I wondered how happy she’d be to have a little brother or sister?
I peeled back the blanket, but she didn’t stir. “Charlene,” I said. “Honey?”
Her eyelids fluttered before opening. “Daddy?”
“We need to get up, get ready. Mommy is going to have the baby today.”
Her eyes opened wider and she sat up. “The baby’s coming now?”
I nodded.
She got right out of bed. I watched, amazed, as she changed her clothes and grabbed her suitcase on wheels. “I’m ready!”
“What’s in the suitcase?” I said.
“I have toys, puzzles, books, sippy-boxes and snacks. Mommy said it could take a long time, so I should pack things to keep me busy.”
I kissed her nose. “Mommy is a genius!”
The hospital was less than seven miles away. It took us nearly twenty minutes to get there. It was just after midnight, so there was no traffic. We did catch every red light, but mainly because I drove thirty miles an hour, and as soon as I saw amber light, I slowed to a stop. Was I a little apprehensive about getting into an accident? Yeah, you could say I was.
We pulled into Emergency. At the sliding doors, I stopped the car. I helped both women out and grabbed a lone wheelchair. “Sit. I’m going to park right over there,” I said. “Char, take care of your mom until I get back.”
I parked, hurried over the sliding doors and pushed Julie into the hospital, her bag on my shoulder, while Charlene followed alongside, wheeling her suitcase.
“Chase,” Julie said in a whisper. I lowered my head as I wheeled us to the front desk, past security. “I haven’t felt the baby since we left the house.”
“He’s resting between contractions,” I said.
“Chase, something’s wrong.”
I stopped at the desk. The woman there stared at the three of us. My wife had her hand on her bulbous belly.
“We need to see a doctor. Our doctor. Julie, did you tell our doctor we were coming to the hospital?”
“I did. I called him just before I woke you up,” she said.
“We need to see our doctor, please. He’s going to deliver our baby,” I said.
The woman smiled. “What is your doctor’s name?”
Brain fart. I had no clue.
“Give me my bag,” Julie said. I did. She unzipped it and took out some forms. “Everything is there. Admittance forms are all filled out.”
“Mom’s a genius,” Charlene said.
My parents entered the hospital and I walked Charlene over. “We’re going to be going in. She’s got stuff inside the suitcase to keep her busy.”
“And I brought a pocket full of change for the vending machines,” my father said. He took Charlene by the hand. “We’ll be fine.”
My mother gave me a kiss. “How’s Julie?”
“Says the baby isn’t moving,” I said.
My mother shook her head. “Everything’s fine. Go be with her.”
I joined Julie as she was being wheeled through automated doors that had swung open.
Once in a delivery room, the nurse hooked Julie up to a baby heart monitor. We all watched the blips dance across the screen as a roll of receipt-like paper steadily spit out of an opening. The nurse tore off about ten inches of paper.
“How’s it look?” I said.
“The doctor will be right in to explain things. In the meantime, please change into the hospital gown,” the nurse said, smiled, and left the room with the printout.
“Hate when they do that,” Julie said, pulling off her clothing. “She knows what the monitor says.”
I just nodded, helping her into the flower print gown. No point arguing over what a nurse can and can’t tell patients.
We didn’t wait long before a doctor entered the room, but it wasn’t Julie’s obstetrician. She looked at the monitor as she said hello and introduced herself.
“Julie, if I can have you place your legs in the stirrups, please.”
I stepped aside.
The doctor parted Julie’s knees.
I focused on Julie, keeping my eyes on hers. They were open too wide. The fear oozed from her expression.
“Last time you felt the baby move, or kick?”
“Just before we left the house. Almost an hour,” Julie said.
“Everything okay?” I said.
The doctor ignored me. “We’re going to perform a cesarean delivery. Nothing to be worried about. The baby’s heart is beating a little fast. Suggests he’s under some stress is all. Possibly while he was moving around, getting ready to be delivered, he managed to get a little tangled up with the umbilical cord.”
A man with a bed on wheels entered the room with another man behind him.
“But what about my doctor? He’s not here,” Julie said.
“I just spoke to him. He will be here in a few minutes and will join me in surgery. Mr. McKinney, we will show you where to scrub up and change into surgical greens,” the doctor said.
My stomach dropped. I pretended it had not and clapped my hands together. “Okay. Let’s do this,” I said.
I wasn’t fooling anyone. Julie just stared at me. Her hand was on my arm. “Chase.”
“Everything is going to be fine.”
The orderlies, or transport techs--whatever , moved Julie from the bed she was in to the one with wheels, pushed her out of the room and I followed.
In the operating room, both doctors stayed on one side of a drape that separated Julie at the shoulders. We could hear the operation taking place, but could not watch what was being done.
I spoke softly to my wife the whole time. Told her repeatedly that everything was going to be fine, and that I loved her. She cried the entire time. Her eyes were closed and tears just spilling down her cheeks.
When a baby cried, my breath caught in my lungs.
Julie opened her eyes. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
I felt heat in my face. My eyes watered.
Our doctor came around the drape with our baby in his arms. He lowered his cloth mask. “It’s a boy!”
“A b-boy,” I said. Now, there was no way to hold back the crying.
“He’s okay?”
“He was definitely fighting with the umbilical cord. We’re going to give him some extra air, but he should be just fine,” he said.
“Can I see him?” Julie said.
The doctor handed the baby to me.
His little eyes were open. “He’s awake,” I said, and leaned as closely to Julie as I could.
“You scared us,” Julie said. “You scared me so bad.”
# # #
“Chase, your daughter needs you,” Erway said.
I was hugging my son. Holding him in my arms. Pressing him tightly to my chest. In my head, over and over, I kept thinking that everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.
Charlene was still on the other side of the bed, her face buried in the sheets, her sobs muffled by the mattress.
“Chase,” Erway said. “Go to your daughter.”
“I can’t,” I said, “I can’t put him down. Don’t make me put him down.”
She put hands on my shoulders. “Chase, your son is gone. Charlene needs you.”
He had been so tiny when he was born. “We need to fix this. You need to help him,” I said.
Erway left me. She knelt next to Charlene. “Come here, baby,” she said.
Charlene lifted her head. Her eyes were swollen, red.
I rocked back and forth with Cash in my arms.
“Daddy,” she said.
I couldn’t put him down.
“Daddy, please.”
When I couldn’t move, Erway hugged my daughter.
Chapter Twenty-Five
2120 hours
“Hey, honey.”
I opened my eyes. A dream. It had all been a dream. “Alley,” I said.
The dark room had a trace of light from the hall; it spilled in through a triangle slice between the open door and the wall.