A young woman adjusts to and thrives in her 'new normal' of being a double leg amputee and repeatedly pregnant.
Part 4 consists of the following chapters:
Chapter 14 – Surrogate
Jazmyn’s and Ian’s sister Paige was a college junior and her spring semester began in mid-January, so she wanted to do the egg harvesting procedure before she began classes. They were able to schedule the procedure during the second week in January, which would mean Jazmyn would have the embryo transfer procedure done in the third week, slightly ahead of Valeria’s first birthday, but it was close enough not to matter. As they had discussed, two embryos were implanted to improve the odds of at least one being successful, but also meaning there was a good chance she’d be carrying twins. Ian and Julian also paid to have some of Paige’s eggs frozen, so if they decided to have additional kid(s), or if neither embryo resulted in a baby this time around, they wouldn’t need to make Paige or someone else go through the extraction procedure again.
After two weeks, Jazmyn returned for a pregnancy test to determine if the effort was at least partially successful, and it verified that she was indeed pregnant. Jazmyn already knew this without needing a test because she recognized the subtle changes to the way she felt. The baby’s or babies’ due date was in early October. Jazmyn shared the good news with not only Ian and Julian, but also Paige, who made it clear she was invested in this pregnancy.
Jazmyn’s first ultrasound was too early to determine the sex, but it clearly show that she was carrying twins. That meant a mid-to late September delivery was more likely than October. Ian and Julian were excited to get two kids for the price of one and started preparing accordingly. Jazmyn herself was looking forward to having a bigger belly and hoped that Victor would appreciate it as well. Her bump began showing much earlier this time, and was quite a bit bigger than her first pregnancy.
Jazmyn soon realized her libido had also increased. She’d been pretty horny during her first pregnancy, too, but when it dissipated after Valeria was born, she wasn’t sure how much of that was due to no longer being pregnant and how much was due to the demands of having a baby to care for. It was pretty obvious now that pregnant = horny and not pregnant = not so much. Being mildly horny nearly constantly and easily aroused to a much greater degree meant that vanilla sex was a lot more likely to happen and end well when it did.
Victor seemed more turned on, too, but it wasn’t clear whether he liked her expanding belly full of someone else’s kids more than he thought he would, or he was more turned on because it was bigger, or he was just reacting to Jazmyn’s increased sex drive. In any case, it didn’t matter much why, and both of them took full advantage of the opportunity.
A subsequent ultrasound revealed the sex of the twins – a boy and a girl. Ian and Julian wondered how well they’d do raising a girl, having no personal experience being girls themselves, but Paige assured them she’d be there to teach their daughter all the girly things she’d need to know.
As Jazmyn entered her third trimester, she was already bigger than she’d ever been with Valeria, and it was really beginning to impact her mobility. She was having a harder and harder time pulling herself up onto furniture or into her wheelchair, and it was increasingly challenging to use a skateboard or walk on her hands. As a result, she began to spend much more time in the wheelchair than ever before, and she let Victor lift her and/or carry her more than ever as well. Jazmyn wasn’t happy about her increasing dependence on him and the wheelchair, but on the other hand, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t like the additional physical contact and the sense that Victor was caring for her.
Little Valeria noticed this change and wasn’t at all happy about it, either. She much preferred her mommy to be down at her level. However, this turn of events might have been the motivation Valeria needed to begin to put multiple words together to express herself, and to begin to walk on her hands rather than drag herself.
Now, there are two ways a legless person could walk on her hands – either moving both hands forward simultaneously, then lifting her body off the ground, swinging it forward, setting it back down, and repeating, or by alternating which hand moved forward, shifting her weight from one hand to the other and keeping her body completely off the ground. Jazmyn used both methods depending on the situation. The former was easier, but the latter was a better choice outdoors on in public places in order to keep her clothes from getting dirty.
Jazmyn had found the later method, moving one arm at a time and keeping her butt off the ground, all but impossible now. She could still do the former, but not as easily as before. Anyway, the former method, moving both arms simultaneously and lifting and setting down her butt, was what Valeria had now gotten the hang of. Jazmyn was very proud of her for accomplishing that, and repeatedly praised her for “walking like a big girl”. Valeria could get around much faster that way than dragging herself, and she was much better able to keep up with her classmates at daycare.
Jazmyn really didn’t want to miss any more work than absolutely necessary. It was one thing to take sick days and go out on disability if need be, and to use maternity leave, if one was pregnant with one’s own child – that’s what those benefits are intended for. But it seemed wrong to Jazmyn – an abuse, even – to use them for carrying someone else’s child as a surrogate, even an unpaid one such as in her case. Whether she was entitled to those benefits as a surrogate wasn’t clear, but to Jazmyn that was beside the point. Whatever time she needed off she would take as an unpaid leave of absence. She was hoping it wouldn’t be any more than about two weeks, but in any case she wanted to keep working up until she went into labor.
During the final month of her pregnancy, Jazmyn admitted defeat. It had become just too difficult to get in and out of either her standard minivan or Victor’s car by herself. Since she and Victor worked different hours, it wasn’t easy for him to take her to and from her job, and besides, she had doctor’s appointments and other places to be. She asked Mama Bryana if she could borrow her wheelchair-accessible minivan until the twins were born, at least on the days when she didn’t need it herself.
Bryana was more than happy to let her daughter use her van for as long as she needed it. Bryana wasn’t capable of driving, so whenever she went anywhere she had help anyway. As long as the person helping her could lift her from her wheelchair to the van seat and back, she didn’t need the wheelchair ramp. However, Bryana pointed out that an able-bodied person always drove the wheelchair van, so the driver’s controls were unmodified. Fortunately, Jazmyn still had a set of portable hand controls she had used until she had permanent ones installed in her and Victor’s vehicles. So, mother and daughter switched vans for the next month.
By mid-September, Jazmyn started having occasional, random contractions. She was relieved by this, because she knew it wouldn’t be much longer before she could rid herself of these two babies. As much as she otherwise loved being pregnant, and she and Victor both loved her big, twin-sized belly, it had proven to be just too difficult to be legless, carry twins, and live her normal life all at the same time. She could handle being pregnant with a single baby, but if she ever again became pregnant with twins, she knew she’d want to do things quite differently, at least during the final few months.
A few days later, the contractions became regular, about 15 minutes apart. She was only 36 weeks along, but by then the babies were fully developed, and it was normal for twins to be born a few weeks early. It was mid-morning and Jazmyn and Victor were both at work. She texted Victor, Ian, Julian, and Paige, and told them that this might be the day, and to stand by. She then called her Ob/Gyn’s office, and the nurse kind of laughed and told her it might still be quite a while before she was having contractions close enough together to come to the hospital. So, Jazmyn tried to focus on work and hoped she could get through the workday.
Jazmyn’s boss Madison, who didn’t have any children, became very concerned when she witnessed Jazmyn having a contraction. Madison seemed to think if Jazmyn stayed at work she’d end up having the baby right there, and insisted that even if Jazmyn wasn’t going to go to the hospital just yet, she should at least go home. Jazmyn decided not to fight it, and did a final hand-off of her work to Madison, said her good-byes, and waited for her next contraction to end before heading home. She knew it wasn’t safe to drive during a contraction, but they were still far enough apart that she could get home between them. While waiting, she let everyone know that her boss had sent her home and she’d be heading there shortly.
Valeria was at daycare, and Jazmyn and Victor agreed it was best to leave her there. Jazmyn’s mom Alyssa was on standby to take care of Valeria during Jazmyn’s delivery, so Jazmyn called her and gave her an update. When it was time to get Valeria, Jazmyn decided that she wasn’t up to it and asked Alyssa to pick her up. When Alyssa brought Valeria home, she and Jazmyn agreed that it might be best if the little girl spent the night at her grandma’s; it would be one less thing for Jazmyn and Victor to have to worry about if they had to head for the hospital in the middle of the night.
But the contractions, while regular, didn’t get close enough together to go to the hospital, not until the middle of the next day, anyway. Needless to say, Jazmyn didn’t get any sleep other than sometimes dozing off between contractions. Victor called into work and told them Jazmyn was likely going to deliver today so he wouldn’t be coming in.
And so, they headed to the hospital in the early afternoon, and Ian and Julian did the same so they could witness the birth of their children. It wasn’t until late that night that the babies were born, and Jazmyn was absolutely, utterly, completely exhausted from sleep deprivation as well as the physical effort of pushing out two babies.
Ian and Julian had decided that the babies would take Julian’s last name since he was the biological father. They named the girl Julia Paige after her biological parents and the boy Cody Ian after his grandfather and adoptive father.
Chapter 15 – Back to normal
Now that that was over with, Jazmyn focused on getting back to normal, both physically and routine-wise. Her post-partum depression wasn’t nearly as bad this time, partly because she knew what to expect and what to do to mitigate it, and partly because she didn’t have an infant to care for, which among other things meant that she could get a proper night’s sleep.
Jazmyn was determined to go back to work as soon as she could. She felt guilty about having to miss work due to giving birth to someone else’s babies. Fortunately, her current position wasn’t physically demanding, and she wouldn’t even be getting up and down and walking around like an able-bodied person would do, since she spent her work days in her wheelchair.
Sure, Jazmyn missed being pregnant, with the big belly and big boobs and big sex drive and a husband who appreciated all three, but not as much as she appreciated regaining her mobility and her energy level. She actually looked forward to not being pregnant for the next year, after which she and Victor planned to add a second child to their family.
When Jazmyn returned to work, her boss Madison wanted to talk to her about when they would each be off for the coming holidays. They had to work around each other, because they couldn’t both be gone at the same time. Madison wanted off the week of Christmas, which was only fair since Jazmyn had taken that week off the previous year. Jazmyn told her she’d have to discuss with Victor when she should request to be off instead. She figured he’d want to go back to see his family in New York over Thanksgiving instead, but she wasn’t going to assume that.
When she brought the subject up that evening at dinner, and suggested Thanksgiving, he just laughed and shook his head. “I thought by now you’d know what our biggest holidays are, gringa,” he said. “If we can’t be there for Christmas, it’s high time you experienced Día de Reyes.”
“What is that?” Jazmyn asked. “I’ve heard you and your family mention it, but I’ll admit, I really don’t know anything about it.”
“Día de Reyes literally means ‘Day of Kings’, but in English we call it ‘Three Kings Day’,” Victor explained. “It’s on January 6 every year, and it’s the day when the Three Kings, or the Wise Men if you prefer, arrived to worship the Christ Child. It’s as big of a day to Puerto Ricans as Christmas Eve, if you can believe that.”
“Wait, I thought the Wise Men were there at the manger along with the shepherds on Christmas night,” said Jazmyn, confused.
Victor laughed and shook his head again. “No, that’s the gringo version of the Christmas story, but it’s wrong. The Bible says when the Three Kings arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus and his parents were staying in a house, so obviously some time had passed since the night of his birth.”
“Are there any Puerto Rican holidays that aren’t in the dead of winter? It would be nice to go to Long Island sometime when it’s actually above freezing,” Jazmyn said, only half kidding.
“Hmmm…” said Victor. “A lot of them are in the winter, now that I think about it, but that didn’t really matter on the island. I mean Puerto Rico itself, not Long Island. I guess the big summer holiday would be Noche de San Juan on June 23.”
“And what’s that?” Jazmyn asked.
“That’s the celebration of John the Baptist’s birthday,” Victor replied.
Jazmyn looked confused again. “Why would Catholics celebrate the birthday of some Baptist guy?”
Victor began to realize how little Jazmyn knew about Christianity. “You never heard of John the Baptist? He didn’t go to a Baptist church; he was Jesus’ cousin. He’s called that because he went around baptizing people. The capital of Puerto Rico is called San Juan, but that’s short for San Juan Bautista, which translates to Saint John the Baptist, and he’s the patron saint of both San Juan and all of Puerto Rico, so his birthday is a big deal for us.”
It occurred to Jazmyn that she didn’t even know there were any Christian holidays besides Christmas and Easter, and in a manner of minutes she’d just learned of two more that were to Puerto Ricans, at least, a big deal. She wondered why those days weren’t celebrated in the U.S. by Anglo Christians, or at least by Anglo Catholics. She began to have an appreciation for why Victor’s mother’s faith was so important to her and why Valeria not being baptized was an issue for her. Apparently, religion was a much bigger part of their culture than it was hers.
But Victor brought her back to reality. “So, anyway, Three Kings Day. Do you think you’d be able to get off so we can be in New York then?”
“When is it again?” Jazmyn asked.
“January 6. But we’d want to get there no later than January 5,” Victor replied.
“That shouldn’t be a problem. Madison was going to be back before New Year’s if I remember correctly. But I’ll nail it down with her tomorrow.” Nobody else wanted time off then, so Jazmyn had no trouble getting off to be in New York for January 5 and 6.
Once Jazmyn was cleared to have sex again after pregnancy, and would be able to soon have vigorous sex without restrictions, she found the next weekend after that where she didn’t have to work and she and Victor had no plans, and arranged to have Valeria spend that weekend with Jazmyn’s parents. Victor was in the loop on this, and they both very much looked forward to a weekend like they used to have before Valeria was born, with lots of bondage and sex, and a subspace experience as the icing on the cake. However, neither of them tipped their hand as to specifically what they had planned.
Jazmyn got off work on Friday afternoon, picked up Valeria from daycare and dropped her off with her two mothers, and then headed home alone. It would be a few hours before Victor got home, and she intended to make the most of that time getting ready for the weekend and then getting a head start on the fun. The first order of business was to put on her heavy metal collar and wrist shackles to get the mood going. These items locked on without a key, but Victor kept the only key, so they were on to stay until he decided otherwise.
Next, Jazmyn removed every stitch of clothing, used the bathroom one last time, then climbed up on the bed, locked a heavy length of chain to the ring on the front of her collar, and put on a ball gag, a blindfold, and noise-cancelling headphones. Next she set her vibrator on the low setting, and inserted it up her snatch. Lastly, she locked her wrists together behind her back, using a timer lock set for about an hour after Victor usually came home. That was a safety precaution, in case something happened and he didn’t come home on time, she wouldn’t be stuck there indefinitely.
The vibrator set on low was enough to get her desperately horny but unable to finish. It would be up to Victor to do that for her, if he so chose. Of course, she knew he always did. So, now, there was nothing to do but wait.
A couple of hours later Victor arrived home, and called out to Jazmyn, but she didn’t answer. She couldn’t hear anything through the headphones. He went looking for her and found her on the bed, completely in her own little world, writhing from being on edge and unable to do anything about it. Victor quickly undressed and then pulled her by her hips to the edge of the bed. He removed the vibrator and quickly replaced it with his hard dick. He didn’t try to communicate with her or even engage in any foreplay; she’d obviously been doing that on her own. He just simply banged her, and she came twice before he did and once more simultaneously with him. But it wasn’t even Friday dinner time yet; they still had a lot of weekend left.
Victor removed her blindfold, headphone, and ball gag, but otherwise left her bound. He laid down next to her and cuddled with her and they talked about their respective days. He then got out his phone and ordered a pizza. It was not an evening for either cooking or going out to eat. Jazmyn mentioned that her wrists were bound by a timer lock that would soon unlock, in case it mattered any. It did.
Victor decided that she should remain with her arms bound while they ate, if not longer. When the lock released, he carried her to the kitchen, set her in a chair, and secured her wrist shackles to the chair, both so she wouldn’t have to keep them uncomfortably behind her back any longer, and also so she wouldn’t fall off the chair. When the pizza arrived, he hand-fed her, just like he had done that time for Mama Bryana. They both found the experience to be surprisingly intimate.
During dinner, the couple discussed their future. Jazmyn stated her desire to get pregnant again in about ten months and resume adding to their family. She intended to push out a baby every 21 months or so, allowing for a 12 month break in between each pregnancy. She suggested that they might want to make the most of the time before her next pregnancy started slowing her down, because it would be their last chance to do anything with only one kid to work around or worry about.
There was no pushback from Victor on any of this, because he shared her desire for her to be pregnant as often as possible and to have a large family. Of course, they both understood that they’d want to have as many weekends like the present one as they could arrange, but also, Victor suggested that this was probably a good time to do some traveling. They discussed going back to New York again, maybe in the summer for a change, and possibly visiting Puerto Rico, as Victor had never actually been there, or Germany, where Kaden was still stationed. The only problem was that they couldn’t do it all, as they both had limited vacation time from their respective jobs. Jazmyn left it up to Victor to look into the options and decide.
Victor then explained to Jazmyn what he had planned for that evening. He intended to bring her to climax quite a few more times, including at least one more time the old-fashioned way, while she remained bound and unable to do anything about it. He’d then create the conditions necessary for her to go into subspace. But they’d done all of that many times before.
However, Victor had been reading that some people reported that once a sub came out of subspace, after a half hour or so, the Dom could readily send her back there if he knew what to do, and he could do this over and over if desired. He told Jazmyn that he wanted to try that with her, and she enthusiastically agreed that she wanted to experience that if possible.
So, after dinner, they resumed the fun. Victor actually had it in mind to try to get Jazmyn to orgasm as many different ways as he could think of, and only after that would he send her to subspace. If all went well, it would be a night of sex and subspace like none they’d ever had. He brought her to climax eight more times in addition to the three times before dinner. Between being legless and bound and horny the entire time, and having been trained to be unable to resist cumming when ordered to do so, she didn’t stand a chance.
Once Victor led her to subspace, he was determined to keep her there for as long as possible, and managed to do so for a good two hours. Then when she came out, he applied the techniques he had learned and managed to get her there again another four times after that, each time a bit shorter than the last. By then it was nearly dawn and he was exhausted. He had wondered what sub drop would be like for her after spending so much time in subspace, but there was only one way to find out.
They both slept well into the afternoon and woke up at about the same time. Jazmyn saw that he was stirring and draped her arm, still with a shackle on her wrist, over his bare chest and looked at him dreamily. “Victor, that was the most amazing night of my life,” she said softly to him. “You were relentless. I don’t know what I did to deserve all that, but I’d like you to tell me so I can be sure to do it again.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Victor replied. “You didn’t do anything special; I just wanted to do it for you. It’s been way too long since we had a good long f**k session, with you being pregnant with twins and us having a toddler in the house and all. What did you think of the multiple trips to subspace, and how’s the sub drop so far?”
“The sub drop isn’t bad at all; in fact it’s about as good as I can ever recall. I think the repeated trips to subspace may be why. Each trip was less intense than the one before, and so it wasn’t a very big drop from the last one. Based on how I’m feeling at the moment, I may be recovered and back to feeling normal in half the usual time. But for now, I need to pee and get something to eat, and then chill out some more.”
“How about if I carry you to the bathroom and back, so you can conserve your energy?’ Victor suggested.
“I’d like that,” replied Jazmyn, eager for more physical contact with her husband and lover.
“Then I’ll fix you something to eat and bring it to you,” he continued.
“I’d like that, too,” she said. “Keep this up and I’m going to be terribly spoiled.”
“Good. Then it’s working,” Victor said as he winked his eye at her. Although he was the Dom and she was the sub, he knew it was part of his job to take care of her and keep her deeply satisfied as best as he knew how.
From that day on, whenever Jazmyn went to subspace during their sessions, Victor always made sure she did it repeatedly, and she was always able to recover in about 24 hours rather than 48. This meant they could do it even when there was only one day where they were both off work. And when there wasn’t, or if Valeria was with them, they’d figured out how to have vanilla sex without bondage or subspace that was pleasurable for them both.
So, the three of them returned to visit Victor’s family in New York for Three Kings Day on January 6. This time Jazmyn was welcomed as a hero, especially by her nephew Rafael, the boy whose life she saved, his parents Antonella and Ramiro, and Isabella, the boy’s grandmother and Victor’s mother. Everyone was more engaging with Valeria, too, now that she could talk and get around upright.
Chapter 16 – Señora de Victor
Victor decided they should vacation in Puerto Rico during Noche de San Juan, the celebration of St. John the Baptist’s birthday in June. They actually spent nearly a week on the island, taking in the sights like tourists, but also immersing themselves in the culture as much as possible. They didn’t have too much trouble in San Juan, where many people whose customers were tourists were fluent in English to varying degrees. It was more challenging outside of the capital, but between the natives’ broken English and Victor’s rudimentary Spanish, they were able to get by.
The highlight of the Noche de San Juan celebration is for everyone to find a body of water and plunge backward into it three times at midnight. This is supposedly done to purge one’s self of negativity, allowing one to ward off evil and have good luck for the next year. Needless to say, the beaches in populated areas were all jammed with people that night, with bonfires and food and music.
Victor and Jazmyn wanted to do the plunge, but they realized that the throngs of people, many of them drunk, and the darkness and waves were not going to be safe for a woman with no legs. They discussed it, and decided they’d do it after the crowd had thinned out some. They were doing it more for fun than for superstition, so it didn’t really matter if it wasn’t exactly at midnight. They stayed in the shallow water, Victor held Jazmyn facing away from him, and they plunged backwards three times backwards together, ending the ritual with a passionate kiss as if they were ringing in the New Year.
As Victor and Jazmyn got out of the water and headed for their beach blanket, with Victor carrying Jazmyn, they heard a big commotion about 50 yards down the beach. They looked and saw two middle-aged men dragging an elderly man out of the water and laying him down on the beach. No one seemed to know what to do. Jazmyn immediately told Victor, “Take me over there, now!” and based on his past experience seeing her saving his nephew’s life, he instant sprinted to the man while carrying his wife. He yelled in both English and Spanish for the bystanders to make way for him, and the crowd parted. He set Jazmyn down next to the man, and she immediately felt for a pulse and listened for a heartbeat and could detect neither. Without hesitation she began administering CPR to the man while shouting, in English, for someone to call 911.
But without legs, Jazmyn couldn’t get the leverage she needed to do effective chest compressions. She called for Victor to come help her, and she showed and explained to him what she needed him to do. She knew that recent guidance had recommended to not do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in such cases, but several minutes had elapsed and the man still wasn’t breathing on his own, so she began the procedure figuring that she had nothing to lose by trying.
As they began to hear a siren coming closer, the man suddenly started gasping and coughing up seawater, and began breathing on his own. Jazmyn and Victor stayed with him until the paramedics arrived on the scene, filled them in on what had happened and what they had done, and then slipped through the crowd and back to their blanket. They decided it was a good time to head back to their hotel and left the beach.
Several people had recorded what had happened with their phone cameras, and the incident made it onto the local news the next day. It made for a nice feel-good story on a day of celebration. No one had gotten the names of the couple who had helped the man, but the legless gringa could clearly be heard calling the man Victor. The paramedics credited the couple for saving the man’s life, particularly the woman, who obviously knew what to do and was directing the efforts of her companion. The story was all the more compelling due to the woman’s physical handicap. It seemed that the entire island wanted to know who this mystery heroine was. It appeared that the two were both wearing wedding rings, so the press dubbed her “Señora de Victor”, meaning “Victor’s wife” or “Mrs. Victor”.
The following day, June 24, was St. John the Baptist’s feast day, and so there were parades and festivals and lots of people on the streets enjoying food and music. Like most all of Puerto Rico, Victor and Jazmyn slept in late that morning, but by mid-day were out in the crowd making the most of the experience. But as the day went on, more and more people had either seen the news or the videos themselves, which had gone viral. To those people, Jazmyn was immediately recognizable, being an Anglo woman with no legs and a distinctive gold collar. Strangers on the street greeted them warmly as Victor and Señora de Victor, thanked them for their heroism, and offered to buy their meals and beverages. At first they didn’t know what was going on, but it dawned on them that the events of the previous evening had apparently become public knowledge.
By the time they went to dinner, they were being treated like celebrities, with other patrons arguing over who was going to buy their meals, and someone standing up and announcing to everyone in the place who didn’t already know what they had done the previous night, resulting in the entire restaurant applauding them. It was funny to Victor and Jazmyn that none of them knew, or even asked, what her name was. They were content to call her Señora de Victor.
Back on the street, a Latino couple about their age came up to them, and the man told them in English that the man they had saved was his grandfather, and asked if they would accompany them to his home so he could thank them personally. Victor declined, fearing they were being set up to be robbed or worse, but the man was insistent, and showed them photos and videos on his phone of him with his grandfather, whom they recognized from the previous night.
So, he relented, they went with the other couple to the grandfather’s home a few blocks away. On the way there, he phoned ahead to tell her family, in Spanish, that he had found Señora de Victor and was bringing her and her husband there to meet them.
They were still half a block away when the family came out of their home and ran up to greet them on the street. The home wasn’t wheelchair accessible, so Victor started to pick Jazmyn up to carry her into the house, but Jazmyn wouldn’t let him. Instead, she hopped down from her wheelchair and walked up the steps on her hands. She wanted to be perceived as strong and capable, which of course she was.
The grandfather was in a reclining chair, still recovering from his near-drowning. When Jazmyn entered the room, he called out, “¡Señora de Victor!” and reached his arms out to her and began crying. He had seen the news broadcast and some of the videos. But he couldn’t get down on the floor and she had nothing to get up to his level. Someone realized that and brought a chair over and set it next to the recliner. As soon as it was set down, Jazmyn hopped up on it and reached out to join the grandfather in a tearful embrace. He spoke to her in Spanish, which she couldn’t understand, but she did understand when he repeatedly said, “¡Gracias!” to her.
Jazmyn, Victor, the grandfather, and the other family members who were present each gave there perspectives on what had happened the night before, with the grandson acting as translator. Then Victor mentioned that Jazmyn had also saved the life of their choking nephew about 18 months earlier to the day on Christmas Eve. Everyone in the room exchanged glances of amazement. They spoke in Spanish to each other, and then the grandson summarized. “They’re saying you must be a guardian angel or something, to have saved the lives of not one, but two people, and both times on holy nights. Were you in a wheelchair then, too?” he asked. Jazmyn confirmed that she was. “That’s even more amazing, then,” he said, and then relayed that information to her family in Spanish.
Jazmyn replied, “I assure you, I’m no angel, not by a long shot. I’m not even religious. I’m just a regular person who was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time.”
The grandson replied, “You’re too modest, Señora de Victor. A regular person would at least have two good legs. I would say you’re an extraordinary person.”
Victor then said, “I remember what the priest said on the night Jazmyn saved our nephew, something to the effect of, ‘When God has a big job he needs done, he chooses the least likely person to do it.’”
“That’s exactly right,” replied the grandson. “It looks like that’s what’s happened again, like lightning striking twice or something.” He then addressed Jazmyn directly. “You said you weren’t religious, but God’s chosen you, a woman with no legs, for big jobs twice now, and you’ve come through both times. I don’t know what it means, but respectfully, I think you’d do well to talk to a priest about this.”
Jazmyn looked uncomfortable, but forced a smile and replied, “I’ll keep your suggestion in mind.”
The grandfather said something in Spanish to his grandson, who then said to them, “Please, my grandfather would like to know your full names.”
Victor replied, addressing the grandfather directly, “I am Victor Alvarez Betancourt, and this is my wife, Jasmín Farris de Alvarez,” using the Spanish formats of their respective names.
The grandfather became animated, and replied in Spanish, “Mi nombre es Manuel Betancourt Ortiz,” followed by more Spanish that Victor couldn’t understand.
Victor turned to the grandson for a translation. “He wants to know if you might be related, since you share the name Betancourt.” But Betancourt is a common surname in Puerto Rico, so their shared name didn’t necessarily imply they were related.
Victor then recalled his family history as best as he could remember. His own maternal grandfather was no longer living but would have been about Manuel’s age. He came to New York from Puerto Rico as a child with his parents in the 1950s. But Victor couldn’t recall enough of their names that they could definitively say they were related.
Victor called his mother Isabella to try to get more information. When she answered, he could hear the background noise and realized his family was having their own San Juan Bautista feast. It then occurred to Victor that the family whose home he was in wasn’t, but he couldn’t dwell on that at the moment.
“Mami, this is Victor. I’m sorry to interrupt your dinner, but I have a question that can’t wait. Do you recall if your father had a cousin named Manuel who stayed in Puerto Rico?”
“I think so,” Isabella replied, “but I’m not sure. Let me ask my mother; she’s sitting right here.” Isabella repeated Victor’s question to her mother in Spanish. Victor couldn’t make out his grandmother’s response, but Isabella translated it into English and repeated it. “Yes, Victor, Mami says that Papi had a very dear cousin his own age named Manuel. They were very close, and Papi was heartbroken when he had to move to New York.”
“Please ask Abuelita if she remembers Manuel’s full name,” Victor said, using the Spanish term of endearment for ‘grandmother’. “It would have been Manuel Betancourt, and she recalls his second last name being Ortiz or Ortega or something like that,” Isabella replied. “Why all these questions, Victor?” she asked.
Victor replied, “Jasmín and I are in San Juan for the festival. I’m sitting in the living room of a man named Manuel Betancourt Ortiz who’s about the right age to be your father’s cousin. Jasmín saved his life last night. What was your father’s full name and his parents’ full names?”
Isabella told him, “My father’s name was Fernándo Eduardo Betancourt Pérez. His father was Fernándo Enrique Betancourt Torres, and his mother was María Catalina Pérez Santiago de Betancourt.”
“Thanks, Mami,” Victor said. “I’ll fill you in later.”
Victor repeated his grandfather’s and great-grandparent’s names to Manuel. Tears began running down his face, and he spoke rapidly in Spanish. The grandson translated. “He says that that was definitely his cousin’s name, and he remembers his uncle was also named Fernándo and his aunt was María. Manuel and Fernándo were very close before Fernándo moved to the mainland.”
“It would seem that we’re all family, then,” Victor said to Manuel’s grandson. “I’m the younger Fernándo’s grandson.” If our grandfathers were first cousins, then my mother and one of your parents were second cousins, and that makes us third cousins.” Victor paused, and then said, “I’m sorry, in all the excitement, I never got your name, cousin.”
The cousin laughed and replied, “I guess you’re right. I’m Gabriel Morales Betancourt.” Based on his name, Victor then surmised, “Our mothers were second cousins, then.”
Victor then asked Gabriel, “Why isn’t your family having a feast today?”
Gabriel replied, “We decided to postpone it since Grandfather was in the emergency room this morning. We’re going to do it tomorrow instead.” Gabriel paused, and then asked, “Say, how long are you and your wife here on the island?”
Victor replied, “We’re going home the day after tomorrow.”
Then Gabriel asked, “Then you both must be our guests tomorrow! It’s the very least we can do after you saved Grandfather’s life.”
“We’d be honored,” replied Victor, and they worked out the details.