A Blue Christmas
Copyright© 2021 by TonySpencer
Prologue
It was three hours into Christmas Day but the young man’s grim face displayed none of the seasonal spirit of goodwill to all men. He stormed through the Royal Darwin Maternity delivery suite’s doors, ignoring the desperate high-pitched wail of “Wait, Mark, please wait,” in his wake.
As Mark stomped down the corridor, following the green exit signs, he discarded one by one, the face mask, the latex gloves and the hospital gown protecting his formal crisp white shirt, black silk cummerbund and trousers. He threw each one violently to the floor, barely breaking his determined stride towards the exit. He did lean on the wall momentarily while he removed the transparent galoshes covering his shiny patent leather shoes. The loose ends of a bow tie around his neck, which had been untied some hours earlier, hung down as he bent over. This must have reminded him of the mad rush to the maternity section of the hospital from his father-in-law George Stone’s formal Christmas Eve dinner. It was during the serving of the main course that Maggie’s waters broke.
He turned the final corner in the corridor and continued wordlessly as he strode determinedly through the open area which served as a waiting room on his way out, his desperate clutching for breath demonstrated his need for fresh air and the roads leading south, leading away from Darwin.
Here, Maggie’s closest relatives had hung on during her long hours of labour and waited for news.
Selena, George’s latest girlfriend, thirty years The Darwin Sentinel newspaper owner-editor’s junior, was the first to react to Mark’s stern countenance with concern, “Is everything alright with the baby, Mark?”
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