The Ghosts of Houston Read online

  So much was lost in Katrina, especially Maggi, my wonderful pet dog. And because she was my first ever pet, I’d decided to name my first daughter, Katherine, in order not to forget the beautiful times we once had in Louisiana. Maggi still holds a special place in my heart, and for her sake, and for my unborn daughters sake, I had vowed to get through the storm.

  five

  It didn’t take long. I was still pondering on how to get through the storm when it struck. I never anticipated it. It was as though the wind listened to my thoughts, and got angry at me. It didn’t warn me. It just seemed to have regained much strength, attaining over three hundred miles per hour within a split second, before descending on me. I practically saw myself flying in the air, before I crash landed on a ditch. I drifted off immediately.

  It took a long time before I regained consciousness. I actually thought I was dead, but when I opened my eyes and found myself strapped on a gurney in a very beautiful passageway, I knew I was alive. I spent the next few seconds goggling at them, wondering exactly who they were. They were rolling me through the vast corridor of a very beautiful hospital, all six female nurses, clad in their traditional white uniforms, with the scarlet First Aid cross symbols stashed on their white hats. They were so beautiful, and were smiling delightfully at me, uttering very kind words at the same time. Although I could barely understand what they were saying, but deep in my heart, I knew they were lovely words.

  The corridor seemed never to end, but as we finally branched out through a metallic doorway, Katherine suddenly came across my mind. I quickly touched my belly, and it was at that instant that I realized I was in labor. The crash earlier on, had forced Katherine to begin her journey to planet earth much earlier than her destined time. I wasn’t expecting her until two weeks from August the 25th.

  As we got inside the labor room, I was quickly lifted up from the gurney, and placed on the labor bed. It was like a theater for operations, or intensive care unit as it were. And, believe me, it was the most beautiful place for child delivery I’ve ever seen. The nurses quickly surrounded me, and they were now in light blue uniforms, and so was I. I tried to say something, to thank them for saving my life, but each time I tried to speak, a particular nurse in med-glasses, would smile at me, and I would instantly lost the words I was about to say. This happened for close to half a dozen times.

  A brilliant blue light was positioned in front of me, as certain medical tests were taking place on me. The nurses all seemed to be experts, as every one of them performed their various tasks diligently. The room was around 26 degrees in temperature, and it seemed so heavenly in a certain way. Everything and everyone in the room just seemed heavenly. I felt so much at peace, and just wanted to remain there for as long as it gets.

  Kindly spread your legs, would you? The baby’s about to come out.

  It was a male’s voice. There had been no male doctors in the room. I looked up at him, and he smiled faintly at me. He was in a light blue Lab Coat, and he looked so beautiful in it. I recognized him, and he was aware of that. He smiled once again at me, and quietly said. I know you’re surprise Annie, but you don’t have to be. All is well now.

  It was my ex-boyfriend Sammy, father of my unborn child. I was tempted to want to ask why he was in a doctor’s uniform, and what he was doing here in the delivery room, but again, the nurse with the med-glasses smiled at me, and I instantly forgot the question I was about to ask. She seemed to have supernatural powers, and it frightened me.

  ‘’Push…’’ I heard Sammy say. I looked up at him, still enveloped in my misery. When did Sammy become a medical doctor! And one to deliver me of my baby? It felt so unreal, but as I wandered in my imagination, I suddenly felt something slid out of me, and I heard Sammy say, ‘’okay, here Samantha comes…’’

  I looked down below, and behold my lovely child. She was still in a sac, and she wasn’t crying. Sammy grabbed her in his gloved hands, and broke her sac, and my infant daughter began to cry. I felt the tears gather in my eyes. I was so happy for my baby to have made it through. She was a survivor, and so was her mom.

  ‘’oh, what a lovely girl,’’ I heard one of the nurses say.

  ‘’Her name wouldn’t be Katherine.’’ Sammy said not looking at me. He spun at me at once, and said. ‘’Her name would be Samantha, just like Sammy her daddy’’.

  Six

  I woke up with a start. Her voice actually woke me up. She was crying just beside me inside a shelter. We were alone in the middle of the woods, and it was raining hard. Water was everywhere! I looked around, trapped in my own misery. Where are we? What is this place? I asked myself.

  Few minutes ago we were in the hospital, and Sammy, and the other nurses were there, and they had helped me deliver my baby. How come we were suddenly in a shelter in the middle of nowhere? And why is there water everywhere? But, Sammy was here! He’d actually helped me deliver my baby, and he wanted her name to be Samantha! So, now where is he, and the beautiful hospital we were in, and all the nurses I was with, especially that strange looking nurse in medicated glasses!

  I would have concluded it was just a dream, or a strange vision as it were, but no, not when I was with my baby! She was the confirmation of the reality of it all!

  My baby gave another soft cry, and I quickly took her in my arms. She was soaked in blood, and was looking quite unhealthy. I knew she looked that way because she had been forced out of me prematurely. I needed help. I knew if I don’t get her to the hospital in time, she might not make it through. With my legs completely draped in blood, I staggered up to my feet, and cried out to God, asking him to not let my baby die. She was all I’ve got, and that, I would take my own life should anything happen to her.

  The rain was still drizzling hard when help came through. They were in a boat, and were three in number; two white males and one black. It was close to twilight now, and I wondered how the boats had made it through the woods. They said they had been out since the early hours of that day, that they were trying to find a friend who had gone missing in the woods. They were astounded to find my baby and me in that shelter, and seeing the conditions we were in, they quickly took us inside the boat, covered us with their raincoats, and padded away from the woods.

  It baffled me that the whole city had suddenly become a huge swamp. Massive destructions was everywhere. I spun around in awe as we got into town, trying desperately to identify our location. I could barely tell where we were, as the once beautiful streets and pedestrians of Houston, had been swallowed up by the flood. The rescuers briefed me with the latest developments of the state of Texas, and I felt my heart leap. They said it had been raining all night and day, and that much rain was still expected in the next two days. I tried to look up into heaven, to ask God for interventions, but I quickly realized he was with us all. I couldn’t be more grateful for his grace in our lives.

  As soon as we paddled to a nearby hospital, my baby was instantly taken from me by the nurses on ground, and placed in the ICU. They said she would be there in the Intensive Care Unit, for the next two weeks until she was healthy enough to go home with me. They said she was doing fine, and that she was going to make it through alright. They gave me all the medical attentions I needed, and I was grateful to God, and to Sammy too, and just as he came across my mind, I decided to have words with Ruby. I borrowed a cell phone from one of the rescuers, and put a call through to Ruby. I was eager to know about Sammy, and since my baby was in isolette, I decided it was the perfect time.

  Ruby didn’t pick up until after the sixth or seventh phone call. Her voice sounded strained and I could tell she had been crying. I suddenly felt my heart pounding against my chest, as deep within me I knew something terrible had occurred.

  She refused to give the sad news at first, but after a few hesitation she let it out.

  I was silent for a moment, and then, the despairing news suddenly began to take its toll on me. I wanted to hang up on her, to crush the phone into pieces, but I found myself lis
tening through. She said Sammy had been killed by the flood in his attempt to come rescue me and my unborn child, at Garden Oaks. She spoke for a while, but I wasn’t paying attention. My thoughts were distance away.

  It quickly began dawning on me, that Sammy loved me so much, and that he had refused to give up on me and his unborn child even in death. It was his ghost, and probably with a couple of the others that had been killed by the flood, that had come to my rescue during the car crash, and during the delivery of my baby. I thought of all the beautiful nurses, and tears began to pour down my eyes. Sammy was a hero, and so was every one of those nurses. They were the Ghosts of Houston, and would forever be cherished in my heart.

  I named our baby Samantha as her dad had instructed, and would narrate our miraculous survivor story to her when she becomes a teenager someday. But, in the meantime, I have works to do. Sammy needs to be giving a befitting burial, and then, I would go on a real-life search for the mysterious nurse with the med-glasses.

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