After delivering a magnificent baby girl, the ambulance finally made its way to the closest hospital. The new baby was examined and fed, and determined to be in perfect health. Ten fingers and ten toes, two beautiful eyes staring up at the world.
When mother and child were resting, the authorities took the time to make the appropriate phone calls.
Ava's mother was in bed, it was almost four in the morning when she got the call. For months she was kept in the dark. Fear consumed her every waking thought, it haunted her while she slept, not that she ever did sleep much. People kept telling her to let go, to make a grave stone for her daughter and move on, and she was starting to listen. When the phone rang initially, her first thought was that they had found her body. At least she would have something to bury, rather than an empty grave. When she answered it she fell to the ground and wept. They found her. Her baby was alive, and they found her. The police didn't get the chance to tell her that she was now a grandmother.
After she woke, Ava was bombarded with police questioning and requests from local news stations for an interview. She answered the questions she had to, and avoided the ones she didn't. She made it clear that she would not be a spectacle for any television channel or news paper article, nor would her daughter.
When it was once again time to feed her little girl, Ava picked her up and cradled her. When she began to nurse there was a knock on the door.
She looked up and immediately began to weep.
"Mom?" She cried out.
"Ava? Oh my God Ava."
She rushed to her side, not paying attention to the infant her daughter was feeding. When her eyes settled on the child she couldn't hide the horror in her features.
"Oh Ava, what did he do to you?" She muttered under her breath.
She knew her mother was not referencing the deep bruises that went around her wrists or ankles, the bandage around her forearm, nor was she concerned about the now visible bruising around her throat. Her mother was taking about the child, her child.
"I'll explain everything, but first I want to introduce you to your granddaughter."
As the baby finished suckling, she handed her to the newly proclaimed grandma.
The look of horror faded to one of amazement, and she held that child close.
"Ava, you're 18. Can you really take care of a child. She's beautiful, but..."
"Mom, it's ok. I'll figure it out. But she was there for me when no one else was. She gave me something to fight for, I'm not going to give her up. I can't." Ava said, strongly.
"Well, if you're keeping her...does she have a name?"
"Kennocha Hope."
"Beautiful." She said, admiring the small baby.
"I agree." Ava smiled.
After a long hospital stay, Ava and Kennocha were finally allowed to go home. As the seasons changed, the small town gossiped relentlessly about the young woman who survived such a horrendous event, and the baby girl born of sin. Her story was twisted and turned upside-down, until it didn't even sound familiar to her anymore. The whispers and sideways glances drove Ava insane and she knew it was time to leave. This small southern town, where nothing ever happened, could never be a place for their family. Not anymore.
Her mother agreed and they packed up to go live with her aunt in New York. Before she left, Ava needed to put something to rest. A single rose in hand, she walked through an empty cemetery. Laying the rose on the fresh mound of dirt, she started her speech.
"I thought I should tell you that I'm leaving. I'm taking my daughter and I'm leaving. Oh, you were wrong, it wasn't a boy it's a girl. She's beautiful. She's got my hair, my nose, but your eyes. The doctor said that her eyes might change because all babies are born with blue eyes, but I'm not so sure. She's curious about everything, and she's going to be very smart, I can tell. I don't know what I'm going to say when she asks about you. When she asks about where her daddy is. I won't lie to her, but I can't tell her the truth, not yet, not until she's old enough to comprehend. You took so much from me... but in the end you gave me her. She's my whole world. How can you despise someone so much, but want to thank them at the same time... it doesn't excuse what you did, it never will, but I'll get past it. Goodbye Henry." She inhaled deeply and walked away.
10 YEARS LATER
"Wake up my lovely, you're going to miss the bus and I don't have time to drive you. I have to be at the hospital in less than an hour and I'm never going to make it on time with all this traffic." Ava yelled down the hall, tying her white sneakers and fixing her scrubs.
Their apartment was small, but nice and very comfortable.
"Coming mom. Geez."
"Kennocha, enough dilly dallying go get some breakfast." She said as she buttered her own toast.
"Or I can just take yours." Kennocha giggled as she stole the toast right out of her mothers hand.
"Hey! Brat! Chew it up, I don't want you to choke on my breakfast." Ava said sarcastically.
Kennocha shook her head, picking up her backpack and making her way towards the front door. Ava looked at her daughter. There were times she reminded her so much of Henry, and it brought back all the pain and sadness she always attempted to keep hidden. She never let her daughter know those feelings, nor why they lingered there. Kennocha didn't cause them she ended them, she brought joy to her mother. When those moments would arise, she'd suddenly smile her mother's smile or laugh her mother's laugh. So much of Ava could be seen in her daughter, it outweighed the blue-gray eyes and the way her brow furrowed. Kennocha was Ava's daughter, no one else's.
"Don't forget Grandma's picking you up after school today."
"Yes mom, I know." Kennocha said annoyed.
"Okay, just making sure you didn't forget." Ava mumbled.
"How could I forget, the reason she's babysitting tonight is because you got a hot date!" Kennocha said jokingly.
"Oh please. I'm just meeting up with an old friend. He's visiting for the weekend and I promised I'd show him around." Ava, said shrugging it off.
"Yes, but he was your old high school boyfriend, I heard you and grandma talking about it...what's his name, John?"
"Jake. His name is Jake, and yes we dated in high school."
"Ohhh Jake.....and together after all these years, how romantic. Sounds like I'm getting a new daddy, hooray for me!" She said, throwing her hands in the air and twirling in sarcastic celebration.
"Shut. up." She said trying, and failing, to conceal her smirk.
"Goodbye, have fun tonight. Oh but not too much fun, grandma said something about making sure you don't come off as too 'easy' whatever that means." She smiled and played innocent, but knew exactly what she meant. She was a child with knowledge and humor well beyond her years, something her mother ensured.
"I really need to get a cell phone. And you need to stop eavesdropping."
"Not a chance. How else am I going to get all the good info?" Kennocha said, opening the door.
Ava laughed and shook her head, while making herself some new toast.
"I love you mom!" She yelled.
"I love you baby!"
'More than you'll ever know.'