'm sorry mama. I'm so sorry."
"What's his name? Have you told him yet?"
Willa shook her head.
"Do you even know his name?"
"His name is…" She never got to finish. Willa cried out in pain as her mother slapped her hard across the face.
"It doesn't matter! I have to send you away now. I have to find a place that will take you. You are not to see him, talk to his friends or tell anyone about this! Do you understand?"
"Yes, mama."
"Go to your room and stay there!"
Willa ran to her bedroom and cried.
3 months! She's 3 months pregnant! I don't have much time.
"Push!" The midwife urged, and Willa screamed as the pain from the contraction increased.
Her forehead was dotted with sweat. Her whole body was, and her clothes were soaked.
Panting from the exertion, Willa relaxed as the contraction eased.
She had been in labor for hours and she was exhausted, but still the baby wouldn't come.
Another contraction and another scream. "PUSH!"
Willa pushed with what strength she had left.
"I see the head! We're almost there Willa!"
Willa started sobbing anew.
The next contraction got the baby a little further. A few more and the baby was finally born; a son!
He was big! Over 10 pounds, and Willa's pelvic frame was barely wide enough for the baby to fit thru.
The midwife hung him upside down and gave him a good whack on his behind. He started crying immediately, a good strong cry.
"My son!" Willa cried.
The midwife wrapped the newborn in a blanket and handed him to his mother. "What are you going to name him?"
"I don't know yet."
"Well, you have two days to decide, that's when we'll be making up his birth certificate."
"Will someone go see if my mother has arrived yet?"
A nurse left and came back with Mary. "I would have been here sooner, but I only just got the message."
Willa went to show her mama the baby, but a scream stopped her.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Mary was ushered out along with the baby in a nurse's arms.
Willa started screaming again, and hemorrhaging profusely.
By the time it was all over, Willa had lost a lot of blood, and an emergency doctor had to be called in for surgery.
Hours went by before Mary knew what happened.
The doctor came out to speak with her at last.
"You are her mother?"
"Yes. What happened?"
"The child was too big for her body, and it damaged something inside. I've performed surgery but your daughter will never be able to have another child. I'm sorry."
Mary nodded. "May I see my grandson?"
"I'll have a nurse escort you."
Interlude-1965
It was a gorgeous summer day in 1965.
Mary was retired, and Willa was raising her son, James Buchanan Engel.
They had moved away and started over after Willa's son was born, to a place no one knew them.
He was a spirited little boy of seven, running around and doing all the things little boys did; learning to climb trees, getting scraped up knees, and being boisterous.
Mother and Grandmother were watching him play in the backyard. It was a perfect day.
They were planning on going to the beach come the weekend. But for now the women just chatted about life and how happy a boy little James was.
"I still can't believe you named him after 'Uncle James'."
"I literally grew up with Uncle James sleeping in the basement."
"Do you remember us crossing the border from Canada back into the US?"
"Some."
"You couldn't wait to show Uncle James the doll I bought you."
"Oh yeah. It was my reward. I remember spending hours telling Uncle James about my new doll."
"How I hated to ask you to do it."
"At least, when I got older, the headaches went away."
"You were too young to be doing what I had asked of you, but we had to get home. I couldn't trust anyone."
"Was Uncle James part of the plan?"
"No. He wasn't part of the plan. That was entirely the problem. I took it upon myself to rescue James Barnes. No one could know I had him, not even my own agency. I had to smuggle him and us, across many borders to get home. The hardest part of the trip was the ocean crossing. You got seasick and spent most of the trip throwing up. I was so scared we'd be found out that I barely ate. But we made it to Canada."
"How did you know mama? How did you know?"
"When I had infiltrated the Nazi's, Johann Schmidt had acquired a cube called the Tesseract. One of his soldiers had picked up the necklace with the orange stone in it. Fool! He didn't know what he had, and he traded it for a whore and some lager. I acquired it."
"But what is it?"
"It is called the Soul-stone. It originated in the Norse regions, centuries ago. It is an amplifier. I have the gift of seeing into the future. The stone recognized the gift in my soul, and amplified it, that's when my dreams began. I saw what HYDRA was trying to do. I saw many of Zola's experiments fail. I also saw his imminent success with James. The more I wore the stone, the more I saw his pain. They ripped him apart, stole him away from his body, and turned him into an abomination. I felt James's soul even before I met him. Our connection was that strong. The stone will only respond to certain souls or combination of certain souls. If your soul is pure enough, the stone will guide you."
"How do you know all this?"
"It showed me. We have very old roots from the Old Norse days. It has been diluted over the years, but our blood is still Norse."
"I didn't know that."
"It will serve you well in the future, but always remember that everything you do has a consequence."
"I think I've discovered that already." She looked over at her son and called him for lunch. But he didn't answer her. "James!"
He had been at the very end of the backyard for a while and he was still there. "James, it's time for lunch."
When he still didn't respond, she got up and went to see what he was up to.
Mary started running when she heard her daughter scream.
The little boy was dead, his neck had been broken.
Walking away thru the woods that bordered the property, The Curse just ignored the sounds of the two women wailing. His current mission was completed, and he had to go report in.
Interlude-1969
It the morning of Christmas Eve, and the house was decorated with evergreens. JT had put up the lights, the tree was trimmed and it should have been a joyous time.
But not for Willa Bailey.
She knelt in front of the toilet vomiting up breakfast yet again. She was miserable and sick. Something had been going around and she finally came down with it. She crawled to her feet, and sat down on the edge of the tub. She'd been sick for days. She wiped at her mouth and wished the vile taste would go away.
Her poor husband, JT, scrambled all over town to finish up shopping. Willa couldn't get out of the house, and his mother-in-law was joining them for Christmas Day celebrations.
It had been impossible to cancel the plans. Mary had insisted she come, if only to give JT a chance to relax while she took care of her daughter.
JT picked her up from the airport on Christmas morning and drove her to their modest home. He carried her bags and followed her inside.
They found Willa once again crouched in front of the toilet.
"How long has this been going on?" Mary asked her son-in-law.
"A couple of weeks now, why?" JT answered.
Mary went to her daughter's side, and the orange stone from her necklace began to glow.
"Mama? Look."
Mary looked down and her hand went to cover her mouth. "It's a miracle!" Tears filled her eyes.
"What is, mama?"
"You're pregnant Willa! You're pregnant!"
"What? How? We were told it couldn't happen."
"I don't know how Willa, but it has. You're going to be a mama. It's a gift from Heaven."
Willa gave birth to a small 6 pound baby girl in August. She was healthy despite her small size.
The doctors were anxious during the birth because of Willa's previous pregnancy and subsequent health condition, but Willa made it thru.
Mary, and Willa's husband, JT, sat close by as Willa rocked her baby girl in her arms and hummed to her.
"She's a beautiful baby, Willa. She has our Norse heritage."
"Well, with that blonde hair she sure doesn't have mine." JT, who had brown hair and brown eyes, admitted.
"I think she has blue eyes." Willa tried peeking into the tiny orbs.
"A lot of babies have blue eyes, until their true colors come out."
"I hope they stay blue." Willa smiled.
"What did you decide to name her?" Grandma Mary asked.
Willa looked into the face of her husband of 4 years, and smiled.
"We named her Mary." JT told her. "After you."