The Baby Chronicles

by Beatrice Bruno

  “Joyce, I can’t help you because I’m falling down!” Jeffrey cried with as much fear as his sister. He, too, was trying to grab hold of the slickened walls to no avail. He moved into the birth canal as their imminent birth approached.

  TWELVE

  Long Island General Hospital, New York: June 20, 1961

  Marie, you’re going to have to push,” Dr. Cynthia Sinclair urged, encouraging the young colored woman on her table to push out the first baby.

  Thirty year-old Cynthia Jane Sinclair had been Marie’s OB/GYN doctor since she first discovered she was pregnant. From their professional relationship grew an even closer personal friendship that Cynthia and Marie cherished in spite of the racial prejudice of 1960’s New York.

  Coming from a good Catholic family in San Francisco, Cynthia Jane was taught to not look at a person’s skin color. Instead, she was taught to look at his or her heart. She had always had colored friends while growing up. Marie was one of her best friends in New York. Since both of them were so far away from family and friends back home, they formed an alliance that was tight and true.

  During the course of Marie’s pregnancy, Cynthia learned a lot about the South where twenty-one-year-old Marie grew up. What she learned she did not like. Cynthia had never seen nor heard of such prejudicial practices in her life! She shared all she gleaned from her new friend with her family back home in California.

  Cynthia heard her friend groan in pre-birth agony as she snapped from her reverie to the task at hand. She discovered during one of her final examinations that Marie Jones was not expecting one rather large infant, but two—twins.

  If I could get my hands on that Leroy, Cynthia thought as she spoke soothingly to her friend. How could he leave her in this predicament? she wondered, coaxing Marie to push a little more.

  “Come on, Ree,” Cynthia urged softly, calling her friend the pet name she had come to know her by. “You can do it,” she encouraged the sweating, panting young woman.

  “Come on, sweetie,” Nurse Shirley Granderson joined in with the doctor’s encouragement in her Jamaican-accented voice. “Push, honey-chile! You can do it, girl!”

  Shirley had worked with Dr. Sinclair her entire five years in the United States. She loved this wonderful woman of medicine. Dr. Sinclair had more colored patients than many of the colored doctors who practiced in the city, mainly due to the way she cared for people.

  Originally from Barbados, Shirley had come to the US so she could pursue her nursing vocation. She had not been disappointed. Marie Jones was her thousandth delivery or so it seemed. She was excited about this delivery after discovering it would be twins.

  Marie Helen Jones grunted. Sweat poured from her brow. She panted as though she were running in a race. She was using all she could to work up the energy to force these babies out of her body.

  God, she thought to herself. What have I done? How could I have allowed myself to get in this dilemma? And I’m having two babies? she scolded herself. One was enough to embarrass my family. God must really be disappointed with me to allow me to have two babies out of wedlock at the same time. And Leroy, the so-called father of these babies, she continued the tirade in her mind. Where is he?

  Leroy Julius Adams had promised Marie the moon. As soon as he discovered she was pregnant, he had obviously gone to the moon. She knew she should have never …

  “Ohhhh, please, give me something for the pain. I feel like I’m going to die,” she pleaded as the first baby tried to push its way out of her body.

  Such indescribable pain she had never felt before in her life! How in the world had her mother given birth to fifteen children (the majority born at home!) she would never know. Why hadn’t someone warned her about the pain?

  Then she thought about it as she strained to get these babies out. She couldn’t have asked anyone from her family about the pain of childbirth because no one at home in Alabama knew she was pregnant. Her family didn’t know what she was going through right now. She hadn’t been home to Alabama since before she got pregnant. Plus, she wasn’t planning to go home any time soon—maybe when the kids are grown, she sarcastically thought. She didn’t want to embarrass her parents. They didn’t even know she had been seeing anyone, much less having babies today.

  What a mess she was in! She didn’t have anyone else besides Cynthia and Shirley in this crazy New York town that cared enough about her to be concerned that she was having these babies today by herself. And thank God for them! Marie could only guess how she would have made it had it not been for her two new friends of about nine months. She had pretty much cut herself off from the people who loved her most—her family.

  Even though she had made only a few friends before her pregnancy, once she became pregnant, Marie was reluctant to make any more friends. She was ashamed for people to know she was an unwed mother. Frequenting only three places in this crazy town—work, home, and the grocery store—Marie spent the majority of her time alone trying to figure out a way to tell her family about the mess she was in. Since Leroy had treated her so badly, she didn’t want her family to know anything about him. She feared her brothers coming to New York and ending up in prison for killing Leroy’s worthless behind.

  Her only friend besides Cynthia and Shirley was Sophia Conti in Apartment 3B. Sophia would take care of her babies while she worked after she got back on her feet.

  Marie’s parents were salt-of-the-earth Christians. Homer and Ethel Jones had raised seven boys and eight girls to be good, God-fearing people. Now look at what she had done! Marie couldn’t imagine going back to Alabama to visit her family with her illegitimate children. She had condemned herself to raising these children alone.

  Never mind that no self-respecting man would want anything to do with a woman who had one child out of wedlock, much less two. She was in a fix. But she had to get past bringing these babies into the world before she could deal with anything else.

  “Unnhh,” she moaned, clenching her teeth and holding onto the straps on the bed.

  “Ahh,” she screamed as the first baby almost shot from between her legs. The doctor caught him just as he cried a loud wail, the loudest she had ever heard. The clock read 11:26 a.m.

  “Welcome to New York, little boy,” Dr. Sinclair whispered to the first-born as she determined his sex. She looked at his tiny face as he wailed. He seemed to experience some form of discomfort. She couldn’t determine what could be causing this little one’s pain.

  In the Unseen …

  Earth-angel Rohan stood at Cynthia’s right shoulder peering down into the bright red squalling face of his new charge, Jeffrey Earl Jones. He smiled as he saw that the baby appeared to be all there. Rohan knew why Jeffrey was wailing so loudly. His sister was trying to not make an appearance on the Earth!

  Labor and Delivery …

  Dr. Sinclair handed the squalling infant to Nurse Granderson as she turned to prepare for the arrival of the second baby.

  “Come on, Marie,” the doctor encouraged the young woman. “I know you’re tired but you have to give it one last big push. You already have a very handsome young man waiting for his twin to come out.”

  In spite of her tiredness, Marie perked up slightly as she heard the sex of the first baby. A boy! Maybe it would make it easier when she presented him to her daddy. Boy babies seemed to be more favored down South in the farmland, especially in the Jones household. All Marie’s brothers worked on either the family farm or on their own farms if they were married. A baby boy would fit in well with the rest of the nephews, boy cousins, and sons-in-law Marie had grown up with.

  Marie knew her children would find favor quickly with their grandfather, Homer. Although a stern disciplinarian, Homer loved his children and grandchildren dearly. Marie remembered how he had once beaten her nineteen-year-old brother Johnny when he thought he could back-talk their mama. Homer came out of nowhere, beat Johnny with no mercy, then prayed with him and hugged him. That was Homer’s way and his children loved him all the more fo
r it.

  Marie found the strength to push again. She felt this second baby moving around as though it were holding on for dear life.

  “Unnhh,” she grunted, trying to help her second child come out and make an appearance in its new world.

  “Ahh,” she screamed. “Oh, God, please help me!” she cried out, unbearable pain saturating her lower extremities. She didn’t know how much longer she could stand this pain.

  “OK, Marie, rest for a few moments,” advised Dr. Sinclair as Nurse Granderson wiped Marie’s brow.

  She couldn’t understand why this baby was being so stubborn about coming out. She felt around inside Marie. She found that although the baby’s position was correct, something was definitely wrong. Cynthia Sinclair discovered that the umbilical cord had somehow become wrapped around the baby’s neck. The baby was holding onto the umbilical cord with its fist as though it wanted to choke itself to death.

  Horrified, Cynthia urgently whispered a quick, silent prayer, God, please give me wisdom and strength! She had never had this happen before during a birth, but she was not prepared to lose.

  THIRTEEN

  In Eternity

  Earthbound Angel Almara reporting as directed, Almighty God,” Almara said reverently to the Being on the Throne of Grace.

  It wasn’t often that a particular angel was pinpointed. When it happened, there was no doubt that the angel was to immediately appear before Almighty God for whatever reason.

  His voice thundering with urgency, God instructed the angel to go back into the womb to assist and answer Dr. Sinclair’s urgent plea.

  “Almara, Joyce is being stubborn. She is causing grave danger to her Earth-body. I need you to help her to let go,” Father God instructed the angel. Time was of the essence. Almara was on the move even before he answered, “Yes, God,” and dissipated before the King of Kings. In an instant, he was back in Marie’s womb. She was quickly running out of strength to bring forth the second twin.

  In the Unseen at Long Island General Hospital

  “Joyce,” Almara said, urgently but gently. He could tell that everything was in distress. As she continued to choke the life out of her fragile body, her face registered anguish as she held onto the umbilical cord.

  Although her heart had slowed down considerably, she was still able to mind-gasp, “I don’t want to go out there. I’m afraid. I want to go back to Heaven, Angel Almara. I miss Abba.”

  Almara knew that if he didn’t do something quickly, baby Joyce would be born with irreversible brain damage.

  “Joyce,” he began. “Do you remember the Chamber of Gifts and Talents? Remember what you received there?” he asked, attempting to cause her to focus on him and his words to her.

  Joyce’s rigid infant-body temporarily relaxed as she remembered the things that filled her essence as she went through the chamber—obedience, discipline, perseverance, energy, adventure, and other things. She knew she was destined to go into this thing called the Army and would be a soldier and teacher in life on the Earth.

  But she was afraid now because of what she had felt her brother Jeffrey go through as he entered the Earth-realm. When he went through the birth canal, she felt his body quake from the force used to bring him into the world. As he passed through the opening, she felt a rush of cold air as the opening closed, keeping her inside the womb.

  Remembering her brother’s sudden departure from this place of comfort, Joyce’s tiny body stiffened again. She immediately clutched the umbilical cord again. For all she knew, it was the only piece of security she had right now. Because she was afraid, she didn’t realize it was closing her airway.

  “Angel Almara, what if I fail?” she asked, slightly loosening her grip on the umbilical cord again. “What if I don’t make it with these gifts and talents? God will be angry and disappointed with me, won’t He?” she queried, once more loosening her grip.

  As she loosened her grip, she was able to get more air into her Earth-body. She felt a little better although she was still frightened of the unknown.

  “Child, God will always love you,” Angel Almara said soothingly. As he consoled the frightened pre-born child, he was able to remove the cord from around her neck allowing her body to breath. “Child, Almighty God has not destined you for failure but for His glory. Joyce, everything will be all right. Now, let go, child,” the angel instructed her.

  Joyce’s body relaxed. She completely loosened her grip on the umbilical cord. Once this was accomplished, Marie gave a final grunt and Angel Almara returned to eternity.

  “Mission accomplished, Almighty,” Angel Almara informed Almighty God.

  God the Father nodded His head. He looked through the atmosphere to the labor and delivery room of Long Island General just in time to see the birth of the second twin.

  Labor and Delivery, Long Island General Hospital

  “That’s right, Marie,” Dr. Sinclair spoke softly.

  She was finally able to loosen the cord from around the baby’s neck.

  “OK, now, one … more … push,” Dr. Sinclair urged the weakening young woman.

  A praying woman, Cynthia Sinclair prayed in her heart that God would not only help Marie Jones birth these babies but also take care of them. Her constant prayer since she had known Marie was that God would have mercy on her and send a special man to marry her and help raise these precious babies.

  With a final energy-stealing push, Marie Jones bore down. Her only interest was in getting this baby out of her body. Joyce Renee Jones entered the Earth-realm approximately fifteen minutes after her older brother, Jeffrey Earl. She came into the world angry, red-faced, and crying with the most powerful set of lungs Long Island General had ever heard. But, she made it.

  In the Unseen …

  As Joyce finally slid out of the birth canal, Earth-angel Clematis gave a shout to welcome his new charge into the world. He could tell she was a fighter. He welcomed the challenge to keep her headed in the right direction—the Road to Glory.

  Margarette Ann

  FOURTEEN

  Eternity

  Margarette Ann glumly floated in the atmosphere surrounding the Chamber of Gifts and Talents. Brooding over the gifts and talents she had just received, she sadly looked around. She tenderly observed the home she loved but was destined to leave for a season for the assignment she had been given.

  Margarette Ann had received soldier and leadership skills, evangelism, and other skills she would need for her Earth stay. She was chosen to serve in the Army of the world and as an evangelist and preacher but really didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to be a soldier. Nor did she want to be an evangelist. Surely, she thought, something could be done so she could stay here in Heaven.

  “Margarette Ann, what seems to be the problem? You seem dark for some reason. Is there anything I can help with?” enquired Earthbound Angel Saran, observing the mood of his charge. Always somber, Margarette Ann seemed to be a little more solemn than usual.

  This pre-born clearly did not want an Earth assignment. She wanted no part of those humans on that place called Earth. They were selfish, lazy, ugly, and just not her type at all. And she was not afraid to let her feelings be known.

  When she visited the family she was assigned to, she was not impressed by any of them. This gave her all the more reason for not wanting to go on the assignment the Lord had for her on the Earth. She didn’t want to go to Earth to be around people and she didn’t want to be stuck with these people for an extended assignment on Earth if she didn’t like them.

  She didn’t know why but she really just didn’t like people. After all, she barely wanted anything to do with the other pre-borns in Heaven. All she wanted to do was be with the Father and the Son.

  Why couldn’t they just let her be?

  She wasn’t like many of the other pre-borns, who were always ready for another adventure. She had had all the adventure she wanted or needed the few times she had visited Adam and Eve during their assignment in Eden. And that was an educa
tion in itself! After observing them and seeing how easy it was to turn away from God, she decided she had seen enough. She didn’t want to learn any more about Earth. She was satisfied right where she was.

  “Angel,” she began in that stoic voice Angel Saran had come to recognize and love. “I don’t understand why I must go down to Earth to do something I have no interest in doing,” she said matter-of-factly. “God has plenty of pre-borns who would love to go to Earth to be human and do whatever,” she explained morosely.

  Every so often, one just like Margarette Ann would come along and be extremely reluctant to go into the Earth-realm. The last one had been a pre-born named Oprah who eventually succeeded in making the largest impact on the Earth the world had ever known from a woman, especially a woman of color. But that was another story …

  Margarette Ann was bright and inquisitive. This little pre-born was always the first to love on the Almighty and His Son. She was extremely averse to leaving Heaven and did not want to be used in the Earth-realm.

  “Margarette Ann,” said Angel Saran, “you will do much good in the Earth-realm. You will save many lives and have a positive influence on those you meet.”

  “Angel Saran, I know what you are saying is true, but I really don’t want to leave here. Can’t I be an angel like you? I think I would make a good angel, don’t you?” pleaded Margarette Ann.

  To make her point, the pre-born shot through the atmosphere as she had seen the warrior angels do many times during practice. She dove and twisted, pretending to have her angelic sword drawn to fight off fallen angels who continually attempted to battle their way back into Heaven.