by Kay Hadashi
“You’ve seen her running?”
“Of course. I run with her sometimes. She doesn’t realize it, of course, but it’s nice to have a running partner.”
“That would totally freak her out if you materialized or appeared, whatever it is you do.”
Her mother laughed. “I’ve considered it.”
Melanie stretched out her legs, pounding her fist into the thigh of one. “It’ll be a while before I run anywhere with this gimpy leg.”
She and her mother chatted about the pregnancy for a while. Even though her mother had died twenty years before, her spirit still came for visits at the bench, something of a Kato family meeting place. Melanie had scattered her mother’s ashes in that place late one rainy night, making it unique to her for very special reasons.
“You can’t form, or whatever it is you do, so I can see you?”
“Not this time, Honey.”
“What about tomorrow?” Melanie asked.
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Your dad might even be around.”
“It would be nice to have him there. How is he? Do you get to see him much?”
“He’s fine. You know us. We always were going in opposite directions.”
Melanie chuckled, but only half-heartedly. “Yeah, but on the rare occasion you guys were moving the same way, nobody was more passionate than the two of you.” Melanie leaned forward and pressed a fist into her lower back.
“What’s wrong?”
“Bad disc at L-4. It presses on a nerve root every now and then.”
“How bad is it?”
“Come on, Mom. You haven’t been a neurosurgeon in a long time. There’s nothing you could do about it, the way you are.”
“Just answer my question.”
“I get leg and foot pain and numbness, and have a foot drop.”
“That’s bad. Do you know what it’s from?”
“Probably left over from a hard landing in a helicopter while I was in the service. It might be stretching the sciatic repair I had a long time ago. It bothered me some when I was carrying Thérèse, but it’s a lot worse this time around.”
“Lean forward,” her mother said.
“What? Why?”
“Just do as you’re told.”
Melanie leaned forward as best she could despite the size of her belly. After a moment, she felt hands on her back, groping each vertebra one at a time. “Is this your pain here?”
“Ow! Yeah.”
“What about your plantar reflex on the side of your foot drop?”
“Well…”
“Well what? Answer me, Mel.”
“Positive Babinski sign.”
Melanie heard her mother sigh with disappointment.
“You need surgery. You should at least be worked up with X-rays and a scan. Have you been to someone?”
“Just the chiropractor and a massage the other day. That helped a lot.”
“It usually does. But if it’s coming back this quickly, you need that disc taken out. Who’s good at West Maui these days?”
“There’s a new guy that came highly regarded. I’d have to wait until I’m done breastfeeding Sofia, though.”
“Are you sure it’s another girl?” her mother asked.
“Can Kato women have anything else? At least it’s not twins.”
“Pretty name.”
“Mom, there’s something else happening on the island right now.”
“The murders of those three young men?”
“Oh, you know about them. They’ve really been murdered?” Melanie asked. “The police are still trying to figure out what happened. Do you know? Is there anything you can tell me that might help the police find their killers?”
“I might’ve said too much already. Even though they’re dead, it’s a mortal task to solve a crime.”
“The thing is, they might be mixed up with the theft of valuable Hawaiian treasures. We just can’t seem to figure out how to connect everything. The police need leads, a few more clues. So far, they seem to be going all over the island, even searching the internet for something that might help in their investigations.”
“Sometimes you need to narrow your search. Make it more defined rather than so broad. Start closer to home.”
“That doesn’t tell me much, Mom.”
“It tells you a lot. Otherwise, all I can say is things are not always as they seem.”
“Great. Another one of your puzzles to figure out.”
“You’ll need to figure it out if you want to solve the crimes.”
They sat quietly for a moment.
“Dottie got here today,” Melanie said quietly.
“Which is why you’re here at the bench already.”
“I wish I could swap her for Addie. Mom, how can two women be so different? One just lost her only son, but continues to be gracious to everyone she meets. But the other is demanding, stubborn, and unwilling to listen to anything Josh and I tell her.”
“You’re not always so easy to get along with, Mel. And don’t try using pregnancy as an excuse. I know better than that.”
“I know.”
“You and Josh picked each other to be husband and wife. He has to deal with your family just like you do his.”
“My family? You guys are dead. What’s to deal with there?” Melanie complained.
“Except that your mother was a prominent neurosurgeon and successful restaurateur, and your father was President of the United States. He has to somehow live up to those standards. Plus, your only sibling lives right next door, also your best friend, and is someone you’re jealous of.”
“I guess I’m turning into an overbearing wife.”
“No you’re not. At least I hope you’re not. I wish we could talk more, but I have to go.”
“So soon? We can’t just sit for a while? The sun should be going down soon.”
“I’m trying to save some of my energy for tomorrow, Honey. I’ll see you then.”
“Promise?”
Instead of an answer, she felt the gentle touch of her mother’s hand on her cheek.
Sitting for a while longer, Melanie watched as the sun got low in the sky. When she heard footsteps behind her, she figured it was Josh, coming to take her home.
He sat next to her. “I thought I’d find you here.”
“Did Addie get home?” she asked.
“Yes. They’ve met.”
“What’s the carnage?”
“They’ll live. I think they’re tougher than what we give them credit for.” They sat quietly for a while. “Nice sunset.”
“Yep. Best one ever.”
“You say that every time we watch one.”
She took his hand to hold. “And they’re all the best ones ever.”
Chapter Fourteen
Melanie stayed in bed for as long as she could Friday morning, listening to the others in the kitchen. Thérèse played master of ceremonies, while Josh acted as referee between the match of wits that had developed between Dottie and Addie. When a glass broke and some replacement words for strong language were used, it was time to get up.
“Momma!”
“Morning,” she said to the group, going straight to the teakettle. “How’s your throat, little one?” Thérèse opened her mouth wide, Melanie using the kitchen flashlight to look inside. “Anything hurt in there?”
“No more.”
“I told you it would be easy, huh?” Melanie rubbed a smudge of jam off her daughter’s cheek before tossing the flashlight in the tool drawer.
“How are you, Melanie?” Dottie asked. “Any contractions?”
“Not till noon.”
“Three more hours,” Josh said. He began rubbing her neck from behind as she sat sipping her tea.
“Excited?” his mother asked.
“Thrilled, panicky, overwhelmed. Just like last time. But what makes me so nervous is how smoothly things are going this time. Last time was a mess, but today, all we have to do i drive in and g
et started,” Josh said.
“Easy for you to say. I’m the pregnant lady who has to push an elephant out her basement door.”
“Gonna make a elephant?” Thérèse asked.
“Just an expression,” Addie said quickly.
“After this one, you’ll be an old pro, Melanie,” Dottie said. “With the next one, you’ll know what to do every step of the way.”
Melanie gave her mother-in-law a stern look. “Pardon me?”
Josh bolted for the kitchen door, maybe realizing something was brewing.
“Where are you going?”
“I should shower.”
“You’ve had all morning to do that, and to get Thérèse ready to go out.”
“I…well…”
Melanie got up from the chair on her own and left her mug behind. “I’m taking a shower, and if anyone runs the hot water while I’m in there, heads will roll.”
Cassandra showed up while Melanie was in the shower, pretending to be a family friend rather than a Secret Service agent. After getting Thérèse washed and changed into clean clothes, Melanie traded places with Josh at the kitchen table, still taking sips of her tea. Once they were left alone, the agent handed over a report that Melanie began to scan.
“Not much of interest about the names you gave me,” Cassandra whispered. “I presume Addie is one of them?”
Melanie nodded. “It’s the son I’m more concerned about.”
“Does this have something to do with the recent deaths?”
“Her son, this guy…” She tapped her finger on the report she was reading. “…was the first.”
Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, Melanie shoved the intelligence report into a drawer.
“Time to go, Melanie,” Josh said, leading Thérèse along in front of him.
“We’re all going in the Escalade?” Cassandra asked.
“Mom’s going to drive my SUV. Apparently, Addie wants to go also.”
“Whatever,” Melanie said, going to the back door, an overnight bag in one hand and holding Thérèse’s hand with the other. She took her place in the back seat of Cassandra’s Escalade with Thérèse while Josh rode in the front for the short trip to the hospital.
“I’d think you’d be a little more cheerful, Melanie,” Josh said from the front seat.
“I’m okay. It’s just that my back is bothering me a little more than usual this morning.”
“Won’t the epidural help that?”
“For a few hours, anyway. I think the next time I have time off, I’ll have surgery on my back. That means our usual Christmas trip to Wyoming is cancelled this year.”
“I doubt anyone is heartbroken about that,” he said.
“Including your mom.”
“I sensed some tension in the house today,” Cassandra said.
“Two boarders too many,” Melanie muttered.
Just as they were going in the maternity entrance, Dottie and Addie parked and got out, still bickering over what sounded like nothing.
Melanie turned toward them. “Can the two of you give it a rest, please?”
Going through the lobby, Melanie saw the local newspaper. Enough of the front page showed that she could see what looked like ‘Mayor’ as part of the headline. She picked it up.
“Mayor Too Tough On Crime? What the heck is that supposed to mean?”
Josh took the newspaper away and tossed it down. “Not mayor today, Melanie.”
Once she registered, a wheelchair was brought for Melanie by a nurse.
“Where you go, Momma? Gonna make baby now?”
“Not yet, Sweetie. They’re just going to get me ready. It’ll be an hour or so before anything happens. But we’ll see each other before then. You be a good girl and mind your daddy. In fact, why don’t you take him and Grandmother to the cafeteria for something to eat? And Addie can go with you.”
“And Caffander, too?”
“I think she wants to stay here for a while.”
With that, Melanie was whisked away to a delivery room.
“Melanie Kato, no known allergies, due to be induced at noon today by Doctor Chapman. Is that correct?” the nurse confirmed while Melanie changed into a hospital gown.
“That’s the plan.”
Just as Melanie was settling into her bed that would eventually be altered into the delivery bed, Dr. Chapman showed up.
“Well, look who decided to have her baby in the hospital this time.”
“Ha ha.”
“Everything is okay?” Dr. Chapman asked while applying the fetal heart monitor.
“With the baby? Perfect. Having some spasms in one leg, but the epidural should take care of that. But this is only a sideshow to the rest of the circus. The main event is out in the waiting room.”
“Since I have you as a captive audience, let me ask how you like being mayor?” Dr. Chapman asked.
“It’s everything I always thought it would be, and more.”
“I always thought your mother would’ve been a good mayor,” the nurse said, saying she wanted to be called Nurse Ito. She was small, Japanese descent like so many people in the islands, and well into her senior citizen years.
“Did you know my mother?”
“I was just out of nurses training when she started working here at the hospital. I was working in the OR back then. No longer. Too busy there. All I want these days is to see the new babies as they come into the world.”
The nurse started an IV in Melanie’s wrist, Melanie watching closely. “Seems like it would be more fun, on good days.”
“This place was so small back then, just the one building. Once they had her here, they were able to attract so many other highly qualified doctors from the mainland and Honolulu. She didn’t take to hospital administrators, though.”
“Sort of a Kato family trait, to question authority.”
“For what she did for this hospital in those early years, and how she built that little restaurant into the nice place it became, she had every right to.”
“Well, I wish she could be here today,” Melanie said.
Chapman finished her exam. “Everything is on track. Your vitals are okay, not great. The baby is in position, head down. Once Doctor Everingham is here, you can get your epidural, and then I’ll start the induction. As soon as the Oxytocin goes in, we’ll watch for the first contractions, and then I’ll rupture your water. It’ll be only a few minutes after that when you’ll be a mother all over again. Is Josh ready to be coach?”
“He’s pretty nervous. He might need some prompting from you guys to keep him on track.”
“He’ll be fine.”
Nurse Ito went out to get Josh changed into hospital scrubs. When she came back in, she had a full report on the waiting room.
“You sure have a lot of people waiting, Melanie.”
“Who’s out there?”
“Your husband, daughter, mother-in-law, a lady named Addie, another named Cassandra, a policeman named Nakatani, and a couple named Duane and Lailanie. There are also three reporters waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“To get all the details of our mayor’s new arrival!”
Trinh came in, wearing her usual surgical garb for work. “Wow, Mel. You have quite the entourage out there. It’s like the gallery in those golf matches I see on TV.”
“Well, just prop open the door and let them watch me tee one up.”
Trinh laughed. “Maybe a little later. Looks like you still have a few things to do, so I’ll get a bite to eat.”
“Are you in a room in the OR today?”
“No, the manager assigned me to float between rooms today. She’s letting me hang around here for the rest of my shift,” Trinh said on her way to the door. “I’ll be back.”
Dr. Everingham showed up, an anesthesiologist Melanie often worked with in the OR. He went through his cursory exam before having her sit up on the side of the bed, his epidural kit on a table next to him.
“Okay
,” he said, feeling her back. “Okay.”
When he found the sorest spot along her spine, she twitched.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a bad disc at L-4. Maybe one disc above and below, also.”
“I’ll have to go one level above, if that’s okay with you?”
“Whatever works,” she said, trying to arch her back out toward him. When she winced with pain, Chapman stepped over.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just my back. My leg has gone to sleep again but I’m still getting spasms in it.”
“Is it on the same side as your old injury?” Chapman asked.
“Yeah,” Melanie said, trying to rub life back into her thigh. “I knew that would come back to haunt me.”
“What happened?” Everingham asked, as he continued to gently grope Melanie’s back for a new site to insert the epidural.
“I was shot in the rear end a long time ago. I needed several surgeries to get my sciatic nerve on that same side back together, along with some reconstructive work on the muscles.” She winced again. “What are you doing?”
“I haven’t even started,” Everingham said.
“Whatever you’re doing is making it worse.”
“Okay, that’s it,” the anesthesiologist said, taking his kit away. “No epidural.”
“What? Why not?”
“If you already have spinal nerve root problems, I don’t want to exacerbate them by doing an epidural that might not even work.”
“I have to do this natural?”
“You did last time,” Dr. Chapman said. “But you know he’s right. It would be too much risk to your spine. There’s no reason to think the induction and delivery won’t go smoothly.”
“Want to ask one of my partners to come for a second opinion?” Everingham asked. “Or do a pudendal block?”
“Never mind. Let’s get this show on the road,” Melanie said, just as a contraction hit.
Dr. Chapman got her things ready and Nurse Ito stood by while the Oxytocin was injected. Contractions were already hitting in full force, even as the labor induction drug was going in, and her water broke on its own. The nurse got the stirrups in position and put the head of the bed back a little.
“You better get Josh in here, because this is happening pretty dang fast,” Melanie said while panting through more contractions.