THE GREATEST STRIPPER

SAMANTHA

"Can't the queen have chosen a better time for delivery?" shouted an old cringy maid while walking past me, I felt the same way in my heart but I just could not bring myself to say such a thing because no queen would choose to deliver a crown prince in the eye of a horrible thunderstorm raging the sea. Every increase in the flashes of lighting brought more agony to the queen. We were all beseeching her to push at this point but the harder she tried, the harder it became, the queen's once beautiful face was now replaced with a teary, messy and, pain-stricken face. The midwives asked us to pray for the survival of the queen and her son. All this while I kept on nurturing some superstitious thoughts in my mind, What if the thunderstorm had some connection with the crown prince whose fate was not even yet decided? Our king comes from a lineage of powerful magicians and warlocks but for about five generations of his family, there has been no magic in their blood. While I was still in deep thought, I heard a bitter cry and rushed into the makeshift delivery room, the prince had been successfully delivered but the queen after such a strenuous delivery was on the verge of death. "Bring me my baby boy, let me see how handsome he is," said the queen while making repeated attempts to sit upright but are strength kept on failing until one of the midwives held her down and told her to rest. She was given the baby, she cuddled him and kissed his head then she started weeping because she would not get to spend time with the boy. The queen called me to her bedside, hugged me tight, and thrust her newborn son into my hands. "Promise me to care and love this child like you would love your child," requested the queen. "I promise to love him like one of my own," I promised. Unlike most children who spend their first hours on earth crying, this babe had a smile on his face and giggled as his dying mother stroked his hair. A few hours after midnight the queen passed away and the storm finally subsided. Fate or should I say destiny had successfully bounded the prince and me together.