Anandi's Miraculous Delivery

I walked through the dark woods, my arms full with firewood. I stumbled over a rock and fell down into the ground, landing on my back.

“Here, let me help you!” a voice called out in the distance. A man grabbed my arm, pulled me up and brushed off the dirt from my clothes. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Are you new in town?”

I could barely see his face in the dark. “Yes, we moved here a few weeks ago, but I haven’t met many people yet.”

The man smiled at me and nodded. “That must be hard for you, being a woman alone in this forest. You should try to get to know more people around here, especially men. We can protect you from those beasts in the woods!” He laughed loudly, so loud that some birds started to squawk in panic, flying away from their nests.

I faked a shy smile and turned my head away, hoping he would go away soon and leave me alone with my wood. “Yes, I will do that… Anyway, it was nice talking to you but I have to go home now. My husband is expecting me and – “

“Well then take care of yourself! And don’t forget what I said!” He waved goodbye and walked off between the trees again. After he disappeared out of sight completely, I took a deep breath and sighed with relief.

Finally alone again! I hurried home as fast as possible with my arms full of heavy branches when suddenly something sharp hit right into the middle of my back. A sharp pain shot through my body immediately and everything became blurry all around me. The firewood slipped out of my hands onto the ground and I fell down onto the grass next to it in agony.

* * * *

Shiv was chopping wood outside when he heard a loud scream from inside our house. He dropped his axe onto the ground and rushed inside, fearing for the worst already. He found Anandi lying on the floor next to an overturned cupboard with broken crockery all over her bed sheets and bed frame after she had tripped over them while rushing towards him because she heard him shout from outside earlier on when he returned from work early because of the bad weather conditions that they knew were approaching fast. Her face was pale white as if all her blood had drained out of her body in an instant and her eyes were wide open in shock while tears ran down her cheeks uncontrollably without stopping even for one second during his entire visit to our bedroom that night when she was still lying there unconscious on our bed by his side while he knelt down beside her crying like crazy himself looking like if his whole world had just collapsed right before his very own eyes while trying not to faint because of all this unbelievable stress that came over him at once despite him being used to danger during his job as a stuntman on film sets where he always put his life on the line every day because he loved doing what he did best so much that nothing else mattered to him anymore except for his wife and children who meant everything to him in this world...