Prologue

        The rain trickled down the passenger side window as the screaming woman shed tears to match. Her perfectly round stomach further indicated her late term pregnancy. It was upon her. The end of the third-trimester. With a ten-year-old driver turning the wheel as his mother directed him, it was anything but ordinary circumstances. No husband. No family friends. They were on their own.

The blonde boy was hunched over the steering wheel, squinting his eyes so tightly that it was amazing he could still see anything. He was dressed in a homemade superhero costume, a blue blanket tied around his neck to act as a cape. So young. So innocent. It’s impressive that he’d stepped up and grown into a man in a matter of seconds. His mind should have been on the pillowcase full of sweets in the backseat. Instead, it was on getting his mother to the hospital after her water broke right there on the sidewalk mid trick-or-treating.

A red, neon cross came into blurred view, the sight of it broken up by the constant swiping of two wiper blades across the windshield. The words ‘Emergency Room’ were lit up in white, an ambulance parked beneath it. The car hydroplaned as it pulled into the parking lot. The back left tire hit the curb, but the boy managed to maintain decent control of the vehicle. His years of playing arcade games had paid off.

As the car stopped in front of the sliding doors, a doctor rushed out with a wheelchair. “She’s in labor!” the young boy proclaimed rather unnecessarily.

“Alright, we’re going to take good care of her. What’s your name, hun?” the doctor asked as he helped the woman into the wheelchair.

“I’m Connor!” The boy stepped out of the old beat up station wagon after introducing himself. The doctor stared in shock, his eyes wide open. At first he just assumed the boy looked young for his age. Once he was out of the car, however, he’d disappeared from sight completely. He couldn’t have been taller than four feet, ten inches.

Another doctor rushed out, her white coat immediately being soaked by the pouring rain as she took a hold on the wheelchair and hurried the woman inside.

“Did you drive all the way here by yourself?” The first doctor asked curiously.

“We don’t have anyone else,” Connor responded matter-of-factly.

The older gentleman, donned in a white coat, placed his arm around the boys shoulder before escorting him inside. A female doctor smiled as the two entered the hospital. “They’ve already taken her off to the delivery room.”

The male doctor’s eyes were still incapable of blinking. “This is Connor. He drove his mother here all by himself.” The doctor’s eyes finally regained some sense of control as he flashed a glance at his coworker.

She, too, was unable to form any expression other than surprise. The two just kept looking at each other, silently discussing the possibility that child services might need to be called.

As if he had a sixth sense, Connor spoke up. “My momma’s a good woman. But she’s having a baby and we don’t have a phone so we couldn’t call for an ambulance. Couldn’t afford one to come even if we did. No insurance.”

No boy that young should’ve known how the world worked to that capacity. He knew about insurance, and he knew they had none. The corners of the female doctor’s pale, chapped lips began to droop. “Oh, honey. It’s okay. Hey, tell you what. Why don’t we go raid the snack machine while we wait for your baby brother or sister to be born, huh?”

Connor chuckled softly as he pointed outside. “No need. I’ve got a bag full of Halloween candy out in the car.”

“That’s great!” she exclaimed. “Doctor Perkins here is going to go outside and get it for you, okay! I’m gonna’ get you dried off and into something a little warmer.”

The scrappy little blonde nodded his head. “Okay! But can I keep my cape on? I’m Super-Connor and I don’t want to stop being Super-Connor so can I please keep it on?”

For all intents and purposes, the young boy was a hero that night. “Sure thing, kiddo. I mean… Super-Connor!” The doctor had spent a decent portion of her residency in pediatric care, so she knew how to handle kids. She gave a nod of approval to Doctor Perkins, and the man disappeared out into the rain to retrieve the candy.

In the meantime, the red headed doctor began to sift through several cabinets in the nurse’s lounge, searching desperately for scrubs small enough to fit the slender little boy behind her. She found an unused set of light blue scrubs that must’ve been for a petite girl who failed out of the program before she even began.

“I’m so sorry, Super-Connor. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Monica. Think I can be your sidekick for the night?” With the scrubs in her hand, the woman squatted down so she was eye-level with her new friend.

“Sure! Every superhero needs a sidekick.”

“But what will my name be?”

Connor scratched his chin, eliciting a chuckle from Monica. “How about Red Girl?!”

Monica laughed whole-heartedly, holding her stomach in pain. “Because of my hair?”

“Yeah!” Connor responded. “It’s super cool!”

She playfully teased her dark red curls as she giggled at the pun. “Why thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” The boy’s dark brown eyes wandered down to the garments in his newly appointed sidekick’s hands. “Is this my new costume?”

“Mmhmm!” Monica hummed happily.

“That’s amazing! We’re gonna match!” The blonde boy cocked his head to the side as he inspected the woman before him. “Only your cape is white and has sleeves.”

“Well we can’t look exactly the same. No one would be able to tell the hero from the sidekick.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right! Hey, can I put my costume on now?”

Monica curved her lips into a smile as she nodded her head and handed Connor the scrubs, giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“Go ahead and change in here then come on out into the waiting room once you’re suited up.” With that she exited, leaving the young boy to shed off his drenched clothing.

Doctor Perkins was there waiting for her, leaning against the check in counter with a pillowcase in hand. “This kid hit the jackpot. Nerds, Carmellos, Pop Rocks, Big League Chew, Candy Corn! Makes me wish I was young enough to go door-to-door and get free candy again.”

“Candy Corn is disgusting.” Monica offered half a smile as she snatched the bag from her colleague. “I better hold onto this. You’re drooling.”

“How was he?” the tall, dark haired gentleman asked.

“Really good. Maybe too good?”

Perkins raised a single bushy eyebrow as he ripped into a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. “Too good?”

Monica shrugged her petite shoulders, the white material of her coat bunching up around her neck. “He seems completely un-phased by everything.”

Speaking with a mouth full of peanut butter and chocolate, Perkins rolled his eyes. “He’s ten. He probably doesn’t even understand what’s happening or how intense child birth can be. Although I bet he probably about pissed himself when her water broke right there in the middle of the goddamn street.”

“What?”

As if a he were a skilled basketball player, he tossed the orange wrapper into a nearby trash receptacle effortlessly. “He didn’t tell you that part?”

“No, he failed to mention that.”

“Whatever, not a big deal. Like I said, he’s ten. He just wants his candy and he wants to see the baby when it comes out.”

“It is such a relief to know you never worked in Peds.”

“Oh, yeah?” Perkins tried to snatch the pillowcase back from Monica, to no avail.

She turned at her hips and successfully kept the sack out of arm’s reach. “Yeah.” Turning on her heels, she walked over to the door with the sign ‘Nurse’s Lounge’ on it, rapping her knuckles against the light brown wood.

The door opened not long after, revealing a small boy dressed in loose-fitting pale blue scrubs, a blanket of a similar tone secured around his neck. “How do I look?”

“Lil’ player!” Monica’s hand slapped Perkins’ abdomen within seconds.

“You look super!” she intoned as she smiled wickedly at her friend. “I believe this is yours,” Monica added as she extended the white pillow case out.

“Yay! You brought it in!” There was a new level of excitement expressed in Connor’s facial expressions as he swiped the bag from his ‘sidekick’.

Not long after he’s reunited with his candy, there’s a loud ringing of two pagers going off simultaneously. In unison, the two doctors pull the small black devices from their waistbands before giving each other a look. “Hey, Super-Connor. Guess what?!” Monica asked excitedly.

“What?!”

“Your little brother or sister is here!”

After navigating the endless hallways, all sharing the overwhelming aroma of cleaning products and various disinfectants, Connor finally arrived in the maternity ward with his two much taller and older escorts.

There was a single pink balloon fastened to the door handle of his mother’s hospital room. “I have a sister!” Connor proclaimed to whomever may have been around to hear it.

“Well, champ, go see her!” Perkins pushed the door open, granting Connor access to the room.

“Momma, Momma!” he shouted as he ran into the room. It was a fairly small room, maybe nine feet by eight feet. There she was. Swaddled in a white blanket with the standard blue and pink striped strip on each end, Connor’s new sister was already sound asleep.

“Connor, this is your sister. Tell her ‘hi’.” That was the first coherent thing the woman had uttered in the last few hours.

Connor dropped his candy sack on a chair in the corner before he approached his mother’s bedside, pressing a soft kiss to his new sister’s forehead. “I love you, baby sister…” Connor turned his attention to his mother. Her hair was matted from the rain and from the torture her body was just put through. “What’s her name?”

The woman opened her mouth then paused, realizing she hadn’t yet chosen a name. “You know, I’m not sure yet.”

“Super Girl!” Connor sounded like he was suggesting and pleading at the same time, his high pitched voice desperate for a super-sibling.

The mother laughed, quickly placing a hand on her stomach as the other continued to cradle her daughter. “I think that one might already be taken, love.”

“Darn it!” The defeated boy took a seat beside his candy, fishing through the contents until he finally pulled his hand out, an abundance of candy corn in his palm.

“You really love that stuff, don’t you?”

“Yeah, Momma. It’s so good!” He began to sing a song about candy corn using only those two words, changing up the melody every time.

‘Bless his tone-deaf heart,’ the woman thought to herself. As he continued to sing those same words repeatedly, his mother began to think more about the words.

Her mind was wired from the insane hormonal spike she was experiencing. ‘Candy Corn. Candy Cornell… Candy Cornell? No, that sounds like a stripper… Candice. Candice Cornell.’

“Candice Cornell,” the woman finally voiced aloud. It wasn’t an ecstatic exclamation. Her voice remained calm. It served more as a vocal acceptance of where her thought process had led her.

“I like that,” Connor chomped out between pieces of candy corn.

“Yeah, I do too… Hi, Candice.” 

Reviews

[Lalochezia]

'tears to match' - witty expression :)

This is a great prologue; it is both very saddening and impressive how Connor drove his mother to the hospital and I like how you have the hospital staff interact with him.

The only error I found: to my knowledge, one would only use 'blonde' for a female and 'blond' for males.

[Cyndy Robinson]

wonderful prologue. Looking forward to the next chapter, which is exactly what a prologue is supposed to do. Well written.