TAXI DELIVERY

by Brooke Williams

  “Control, this is car number 414, Jed Leida at the wheel,” he said as he waited for a response to ensure that someone was listening to his report.

  The woman took a deep breath in the backseat and let out a grunt. She was pushing again.

  “Control here, go ahead 414,” the crackly voice on the other end stated.

  “Need emergency assistance in the World Bank parking garage,” Jed rushed on, “passenger in labor. Repeat, passenger having a baby. Medical personnel requested immediately.”

  “Calling emergency services 414,” the crackly voice said in an almost bored manner. “Ambulance will be dispatched shortly.”

  Jed threw the radio back onto the seat and slammed the door, rocking the cab a bit as the woman moaned.

  “Sorry,” he said as he opened the back door and revealed blood on the backseat of the cab. “What should I do?” he asked, trying to keep the panic from his voice.

  “Help her,” the woman cried, “help my baby.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Sadie couldn’t believe this was happening. Hadn’t she been through enough? She tried to block out her fear so that she could take the situation one minute at a time. One second at a time, even. She closed her eyes and tuned in to what her body was telling her. She wasn’t in any pain. She had heard plenty of horror stories about child birth…each of them more horrible than the last and all of them filled with pain and suffering. Sadie, on the other hand, would not have described the experience as overly painful. Extremely uncomfortable, yes. Terribly frightening, definitely. But she didn’t feel like her senses were blocked by pure pain in the least.

  Sadie could feel the baby dropping by the minute. The precious little bundle was about to make its way into the world, whether she or her driver liked it or not. She watched his dark brown hair bob in near her knees as he positioned himself between the door and the seat. The terror in his eyes was enough to suffice the way she felt. And yet, she continually prayed for peace and believed she was getting it in high doses.

  Breathe. She reminded herself. She took another big breath as she felt another wave-like contraction hitting. When the contraction got at its height, she had the urge to push unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Sadie placed her chin on her chest, held her knees with her hands, and pushed with all her might.

  * * * * *

  Jed had never seen anything like it. In the movies, women always screamed and cried while they were having their babies. Sadie made plenty of noise, but he wouldn’t have described any of it as screaming or crying. He positioned the blanket beneath her as she gave a big heave. And then…in a matter of seconds…he had a baby in his arms. The baby cried and Jed felt someone standing behind him.

  “Is that…did she…” the voice said as a bystander happened past the taxi.

  Jed nodded. “It’s a girl,” he said to both the man behind him and to the woman in the back of his cab.

  He handed the baby over to her mother as he tried to decide what to do next. The baby was still attached to the cord and he knew that would have to be rectified. Before he could get too far in his thought process, he heard the sirens. They were close and getting closer all the time.

  Jed watched as Sadie cried peaceful tears and gazed into her newborn’s scrunched up face. The baby had had a rough birth. It’s not every day one comes into the world. And most New York babies are allowed to do it in the comfort of a hospital. With warming lights, fresh blankets and plenty of attention. This one had done it all on her own with very little to help her other than a fear stricken cab driver.

  The EMTs pulled up with a screech and before Jed knew what was happening, he was pushed aside so they could tend to the mother and the new baby. Jed stood in the crowd, which had started to form after the first man noticed a woman had just given birth in the back of a cab. Several people were on their phones. It was only a matter of time before the news crew showed up.

  Jed hoped, for the sake of her privacy, the ambulance would be well on its way to the hospital by then.

  He stood back and let them do their work as they quickly cut the cord that tied the baby to the mother and suctioned out the baby’s mouth. Before long, they had the mom on a stretcher and the baby wrapped in a larger, warmer blanket. Once they loaded the patients into the ambulance, they were on their way.

  Jed stood to the side, watching the lights flash and the sirens howl in disbelief. Had he just been a part of that? As the ambulance rounded the corner, making its way out of the parking garage, the first news crew arrived.

  The cameraman ran towards the cab, shooting footage of the ambulance as it rushed away. Once the sirens could no longer be heard, the camera automatically turned to the cab. The reporter quickly approached and started shooting questions at Jed since he was the person closest to the cab.

  “Can you tell us what happened here?” she asked, pointing a microphone in his face without asking.

  “Uh, a lady, she, uh, had a baby,” Jed said, staring in the direction the ambulance had just gone.

  “A woman gave birth in the backseat of a cab, is that correct?” the reporter said, filling in the details.

  “Yeah, yeah, she had a little girl,” Jed said.

  The reporter looked from Jed to the cab and then back to Jed, putting the pieces together quickly as the rest of the crowd began to disperse and Jed still remained stationed next to the cab. “Are you the driver?” the reporter asked. “Did you deliver the baby? What’s your name, sir?”

  “Jed. Jed Leida,” Jed replied, ignoring the other two questions.

  “Did you deliver the child?” the reporter asked, not giving up on her original questions.

  “Um,” Jed stuttered. “I think she pretty much did that on her own.”

  The reporter gave him a confused look. “But you were there, weren’t you?”

  Jed nodded. “Oh yes, I was most certainly there.” He didn’t even really understand that he was being interviewed by a TV crew. He was in such shock from the events that had unfolded that he was just answering the questions without really understanding that he would likely later be on the news himself.

  “What is the mother’s name?” the reporter asked. “Did she name the child?”

  Jed stopped listening after the first question. The mother’s name. He didn’t even know her name.

  He started to realize that he was on camera and being interviewed by a news station about the events that occurred just moments ago. He no longer wanted to answer any questions. The woman gave birth to a child, which normally is a very private manner. And yet it had become very public very quickly. Jed did not feel that it was right to violate her privacy any more than he already had. Plus, he did not have any more answers to give. He didn’t know her name.

  “No more questions,” he said, waving his hand in front of the camera to indicate that he was ready for it to be turned off.

  The cameraman lowered the lens and the reporter sighed. Her news scoop was turning into a dud.

  Jed began walking away from the cab, unsure as to where he would go. He needed to call dispatch, get a ride home, and get the cab towed. It was unlikely that it would be driven again. At least not for a while.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The ambulance ride went by in a flash. Sadie’s main concern was for her baby. She kept asking if she was okay and how she was doing. The medical technicians were busy taking Sadie’s blood pressure and other vitals, but one of them held the baby tightly wrapped in the blanket they brought along with them. Sadie was certain the little girl was okay or they would have been doing more to care for her as well.

  Once they arrived at the hospital, just minutes later, Sadie realized how close she had been to making it. Had she allowed the cab driver to keep going, they might have at least gotten to the emergency room doors. They would have had medical personnel on hand to help. Not that it mattered now. It had happened the way it had happened and it seemed as if everyone was going to be okay. It was certainly going to make for a good story l
ater in the little girl’s life.

  The EMTs took Sadie out on the stretcher and then placed the new little girl on Sadie’s chest to ride in. Sadie gasped and everything around her fell away. The baby was perfect. Her scrunched up face looked as if it was concentrating on something as she slept. Sadie had heard her cry when she was first born and she knew that she had a healthy set of lungs. One of the baby’s hands was curled around the blanket at the top and Sadie could see that all of her fingers were there.

  She smiled. God had provided her with a perfect little miracle. She didn’t know what she was going to do about her living situation or how she was going to afford a baby at all. But she did know that she would do anything in this world to protect the little child that God had entrusted to her care.

  Sadie got situated in her room and was seen by a doctor and a sleuth of nurses. She began to wonder if the nurses were really coming to care for her, or just to see the woman who had had her baby in the backseat of a cab. Given all of the cabs running around the city, Sadie didn’t think it should be all that unusual.

  Hours later, when things finally seemed to calm down, Sadie began to think about the day’s events. She had started out the day exploring the city around her tiny apartment, which she shared with two other women. She simply wanted to see what was close by so she would know where to go for various supplies when she needed them. By mid-morning, she had had a baby in the back of a cab.

  Sadie smiled. She couldn’t believe, after all of her planning, that she really gave birth to her daughter in a parking garage. At least the labor and delivery had gone easier than she had ever expected. It was as if her body knew that she had no real help so it took over and did what was needed.

  As Sadie nursed her daughter and watched as her little eyes closed once again, she remembered the cab driver. His brown eyes had panic written all over them and yet Sadie had been calmed by the way he had prayed. He hadn’t even asked if it was okay to pray for her. He had just boldly done it. Sadie had taken that prayer and echoed it in her own mind as she labored. The fact that he was obviously a believer had carried her through the situation. She had always believed that where two or more were gathered in God’s name, God was there. With God on their side, she felt like nothing was going to go wrong.

  And she and her little girl had come out on the other side safe and sound. With a good story to tell, no less. But she had someone she needed to thank for that. She prayed her thanksgiving to God right then and there with her little girl cradled tightly in her arms. While praying always made her feel better, she knew that she would not feel totally settled into her new life as a mom until she spoke with the driver who had been there for her in her hour of need. She needed to thank him in person for everything that he had done for her.

  Another nurse popped into Sadie’s room, interrupting her thoughts. “Need anything?” she asked.

  Sadie shook her head and looked down at her little girl who let out a big sigh in her sleep. “Everything is perfect,” she replied.

  The nurse smiled. “You’re the talk of the town, you know.”

  “Really?” Sadie asked.

  “It’s not everyday someone has a baby in the back of a cab, you know,” the nurse said, taking a step into the room. “Just every other day,” she said with a chuckle. “And it must be a slow news day because you’re all over channel 3.”

  “I’m on TV?” Sadie asked incredulously.

  “Well,” the nurse continued, “not you. But your driver is. The man who helped deliver the baby. And the story is out there. But no one has yet caught on to your name and the hospital has a strict privacy policy so it won’t be released through us. Unless you want the world to know it was you in that parking garage today, I’d say you’re pretty safe.”

  Sadie gave a slight nod. “When is the next newscast?” she asked. She had no idea what time it was.

  The nurse checked her watch. “There should be one coming on now. And I’m sure, unless something else has happened in this crazy city, you’ll be the lead story.”

  She moved across the room and clicked the TV on using the remote on the side of Sadie’s bed. She flashed by a couple of channels until she got to channel 3. “Here you go,” she said. “Just push the call button if you need anything and we’ll be back in about an hour to take the baby for her hearing test.”

  “Okay,” Sadie agreed, already transfixed on the TV, which was hanging high on the wall across from her bed.

  There were a few commercials to get through before the news started, but Sadie couldn’t take her eyes from the screen. She was anxious to see what they were saying about her and how much information they were going to have. She didn’t know if something like this was going to make the national news or not, but if it did, she wanted to ensure that no one would know that it was her. She knew she was going to have to let her daughter’s father know about the birth at some point, but she wanted that to be on her own time. She didn’t want to be rushed because of the sensational way the girl had been born. And she wanted him to hear it from her and not from some random TV news reporter.

  The music for the news began and Sadie sat up a little straighter, moving slowly so as not to disturb her sleeping bundle. “Breaking news from Channel 3,” the anchor reported as they immediately went to a tape of the ambulance pulling out of the parking garage. “A woman gave birth in the World Bank parking garage just hours ago,” the reporter continued. “Channel 3 was first on the scene to get the full story.”

  The shot broke and flashed to a reporter in the parking garage standing in front of the cab in which Sadie had been riding. “Witnesses say that a woman in her late 20s or early 30s had a little girl in the back of this cab just hours earlier,” she said as she looked over her shoulder at the cab and then back to the camera. “We spoke with the driver at the scene immediately after it happened.”

  Sadie took a deep breath as the show cut to the driver, standing beside his cab with a befuddled look on his face. Sadie could tell that he was looking off into the distance as if he was searching for something.

  “Can you tell us what happened here?” the reporter asked off camera as the microphone was jabbed into the man’s face.

  “Uh, a lady, she, uh, had a baby,” the driver said, staring past the camera.

  “A woman gave birth in the backseat of a cab, is that correct?” the reporter asked.

  “Yeah, yeah, she had a little girl,” the driver answered, his spaced off look remaining.

  So they knew she had a little girl. But so far, the rest of the news was pretty vague, Sadie thought.

  “Did you deliver the baby? What’s your name, sir?” the reporter continued, hardly giving the poor guy a break.

  “Jed. Jed Leida,” the man stuttered, glancing at the camera for the first time.

  “Did you deliver the child?” the woman asked, digging for more information as quickly as possible.

  “I think she pretty much did that on her own,” the man answered with a slight smile.

  “But you were there, weren’t you?”

  “Oh yes, I was most certainly there.”

  The station went back to the reporter in front of the cab, which looked as if it were being towed. “Jed Leida, a cab driver for over two years, delivered the little girl in the back of his cab. The mother in question has not yet been named but sources say she was a young blonde and she was in the cab alone. The hospital has not yet revealed her name but reports say that mom and baby are doing just fine.”

  The anchor took it from there, thanked the reporter, and went on to the news story of the day.

  Sadie turned the TV off. She got to see what she needed to see. The news didn’t have much information on her other than her vague age and the fact that she had been alone and had birthed a little girl. The fact that she had not been named was a relief. And now, Sadie had even more of the information she wanted. She knew the name of the cab driver who had been there for her through it all. Jed Leida. A name she would not soon forget
.

  CHAPTER SIX

  When Jed finally got home, he was exhausted. It was the weekend so he didn’t have any classes to attend, but he always had plenty of reading and studying to do. Unfortunately for his grades, Jed could not concentrate on anything at all. The feel of the baby in his arms haunted him and he could not get the look of joy on the woman’s face as he proclaimed that it was a girl out of his mind.

  Jed had literally gone through a life changing experience with her and he didn’t even know her name. What concerned him even more was that he did not know how she and the baby were doing. They only met for one brief cab ride, but Jed felt connected to the woman and her story. He wanted to make sure her husband made it to her side and that she was okay. He had been responsible for getting her to the hospital in time and he hadn’t exactly done a stellar job at that task. The least he could do was check up on her and make sure everything was okay now that she had finally arrived.