Shoe sized selfless

"Who's getting us lunch today? Hhhm, I got us lunch that day, then you Vince, then Tanya, Tanya again, whoow! Tanya again, okay then me then you Vince. Aaaah, it's me  again today! Why do I feel like I'm always the one to get us lunch when it really matters?" Zack protested, but of course his own tablature could not grant him an opportunity to put his feet on the ground. The protest was over. The lot had fallen on him once again, it was only natural that it should. "Don't worry bro., I got your back. I brought my appetite with me, so non of the food you get us will go to waste, especially because I'm sure there will be no bones to chew on, unless you have a new breed of vegetarian meals with a few in" I mocked. "Okay, eveybody, let's go" Zack said as he led the way. "Where are we going Zack, are you taking for lunch at your place?" Tanya asked. "My place? No Tanya. If we go at my place you will all join in the cooking, unless that is what you all want, I have no problem with that." Zack said as he wore a scheming smile, as if he could read our minds. "Oh, no, no. It's okay! Anywhere but your place right now, later can do for that" Tanya responded, while I nodded in support. "Well then, buckle up. I'm taking you for a ride. Oh, and Vince, you take the back seat, and once we get where we are going, kindly open the door for Tanya, her door only opens from outside. Don't worry I plan to get a new one soon, been making a few savings." Zack said as we entered his 'old faithful'. "You mean you will be getting a new door? Hhhhm, interesting." I said with a jolly smile. "Of course not, I mean a new car, nothing fancy ,just something to get me going. I'll leave the fancies to you" He objected. "Should we be worried about anything else, Zack, perhaps the rear doors don't lock, just in case?" I asked with a little muse. For this I received no answer, save a friendly warning that I would foot the bill, should I continue to malign his lovely pigeot.
We had arrived. And like we had rehersed, I got out of the car, and walked to the  front passenger's seat and opened the door for Tanya. Perhaps a display of unprecedented courtesy on my part. I was learning the lessons well.
 "Okay, here we are. Just what the doctor orderd. A Japanese restaurant. So what will you take? Anyone for Sushi?" As he grinned a broad smile. Tanya and I were not ready for 'try outs' . We asked for any alternatives and sure enough, we got some, 'hot curry rice, and baked leaks with a deep'. I tried the chopsticks, but it was evident that it would take an eternity for me to finish my meal if I dared venture in such a novelty. I liked the curry rice, though the 'hot' part made one need an air corn in the oral cavity.
Before we could finish up our meal, Tanya seemed to be turning a little pale and sweaty. "Oh, oh oooooh,my stomach hurts!" She grinched and added, ' I think I'm having contractions." Without hesitation we rushed her back to the car and drove her to back to the hospital.
Her 'LNMP' and 'EDD', estimated date of delivery, showed that she was due in a  fortnight. But medicine, like my good old professors would say, doesn't read text books so she was in labour anyhow. We waited patiently in the corridors for
nature's transformation to take its course. We hoped for no instrumentation. Zack was sweating as though he too had somehow gone into labour. He paced the corridors. He was as one who had come down with akathesia ( a feeling of restlessness with an inability to sit still due to a subjective desire to move). He kept on looking at the time on his wrist watch, I wondered if he was given the task of being the time keeper. Soon his nerves took the better of him, and he crouched into the Labour room. And just then, the little lad was out. But no ululations yet. The rite of passage could not be complete without the baby accepting it's new home-earth, with breathable air, this acknowledged by 'the cry'. With a little rub while drying out the liquor,  it cried, 'it is done!' perhaps. One may burst into all forms of frenzied noise.
Tanya had given birth to a baby boy. So perhaps Zack now had a heir to his throneless kingdom. Tanya wept as she was handed the baby after the cleansing rite. To the onlooker, it was a natural phenomenon, a cry of victory for bringing forth a new life. Yet for Tanya, the sight of her babe conjured up a host of memories, some not worthy of recall. She realized, this would not have been save, perhaps, for the intervention of Zack who too perhaps was moved by a hand unseen by the natural eye. Whispers of heavenly sentinels may perchance have wrought such a decision. She recalled the shame she had brought upon herself. Her tears rolled. I had my handkerchief.  I handed it to her, but before she could use it, I realized I had not cleaned it proper. I withdrew my courtesy, and instead tapped Zack on the back, and as a apt reader of non verbal cues, he got some tissue to wipe her tears.
We left the hospital and took her home. She was to nurse the lad for the first six months of his life, though provision was made should she decide to opt out. Zack and I got all the necessities for the young lad, and we visited Tanya as oft as we could while she took leave from work.
At six months, Tanya took the weaned little lad to Zack who had been rehearsing on how to play 'daddy' for quite some time. Tanya was freed from all responsibility towards Shawn, as Zack had named him. She was free to become the woman she had wanted, a second chance at life? Perhaps.  We had agreed never to talk about Shawn in the presence of Tanya, lest we arouse a mother's sympathy and cause more grief.  For a while she manged to keep it all cool. Yet with the passage of time, the cords of love drew her to her babe, as she peradventure brought to memory how she had him suckle at her breast. She would feign see him. Zack noted deliveries at his home ranging from formula feed to diapers from an unknown source. Of course one needn't be a detective to have Tanya as first suspect.  With a little interrogation,  she owned up. A plea of 'guilty' was made, and this was followed by a request for an indulgence to continue doing the same till she had finally moved on. Her request was granted with a pinch of salt.
 "Look here Tanya, I'm doing this for you. At the end of the day, if Shawn being with me is killing you, then I would gladly hand him over to you. I have no intention, at all, of causing you pain. That I decided to keep the child was simply to prevent you from taking a life. This, perhaps would have been more hurtful to you than the first err." Zack said as Tanya had made a surprise visit to his home. "I hear you, I really do. I just don't know what to do now. I gave over the child to you, and technically I have no child, for without you, chances are high I would have aborted. But now, I have this strange desire to somehow be part of his life. Yet I don't think I'm ready to be with him, the thought of my prior intentions would crush me." She said as a weeping willow.
"Look, I stand here not knowing how it must feel to give birth and believe me, I'm content in my ignorance. I have helped many a mother  deliver, yet I'm bareft of the tie that binds mother to child. Perhaps the ordeal one goes through makes the cord even stronger. I did not experience the abrupt gain in weight, the pica, the flaring up of hormones. You did." Zack spoke in tones so sweet, he would almost burst into tears himself, but then again, men don't cry- they just get dust in their eyes. With a warm countenance, he said,"You know what, it's true you waived your right over this child. But beyond all the technicalities and legalities,  he is more of yours than he is mine. May I suggest that you become his aunt, and since an aunt is technically family, you are free to come over and see him as much as you want. And in future, should yout decide to have him back, I will gladly waive my adoption rights. But for now, grant that I take care of him." "A few years back, I thought I had seen an angel, I guess I wasn't wrong. It was not a delusion, I really did see one, and I'm looking at him right now."  Tanya iterated.
Perhaps angels sometimes do take the form of men, mortals. One needn't, perhaps, mount up with wings or ware a garb of the brightest light to be one. We miss a great opportunity when we speak with indifference to the aching soul, when we treat with contempt the downtrodden, the mendicant or pauper in the ally, or the weighed down coleague. The courtesy Abraham bestowed the trio of sojourners resulted in the aged birthing. The kindness lot had shown the duo that roamed into the city poised for doom paved way for his close shave escape. Perhaps one may need a new pair of shoes sized selfless.