It ravaged Alex noticeably. His only child was in the clutches of a terrible man. Eleanor was just as devastated, but worried about Alex, which gave her something else to think about. He was sixty-three and his war injuries, age, and the stress Camille was putting them through aged him overnight. Eleanor was forty-nine, and hardier than he was. She was younger and in better health. But it was taking a toll on her too. Worrying about their daughter was always at the back of their minds, whatever they were doing. And they talked about her constantly, wondering how and where she was.
They got a collect call from a number in New Jersey on the first of December. They accepted the call immediately. It was Camille. She sounded almost too weak to talk. She was in a hospital in Newark.
“I had the baby last night. It’s a girl. I think she was early, she’s kind of small. She weighs four pounds. I had her when I came offstage. I didn’t know it was happening, so we went back to the hotel, and did some…” There was a silence while they filled in the blanks, they had done drugs, which may have been why they didn’t know she was in labor, or didn’t care. “Flash delivered her. It wasn’t too bad, but I bled a lot. They said something was wrong with the placenta. Someone called an ambulance, and they gave me a transfusion. I’m okay. Just tired. I can leave in a few days, but she has to stay in the hospital for a while until she gets bigger, and can breathe better.” Camille sounded drugged out, but they couldn’t tell if they had given her something at the hospital, or if she was still high from whatever they had taken the night before. Either one was possible, and they could both envision a seriously damaged infant, who might not even survive, or might be mentally or physically disabled if she did, from her mother’s drug use. “She’s cute. She looks like you, Mom,” Camille said weakly, “except she has red hair.”
Both of her parents were crying openly at the situation both their daughter and grandchild were in. “I’m going to leave her with Flash’s mom when she can leave the hospital. We have to finish the tour and I can’t take her with me. She’s too small.”
“We’ll come and get her,” Eleanor said, sounding desperate.
“No, that’s fine. Flash’s mom said she’d keep her till we can come back to get her in a few months.”
“I want to come and get your daughter,” Alex said suddenly in a booming voice. They had been through enough and so had the baby, only hours after its birth. He and Eleanor remembered only too well what a miracle Camille had been to them when she was born nineteen and a half years before. This was a nightmare, and if they couldn’t save their daughter just yet, at least they could save her child.
“I don’t want you to, Dad,” Camille said in a thin voice. “Flash wouldn’t like it. She’s his baby too. He wants her with his mom. You probably wouldn’t give her back, and you’d make her do all those things you tried to make me do, like be a debutante and go to a fancy school.” The baby’s life was at stake. This was not about fancy schools. The baby had drug addicted, irresponsible parents, and they had no idea if Flash’s mother was any better than they were.
“We want to see you,” Alex said in a voice choked with tears, “and the baby. Where are you?” She told them the name of the hospital in Newark, and then her voice seemed to fade away, she was too weak to talk to them any longer.
“What’s the baby’s name?” Eleanor asked before Camille hung up.
“Ruby Moon,” Camille said with a sigh. “There was a beautiful moon last night when I had her. The sky was full of rainbow colors, and the moon was bright red. Ruby Moon Allen.” They could easily guess that she’d been on LSD when the baby was born. And then she hung up.
* * *
—
Alex and Eleanor flew to Newark that night, and went straight to the hospital when they arrived in the early morning. They found Camille’s room in the maternity ward easily. She was sheet white, with dark circles under her eyes and was getting another transfusion. Her eyes were closed and she opened