“Did anyone grab Lucy’s red hospital bag?” He asked everyone in the car. We all looked around blankly, each of us knowing that we didn’t bring it.
“It's not here.” Michelle told him. Isaiah relayed the message back then hung up the phone.
“We have to go back to get it. I guess Lucy is flipping out about it. It’s by the front door and nobody remembered it.”
“Yeah, one of you can go back once we get there. I’m not turning around,” I said determinedly.
“We won’t miss anything, these things take time,” Johnny said, trying to sound like he knew how these kinds of things worked.
“I don’t care, did you see her? She is going to explode. I’m not turning around.”
“Why don’t I call Rachel? She can drive to the house and grab it and bring it by the hospital.” Sean flicked his phone open as he spoke. “You call Evelyn, Isaiah, and tell her.” Isaiah didn’t have to though, because his phone started singing again. This time he was able to open it quickly and growl his “what?” at her. He listened for a moment.
“We are getting Rachel to do it.” More listening.
We all started hearing a high pitched, panicky voice on the other line. It was definitely Lucy. Freaking out. I spoke to Isaiah, loudly, hoping Lucy would hear.
“Tell her to deal with it. We are almost to the hospital and I’m not turning around.”
“Dude, she hung up.” Isaiah put his phone on silent and pushed it back in his pocket. I didn’t care; I wasn’t going back. If I were to turn around now I would be a good forty minutes behind her. That wasn’t going to happen. So she was just going to have to be mad.
“Oh, there it is.” Michelle pointed to the big hospital in town, the same one that Lucy and I had been taken to after the whole lake incident.
Mr. Peterson and I parked right next to each other at a parking spot next to the maternity ward. Her father saw me and winked.
“You’re in trouble,” he said. My stomach dropped but I wasn’t in the mood to get yelled at for caring. I was going to put that cranky mama in her place if she tried to get mad at me. Luckily, she didn’t say anything, just huffed and puffed about how much she needed her red hospital bag. I ignored her. She wasn’t going to care about that bag in about ten minutes. Besides, I kind of wanted to see in-labor Lucy unleashed on Rachel.
These were once-in-a-lifetime moments.
“I can’t walk,” Lucy groaned to me as I reached her. Her legs were out of the car and her body turned around, but she was doubled over in pain again, holding her stomach and clutching the side of the car for support. It was freaking me out, the constant pain thing.
“I’ll get you a wheelchair.” I dashed through the door before someone could beat me to it. Running down the long hallway, I looked for someone to help me. I finally came across the oldest woman that ever lived. I think her name was Eve.
“Excuse me, ma’am, do you have a wheelchair?” I asked her making a point to show how much of a hurry I was in.
“Do you have an appointment?” She put on her glasses with shaky hands.
“No, I need a wheelchair. My girlfriend is in labor and I need a wheelchair.” I thought of peaceful fields and babbling brooks and stuff, trying really hard not to lose my temper.
“Your girlfriend?” She said it in a snobby tone that I didn’t care for, but I chose to ignore it. I needed a flipping wheelchair. I was willing to endure old-lady-disapproval.
“Yes, please. If you can’t help me, do you know someone who can?”
“Well, I have one, dear.” She turned around and hobbled over to the folded up chair in the corner behind her desk. She opened it up, pushed it over to me about three years later, and told me to bring it back when I was done with it.
“Yeah.” I said from over my shoulder as I ran off down the hall to get Lucy.
My girl was still sitting halfway out of the car, holding Jennika’s hand and doing some kind of breathing exercise I’d seen in the movies. I didn’t realize that was real. I really should have asked her about that lamas stuff, or whatever it was called.
Lucy’s father helped her into the wheelchair but I refused to let go of the back, which he seemed pleased about. Isaiah and Evelyn opened the door for us and we all went running down the hall. I mean, we all went running down the hall. Lucy and I took the lead, but Jennika and Mrs. Peterson were keeping close behind. Johnny and Michelle were trailing then Mr. Peterson, Sean, Evelyn, and Isaiah were behind them, all of us rushing down a long hallway. We sped past slow Eve and straight to the labor and delivery part of the hospital.
We rounded on a nurse at the end of another long hallway. We tried to stop in front of her but ended in a kind of car crash that caused a few of us to almost topple over. But we grabbed hands and saved each other so we wouldn’t look too much like idiots. The nurse looked at us like she was watching a magical circus act, with fire.
“This is Lucy Peterson, we called.” Lucy’s mom chimed in.
“Yes, um, are all of these people coming in?”
“Yes!” Everyone said in unison, which made Lucy laugh. I bent over and kissed her head. She reached up and stroked the top of my hair and leaned back in her chair. She must have been experiencing a little break from the contraction.
“Ok, this way. We have a room ready for you Lucy.” The nurse started rattling off questions about regularity of contractions and how long she’d been having them. When she learned that Lucy’s water already broke she said, “Oh good, well at least you know you won’t be going home tonight.”
When we got to the room, Lucy immediately went into the bathroom to change into the hospital robes. Her mom and Jennika went with her, to help her navigate. The rest of us sat in chairs against the wall. We had no idea what we were waiting for at this point.
It was about twenty minutes before Lucy’s doctor came into the room. She about stumbled over her own feet when she saw the audience that was awaiting her.
“Hi,” Lucy piped up from the bed, looking happy to finally have her doctor there.
“Hi, Lucy. How are you feeling?”
“Not very good.” She laughed but looked up seriously. “Is it supposed to hurt this much right away?”
“Well, yes and no. It doesn’t hurt as much in the very beginning. But after the water is broken, there is less cushioning for those contractions, so the pain increases noticeably.” She smiled kindly, pulled up a rolling chair, and sat at the end of Lucy’s hospital bed. “Ok, I need you to put your feet up here.” She patted to the stirrup looking things on either side of the bed. Lucy did as she was told, her knees up in the air.
Us four guys about had a heart attack, and scrambled over each other to get as far away as possible. That is, until we saw the doctor put on blue gloves and lubricant on her fingers. That’s when we died.
“Well, Lucy, it looks like you’re pretty far along, about six centimeters dilated and seventy percent effaced.”
“What the heck does that mean?” Leave it to Isaiah to ask the question that half the room was wondering but didn’t have the guts to ask. I saw Lucy’s dad put his head down.
“It means that her cervix is open, or ‘dilated’ to a six, the goal is for her to get to a ten.” The doctor said cheerfully.
“Oh.” Isaiah said, still looking confused. “What’s a cervix?”
All of the females started giggling at us, but it seemed like a legit question.
“A cervix is the lower portion of a woman’s uterus. It joins with the top end of a vagina.” She paused for effect and took in our faces. We were all pale as soon as vagina was mentioned. The doc kept going. She was enjoying it, I think.
“A cervix is usually closed, but when a woman goes into active labor it opens.” She put her hand up and made an “okay” sign with three fingers up in the air. “The farther the labor progresses the bigger the cervix opens.” She started making the tight ball she had made with her thumb and her forefinger open up. “When it is about this big,” he held her
two hands apart, the size of a baseball, “that’s when a woman starts pushing the baby out.” She put her hands down and started silently laughing.
I noticed that Johnny’s eyes had rolled into the back of his head. I had one side of my lip up and my eye brows had run away into my scalp. But Isaiah was just nodding his head and his lips were puckered out, like he was taking it all in.
“Nice,” he said, with the air of someone who had just had two plus two equals four explained to them.
“Anyway, we will be checking in with you in another hour and hopefully you’ll have dilated enough that we can get this party started. Okay hon?” She patted Lucy’s knee and left as a nurse came bustling in after.
“Ok, girl.” A short, chubby black woman grinned as she came bounding into the room. “I’m going to hook you up to all these machine do-das we have here.” She moved over all of us like we weren’t there, which was quite an accomplishment considering the eight of us were pretty much taking up the entire room. She probably had a lot of practice.
“How are you feeling?” she asked Lucy.
“It hurts.” Lucy held her stomach and closing her eyes. She kept very still and very quiet. Her lips pursed and her nostrils flared, then turned white.
“Girl, it will hurt less if you breath. I promise.” Lucy let out a long sigh of air that she had been keeping in. “There, is that better?” Lucy didn’t answer but she nodded a tiny bit and let her head drop. The girl bustled out. I walked over to her and grabbed Lucy’s hand. She looked up, startled, then relaxed when she saw it was me.
“David, I don’t know if I can do this.” She bit her lip and gave me the most scared look I had ever seen.
“Oh come on. You’re the strongest person I know.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Luce, who else do you know that would put her legs up like that with a room full of people and not even care?”
She giggled at me then put her head down and grabbed onto the railing of the bed.
“The nurse told you to breath,” I said, touching the top of her head and brushing my fingers through to the bottom. She let out another long sigh of air; it hissed as it went through her teeth.
“I know, thank you. I’m so glad you’re here, David. I couldn’t do this without you.”
“I love you.” I kissed her slightly sweaty face.
“I love you too.” She bent over again but kept breathing this time, although it didn’t seem to help much. She shifted to the other side of her body and kept her hand on her stomach, then moved back to her original side.
“You okay?” I said loudly so everyone looked over at her.
“It won’t stop.” She was completely breathless from trying to breath in. She was in too much pain to take a good breath. She was one of those wobbles that went back and forth; she couldn’t stop moving from side to side. It looked like she was trying to run away from the pain.
“Someone get her some ice or something,” Jennika said from the other side of the hospital bed. “Johnny, go tell the nurse.”
“I want a diet soda!” Lucy said out of nowhere, stopping on her right side, facing Jennika. Jennika didn’t take it well. Maybe it was kind of like looking at Medusa.
“Diet Coke! Get her a Diet Coke!” Jennika yelled at Johnny.
“Ok, ok, a Coke. I’ll be right back!” Johnny started running in circles not knowing what to do.
“A Diet Coke you nerd!” Evelyn said from Isaiah’s lap, where she had placed herself. Of course, Isaiah looked terrified. He had no problem talking about lady parts but if a girl came near him he looked like he was going to be sick.
“Diet, got it.” Johnny ran out of the room, his chest leading the way while his head tried to catch up. His arms looked like long pieces of ribbon trailing behind him.
“Johnny looks like he just saw a ghost.” Rachel stood in the doorway, looking unnecessarily pretty. Lucy’s hospital bag was slung over her shoulder.
“Thanks, Rachel.” Evelyn jumped up and grabbed the hospital bag, attempting to push Rachel out the door. Michelle who was sitting quietly in the corner this whole time gave a little time out from her somber persona to glare at our new visitor. But the pretty girl somehow ground her feet into the tile floor, regardless of Evelyn’s pushing and Michelle’s glaring.
“Hold on.” She turned herself back around and looked at Lucy. “How are you doing?” She spoke with a monotone voice.
“Oh, I am fantastic, really enjoying this weather. How are you?” Lucy responded with a snap.
“Your hair is all in your face and you’re sweating.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of giving birth.” Lucy looked like she was too overwhelmed to really respond to Rachel.
“I’m just saying that someone should put your hair back in a French braid or something. I’ll bet being a little more comfortable would make the whole pushing part easier.” She put her fingers up in air quotes when she said the word pushing. Like that wasn’t something she was really going to be doing, just pretending.
“Probably would.” Lucy tried to put her fingers through her hair but was stopped almost immediately by snarls. She sighed and let her hand drop, too tired to bother. Then she closed her eyes and put her head on her pillow. Another contraction.
“Breathe, sweetie.” I put my hand on her head. She swatted if off.
“She’s hot, David. Here, move.” Rachel bumped me aside and climbed into the hospital bed. “Sit up Lucy,” she barked, sounding a little too demanding for my taste but Lucy did as she was told. Rachel reached inside of her big purse and brought out a hairbrush, a hair tie, and some hair spray, all Mary Poppins' style. She got squared up behind Lucy and tilted her head back gently, then gathered the hair into a ponytail.
She started brushing the ends, working her way slowly and gently up to Lucy’s scalp. It only took a few minutes until Lucy’s hair was completely straight and knot-free. Rachel then pulled out the hair tie, divided the hair into three sections, and started braiding it. Lucy had her eyes closed the entire time, her hand on her belly. Every now and then I saw her eyes wince closed even tighter, but the contractions seemed to be less when she was concentrating on something else.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Rachel being kind. Apparently no one else could, either. We all just stood (or sat) there in silence, watching the two of them.
“There, does that feel better out of your face?” Rachel asked as she climbed out of the bed. She sprayed a little hairspray on the front and smoothed the stray hairs back so lose hairs wouldn’t come out and tickle her.
“I didn’t realize how much it was bothering me until it was gone,” Lucy responded, lying back in to the bed looking a little revived.
Johnny raced in with a can of soda and put it on the little table in front of Lucy.
“Thank you, Johnny.” Lucy reached out her hand out for him. “Sorry.”
“Ahh, its okay. I’m used to getting yelled at.” He looked over at Jennika and winked, which made her laugh.
“I think I need some of that stuff that makes you not feel these contractions,” Lucy said quietly.
“I’ll tell the nurse on my way out.” Rachel looked like she didn’t know if she should just leave or pat Lucy on the head first, and wish her luck.
Lucy’s nurse came walking at that moment, leaving Rachel jobless.
“How you doing, hon?”
“I think I want the epidural,” Lucy said quietly, so I had to strain to hear her. “I feel like I have to push and I’m in so much pain.”
“Really?” The nurse’s eyebrows raised. She reached for those blue gloves. “Put your feet up here.” Almost as soon as the nurse checked she called for another nurse to come in.
“This girl is at ten; she is one hundred percent effaced. Call the doc and double-check her lines. She needs to start pushing.”
“What?” Lucy said, looking completely terrified.
“Did you have a really big contraction that made you want to kill yourself and ever
yone around you, one that was bigger than the others?” The nurse asked, but she sounded like she already knew the answer.
“I did, I literally thought I was going to die.”
“Well honey, that was you dilating about three centimeters in a matter of a minute. That hurts; I’ve done it!”
A doctor came bustling in and took her place. One of the nurses following her in was putting a gown on her as she bent down over Lucy. Another nurse turned on the light above Lucy and another wheeled a warming table. As they all started settling into their roles, I kept looking over at the warming table that one nurse was almost done getting ready. The last step in the little preparation ballet that had taken less than a minute was the blue terrycloth-looking things under Lucy, where the baby was going to be coming out.
“So, what about the epidural?” Rachel asked, sounding like a friend looking out for another friend. It sounded weird.
“Oh, hon, she’s too late for that. She needs to start pushing.”
“This is it, Lucy.” Mrs. Peterson was next to me, her eyes watering as she kissed her daughter on the head.
“I’m scared,” Lucy whimpered to her mom, but Mrs. Peterson just kissed her again.
“That’s okay, babe. It’s going to be fine. You just focus on what the doctor says. Push when she tells you to push, okay? That’s your only job right now.” She smiled so kindly at her daughter I wanted to curl up and pretend I was in pain to just to receive the love that was being dished out. I looked around the room, taking in my surroundings. I saw Johnny and Jennika both sitting together on a chair looking excited. Rachel hadn’t moved, just put herself flat against the wall, trying to magically figure out how to be a part of everything. Evelyn was drinking Lucy’s soda and Isaiah was in the corner with a phone I didn’t recognize.
It was probably Evelyn’s. And he was most likely changing her ring tone to something like “Satan is My Mistress” by Metallica.
Lucy’s parents were on her right side, both kissing her head. I had moved to her left.
“Okay Lucy, are you ready?” her doctor asked her, shifting into position.
“Yes,” Lucy answered nervously.
My Stupid Girl Page 40