Communication with their parents did not work out well, so at some point the relatives stopped coming to Gai. No phone calls, no texts. It was not clear where it all started. It was much more important for the couple to preserve the idyll between them than to struggle to regain the long-lost relationship with their loved ones. Lars was madly in love with Inessa, and this feeling persisted in him even after many years. The couple started their relationship before marriage, and only after two years, they decided to get married.
It was only after three years that the family managed to pay off their debts to Lars's parents. He knew their account number and just silently sent them the agreed amount every month. From the outside, of course, this could seem both strange and sad. A native child who is bound to his parents by only two things – the formal details of kinship, and his debt. However, it happens, too. Especially when lovers protect each other in front of their parents, independently entering into conflicts and disputes with them.
Inessa more than once started a conversation with Lars about trying to have a child. At least one. After all, she said, they had everything they needed for that: enough money, their own apartment, their own business and love for each other. But Lars persisted and categorically refused to talk about it, believing that the time had not yet come. Yes, and in principle, man not very much love children, and somewhere inside, sincerely hopeful that Ines early or late stop this talk.
However, there are things that happen in life that do not depend on a person's will. Simply because it had to happen sooner or later. It happened to them in the year 740. Was ordinary everyday day. Inessa was helping Lars in the kitchen, once again thinking that she would like to have a child while looking at one of the happy families sitting at a table in their restaurant. The woman hadn't felt well all day, and she couldn't understand why. At one point, she felt nauseous, dizzy, and sick to her stomach and ran to the toilet. Lars saw that his wife was getting sick. He quit cutting the meat, leaving the knife on the table, and went to the closed toilet door, knocking quietly on it.
Lars: ‘Inna…are you okay? All good?’
The unpleasant sounds of nausea, vomiting and the gurgling of water in the toilet bowl were heard behind the door. Inessa ripped off the toilet paper hanging nearby and wiped her mouth several times, spitting the rest of the vomit into the toilet bowl periodically.
Inessa: ‘Lars, I think I have something poisoned. I don't know how I'll be able to continue working.’
Lars: ‘Erm…then go back to the apartment. I'll serve the last of the customers and be home soon. I'll ask the guys. Someone will fill in for you in the lounge.
Inessa had already realised what the ailments were about and that it was hardly poisoning. The next day, she bought a pregnancy test and her suspicions were confirmed. What the woman had been dreaming of for several years had come true. However, she was in no hurry to tell her husband about the news. First, she wanted to carefully prepare for her acceptance. For this purpose, Inessa from time to time started talking to the man about the children and emphasised his attention to small details related to their content. This only irritated him.
A month later, in August, when she visited a doctor, in one of the neighbouring cities, to determine the embryo's due date and get counselling. The city's hospitals had special scanners that could determine the sex of the baby in the womb from the embryo's two-month age, with 85 per cent accuracy. As well as the date of its birth down to the exact date. However, with dates, everything was not very well organised. The possibility of error was up to 70%. But it was possible to determine the approximate date. Research showed that the child should be born on 17 February. From statistics, taking into account the error, it meant that the exact month is February.
Inessa was over the moon. She had already started dreaming of a nursery, of the clothes she and Lars would buy, but suddenly, at one of the subsequent consultations, the doctors in charge of her maternal health brought her sad news. Due to the appearance of a foetus in her body, her congenital disease, referred to medically as ‘Hyena’, had become active. It progressively affected inside vital organ – kidney and liver. Treatment of this disease in modern medicine yet not exist. There are ways, only slow down the course of the disease. On the child's birth this also could say negative. But there was no turning back. Process has already been run and stop it was impossible. Only cared about the baby so that he could be born as healthy as possible.
On the same day, the woman gave her husband all the information about the baby, her illness and the possible risks. There was nowhere to put it off. As a result, she dumped a whole stream of data on him at once, for which the man was not ready. She got the expected reaction in return.
Lars: ‘I knew it! I told you that all this talk about children would not end well. We'll figure something out, okay? We'll definitely find a way to cure you. If you need an abortion, we'll do it. Since it's killing you…’
Inessa: ‘Lars, how can you say that? It's our baby! Having an abortion won't solve the problem! Promise me that when I'm gone, you'll take care of him the way you take care of me. That's the most important thing to me right now. More important than anything else in the world…’
Lars: ‘Don't worry. Just don't worry my dear. We'll think of something. We'll think of something.
It was getting dark. They stood in the kitchen near the dining table, hugging each other and crying. Lars, though he tried to be strong and firm, could not cope with the realisation that his wife would soon be gone. And Inessa, who had been living the dream of having a child, began to realise that she might lose it and never see her husband, whom she loved so much. For a moment she imagined in her mind that the woman would die agonisingly from the intolerable pain caused by the incurable disease, and she became even more frightened than she had been before.
It's February 741. The month of labour. Inessa had already been placed in a ward under constant observation because she was due to give birth any day now. Lars was constantly torn between business and the hospital. He was rushing to his beloved to see her during visiting hours and to support her. On the day of the birth, Lars closed the restaurant and waited nervously outside the delivery room, biting his fingers and nails with excitement. Finally, the obstetrician who was delivering the baby came out of the door. He was holding an infant in his arms. Lars rushed over to him.
The obstetrician: ‘Congratulations on your son, Mr Davel! You are now officially a daddy. Your wife, said to give him the name ‘Theodore’, do you consent to that?’
Lars glanced at the baby. He had already been washed, but there were still small traces of blood on him. He was crying and twitching. The baby's father quickly turned his gaze to the obstetrician, not reacting to his congratulatory words.
Lars: ‘How is my wife? Is she healthy? When can I see her?’
Obstetrician: ‘That will have to wait a little longer. Her condition is assessed as critical. After giving birth, her condition has deteriorated significantly.’
Lars (nervously): ‘how long do I have to wait?’
Obstetrician: ‘Have patience, Mr Davel. Our doctors are doing everything they can to stabilise her condition. You still haven't given us an answer as to the boy's name. Would you agree to us putting him down as Theodore Davel in the city's registration system?’
Lars: ‘Write him down however you want…’
Lars clutched his head and started pacing from side to side. In his head he was cursing the doctor, the labour, the baby and the whole situation. The obstetrician at first wanted to pass him by, but then turned to the man and said, ‘Then I'll put him down as “Theodore” at the mother's request. We'll get the paperwork done quickly enough so you can have the baby in an hour… and Mr Davel, I know you're going through a very difficult time, but don't blame it on the baby. It is not at all to blame for what is happening to its mother.’
Lars took the baby even though he didn't want to do so. The man had no time to prepare an apartment, a room or at least a cot for the baby.