A cry came from the bathroom. I rolled over and went back to sleep. Footsteps on the stairs, someone was knocking on the door. I lifted my head. The bathroom light was on, I could see it from crack of the door not completely closed. Another cry from the small room. A mumbled question from outside the door. I hear another sound from the bathroom.
"Michelle are you okay?"
"I think my water broke."
**
We drove too fast. Jill, the neighbor from upstairs, was nervous about delivering a baby in the car. The streetlights flashed by like a strobe from the clubs, I really didn't want to see what was happening in the back seat. Michelle was making noises that scared me and worried Jill even more about the seatcovers.
Finally pulling up to the large ER doors, I could see lots of people wandering around, it looked like a full house. I hoped they had an express line like at the grocery store.
**
"I'm sorry you will have to wait here."
"If she can't go in with me, then I will have this baby in the lobby"
Michelle wasn't someone to mess with when she was on a mission. Today's mission? Deliver a happy, healthy baby, with her best friend, roomate, and labor coach by her side (regardless that her friend was only 18 and looked about 12) The nurse took another look at my nervous face and turned around to push the wheelchair. I imagined kicking her in the butt, I hated when people looked down at me because I was young and looked even younger. Just wait 20 years you ol' witch, I'll still look 20 and you'll look over 100.
**
"Push! Okay, stop, now breathe. Now push again!"
Crying. We were all crying. I was crying because I think all of the bones in my hand were broken. Michelle was crying because her body had just done something that defied all laws and was a miracle at the same time. The baby was crying - well he was crying because that's what babies do when they are born. I looked at Michelle just when she looked over at me.
"What did you decide on for a name?" I wondered because she had changed her mind a dozen times.
She started laughing, tears still in her eyes, "I have no idea."
"I hoped they had an express line like at the grocery store"
ReplyDelete:)
"Just wait 20 years you ol' witch, I'll still look 20 and you'll look over 100"
"She started laughing, tears still in her eyes, "I have no idea." "
:)
Nice to be finishing nearly every vignette with a one liner--one of those earlier ones could have ended with a look at poor Jill's car upholstery maybe.
These linked vignettes work very nicely, swinging right along--doesn't it feel like you are peeling out of a snowsuit and into a sunsuit to be able to write with flexibility and sinew and without all the usual bulk?
:)
That last :) was supposed to go after the second one-liner I quoted!
ReplyDelete:(