Rosa Assisting

 

Ralph is a Watcher.  A Forest Keeper.

 

It was raining like Guatemala, like Lexington, Kentucky the night the birth came upon Mona. Visibility deep in the trees was about six feet. It was early winter and a bloody cold night, but not snowing yet.

It was not a good time for a birth. Though, every birth is an emergency, by definition!

Ralph crouched down, peering out into the rainstorm, from the low opening of their small cave home backed into the side of a granite mountain somewhere in the Cascade Range. He sighed a deep sigh and watched the rain falling.

They kept a small fire going in a little rock lined hearth near the mouth of the cave, so there was light. In the flickering light Mona changed position restlessly on her bed of cedar branches. She didn’t cry out, but he could hear her panting from time to time.

She was about half his size, blond and curly, unusual for a Forest Keeper woman. Her eyes were closed but she was certainly not asleep.

The light was blocked briefly as he emerged out into the night and the rain. He stood in the dark, though it is never completely dark on a cloudy night.  There is a kind of opalescence to the dim sky that reflects to the earth.  The rain ran heavily down his broad face and into his deeply set dark brown eyes. Surely it was raindrops. It must be raindrops.

Ralph was a little worried.  This was a new one on him. He knew that every furred and breasted beast on the earth must emerge from the mother somehow, but this was his woman and his own young. He thought Mona might be able to deliver her child like any mother, but he wasn’t sure.  She was a little delicate in her way, and then, he loved her.

He was used to being in charge and having things go his own way. Ralph had never felt helpless before.

Turning his large flat face to the sky and the rain and throwing up his big hands spread apart to the distance of about eight feet, he began to call.  He implored.  He made fists of his hands.  He shook them! His calls echoed even miles away.  Many creatures laid low that night, staying under cover and out of his way.

His understanding of the Maker of us all was probably a little basic, but it was true. He was seeking mercy and help and guidance in his own way.

Mona called him and he went back to her. He sat massively on the floor beside her bed and looked at her. He saw that she was breathing and deeply into her labor. In his mind he kept up the call for help, like a sort of homing signal.

As we know, when a man or a creature has come to the end of his own adequacy his prayers acquire great efficacy.

A helper heard him.  It doesn’t matter from where.  Where has no meaning or a composite meaning. The helper heard and was sent.

A soft pink light began to fill the little cave home. Neither of them noticed at first. There was a sort of light ringing sound and the scent of maybe oranges or was it roses.  Peace descended almost like a physical substance. At last, the pink light and the scent and the sound coalesced into a small jolly person in a long robe.  She was about five feet tall and had a very round face.  It was not clear that her feet actually touched the floor. Her hair stood out from her head as if she were underwater there in the cave.  Pinkish light continued to shine forth from her body. “I am Rosa,” the small person said, and blessings came from her like a physical sensation, like small birds flying around the room.

Mona’s eyes flew open, and she sat up. She put her hands before her face in disbelief.

Ralph opened his mouth to say something, but Rosa shushed him. Which is amazing because nothing had ever shushed Ralph before.  She said, “we heard you calling, and I was sent in answer.”

Rosa, a small cheerful pleasant person, spoke to Mona and quieted her heart and her mind.  She laid her small rosy hands on Mona’s belly and blessed the child within.  “There was a problem here,” Rosa said. She called to the child and the child moved into position obediently.

So, Ralph and Mona’s child was midwifed into the world by a small pink person from Somewhere Else. She was so competent and agreeable that they never got around to asking her any questions, such as where she came from and who she was.

Her charming presence was so pervasive that various animals came into the cave to see what might be seen and who was making such a subliminal racket. Rabbits, for they are extra nosy, a skunk, a raccoon and a wolf came and lay on the floor for a while before leaving as quietly as they had come.

The wolf, who was a mother herself, was allowed to nose the infant Keeper.

Then, when all attention was on Ralph and Mona’s new son, for a son he was, Rosa withdrew.  There was a faint scent of roses or maybe oranges lingering in the air. But Rosa herself was gone.

Some people in nearby villages said they saw a comet or something behaving strangely. No one paid any attention to these people.

Morning came.  The downpour ended. Water dripped from the tips of evergreen branches and ran down trunks. The sun peeked out and light reached the forest floor. Inside the cave all were asleep and full of thankfulness.

Later that morning Thaga brought them some newmade bread and a pot of strong beef soup, for she was good at knowing what was up in the forest.