“It’s going to be okay, Charleigh,” Madie said, breaking into the young woman’s thoughts. Blinking, she didn’t realize that her gaze had shifted from the magazine to the tarmac.
“I have to believe you’re right.” Thinking about worst case scenarios was not an option. She would not let her mind drift over to the dark side.
At the same time, Charleigh saw her grandparents’ plane land. It rolled to a stop in from of her vehicle. Usually, she got out to greet them but stayed put this time. The door opened, and Mell appeared in the opening a few moments. Her eyes lit up instantly at the sight of her granddaughter through the windshield of the massive SUV, and she began waving madly. Charleigh smiled and waved back.
“Aw, let me look at you,” Mellisande exclaimed as she rushed over to pull Charleigh’s car door open.
“Nan, I haven’t changed all that much,” the young woman laughed as she twisted around in her seat.
In Mellisande’s opinion, she had. Charleigh’s hair was longer. Shinier. Her skin held a radiance that went far beyond the glow of a pregnant woman. Charleigh looked healthier. And it wasn’t just because of the weight she had put on. She looked well-rested. Content. And the old woman told her so.
“Well, you’d look the same way if you were bedridden,” Charleigh said. “All I do is sleep. Watch television. I read a couple of books in the last week.”
“It’s done you a lot of good, doll,” her Nana replied, pleased. She leaned around her granddaughter to see the driver. “Hello, Madie.”
“It’s nice to see you again, Mell,” she greeted her friend with a smile.
“Where’s Pop?” Charleigh asked, looking back toward the plane’s open door.
“Oh, he and Kurt are gathering up all of the luggage. And we brought a few things for you and the babies.”
“I’ve got everything these babies could ever need or want.”
“Yes, but it never hurts to have a little extra,” Mellisande told her granddaughter, with a pat on the leg just as Grant started down the steps. His arms were both loaded down with bags and packages.
“Hey, there, Cowgirl,” he called with a smile. “Where do you want all this stuff?”
“We can put it in back with the wheelchair,” Madie spoke up. She opened her car door and got out to help Grant.
“Wheelchair?” Mellisande asked bewildered.
“It’s just to keep me off my feet. Lenore’s idea,” Charleigh explained, trying to calm her grandmother.
***
Madie parked the Tahoe in the back parking lot of the medical complex because it was closest to the outpatient lab. This was where Charleigh was going to have her ultrasound before heading up to see Doctor Emerson. All of soon-to-be great-grandparents were going to join her in the exam room for the video portion of today’s events. She didn’t want anybody in the room while Doctor Emerson examined her, though. It was bad enough that he had to be messing around down there, with a nurse to supervise the procedure. It would be even more embarrassing if there was more than one audience member.
Grant wheeled Charleigh up to the receptionist’s window and locked the brakes. There was a chair a few feet away, and he sat down.
“Hi, I’m Charleigh Randall. I have an ultrasound scheduled for 2:30,” she told the woman on the other side of the plate-glass.
“Okay, just one second,” the receptionist began tapping away at the keyboard.
For a few minutes, she continued this. Charleigh thought she looked a little nervous. Maybe even a little agitated, for some reason.
“Sorry, just a couple more minutes.” She smiled, looking over at Charleigh, and then quickly turning her gaze back to the computer.
Charleigh gauged the woman’s age to be between twenty-five or thirty. Flawless, porcelain skin. Her eyes were the color of sapphires, and her hair that was pulled halfway up was black as a crow’s wings. There were rainbows on her scrubs top.
“Hon, will you spell your first name for me?” She finally asked, embarrassed.
“Charleigh, C-h-a-r-l-e-i-g-h,” Charleigh spoke slowly.
After a moment, the receptionist’s eyes lit up. She looked over at Charleigh, more than slightly embarrassed. “Sorry, I thought it was l-i-e or l-e-e.”
“It’s fine. You probably haven’t ever met a girl named Charleigh before. It’s not a common name.”
“Can I see your driver’s license, please?” Charleigh took her wallet out of her purse and handed her ID to the woman, who promptly put it on the copy machine. She handed it back to Charleigh. “And your insurance card?”
“Oh, this is private pay,” Charleigh explained.
“Okay, then.” Pushing her chair backwards, the woman took a few papers that just came out of the printer. She took a highlighter and marked a couple different places. “Sign these for me?”
Charleigh did so, pushed the papers back, and then sat back in the wheelchair.
“Thank you. They’ll come get you in just a few minutes.”
“I can't tell a hand from a foot there,” Grant joked.
“They seem to be holding hands,” the tech said, smiling as she pointed the two little hands out on the screen. “And this one has his thumb in his mouth.”
Charleigh did a bit of smiling herself. Her face radiated with joy. She loved the two tiny beings with all her heart. It was an amazing thing, Charleigh thought to herself, to love someone so much when she hadn’t even met them yet.
“I just need to take a few measurements and then we'll be finished,” the tech told Charleigh and then turned back to the machine.
Quietly, the woman, who was no older than Charleigh, tapped buttons and fiddled with a round ball that acted like a mouse. Occasionally, she would reposition the handheld tool on Charleigh’s stomach.
“Can you tell if the placenta had grown away from my cervix?” Charleigh asked cautiously. She’d asked the question, but she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know the answer.
“I’m not allowed to,” the tech said, looking over at the chart. “Doctor Emerson is your Ob-gyn. He’ll have to review the film and then tell you the results.”
***
“I don’t need to put a couple of those awful paper gowns on?”
“Not right now,” Celia told Charleigh, standing in the opened doorway. “Doc is looking over your ultrasound right now. I’ll come back and let you know.”
“Okay,” Charleigh replied with a nod.
After the door was closed, she laid back on the table and looked at the ceiling. This was a different exam room than she usually went to, and so she wanted to see what kinds of posters were up there.
There was of a cartoon man and woman. Apparently she was in labor, because there was a gigantic quote bubble with all kinds of different symbols. She was supposed to be cussing her husband out. How funny is that? Charleigh couldn’t help laughing.
She’d probably being doing the same exact thing to Jamie if he was there for the births of their twins.
“But he’s not going to be there,” she thought out loud this time.
And who would be there with her? Charleigh hadn’t really put much thought into it. Nobody had brought the subject up to her, either. What if she had to go through the labor and delivery by herself?
There was a knock on the door, and Doctor Emerson came in.
“Hello, Charleigh,” he said solemnly.
“Hey, Doc. What’s with the look?” Bad news. “Give it to me straight, then.”
“Okay. The previa hasn’t cleared up.” He shook his head.
Charleigh thought that statement made it sound like she had a rash.
“I know it’s only been a couple weeks, but I’m going to lay everything out on the table for you,” Doctor Emerson spoke matter-of-factly. He had been a friend of her father. He’d known Charleigh all her life, but he couldn’t let the personal part of their relationship interfere with the professional. “Right now, you’re about thirty-two weeks along, give or take a few days. There’s a pos
sibility that you won’t see any more bleeding between now and the end of your term. There’s also the possibility that you will.
“You’re not going to be able to deliver naturally, because even if the placenta is only partly blocking the cervix, dilation could cause a lot of bleeding during delivery and even after, Charleigh. So I want to set up a C-section around week thirty-seven.”
“Okay,” Charleigh nodded.
“Once the babies are delivered safely, then we’ll give you a dose of Pitocin, which will cause your uterus to contract. That way, the bleeding should stop.”
“But if it doesn’t?”
He took a deep breath. “If it doesn’t, you may have to have a hysterectomy.”
“A hysterectomy?” Charleigh repeated as a question.
“Yes.”
She looked up at Doctor Emerson, still trying to take all of the information in. Looking at his face, his eyes, the way his shoulders slumped, and he wrung his hands, Charleigh figured she was taking the news quite a bit better than he was. There was only one thing that they could do, Charleigh knew. Wait and see. Well, actually, that was two things.
But still, they had about five more weeks before they would have to do a C-section. The placenta could still shift as her uterus grows. The babies still had a lot of growing to do. She was going to keep doing everything Doctor Emerson told her to do. And she would pray. Everything would be fine. It had to be.
“We’ll do whatever we have to do, Doc,” Charleigh told him. “No matter what, it’s going to be okay.”
Chapter Forty-seven
It was a nice day for a picnic, Charleigh had to admit. She just wasn’t in the mood for one, though. But because her Nana and Pop were only going to be in town for just a little while longer and that was where they were going once church was over, she supposed she should go spend as much time with her grandparents as she could. Besides, Grant was driving, and she had to go in whichever direction he pointed the wheel.
After Pastor Wilkerson finished his sermon, Charleigh sat on her scooter at the bottom of the wheelchair ramp and waited for her grandparents to exit the church. Mellisande was such a social butterfly; she liked everybody. Had probably never met a stranger, Charleigh assumed of her Nana.
“Hey, Charleigh,” Gavin called, coming over to her. He smiled. “How ya feeling?”
“Hi. Pretty good, actually.” she smiled back and fanned out her arms in the same way that Vanna White and the Barker’s beauties introduced a new prize. “How do you like my new wheels?”
“Swanky,” Gavin laughed. “Are you coming out to Gram’s ranch for lunch?”
“Yeah, just as soon as Nana gets out here,” Charleigh said just as old Mrs. Mason cruised by on her own Hover Round. Overhearing the conversation, she gave Charleigh a displeased look. “Hey, Missus Mason. Whenever you want to race, just let me know.”
The comment was met only by a head shake.
“What’s with her?” Gavin asked, trying to sustain a laugh. It came out in a snort.
“She thinks I’ve crossed over to the dark side, just like all the rest of those holy rollers,” Charleigh replied with a shrug. Others opinion of her didn’t bother her anymore. “She’s probably waiting around the corner to douse me with Holy water or use a crucifix on me. Something. Whatever happened to it not being Christian to judge others, and leaving it up to the Father?”
“Beats me.” Linda, holding Breah, called to her son from the parking lot. “So, I’ll see you at Gram’s,” Gavin said and walked toward his mother and daughter.
“Bye,” Charleigh called after him, and waved to Linda.
The woman smiled at Charleigh, whispered something to the little girl, and they both waved back. Once Gavin reached the car, he took his daughter and turned to put her in the car seat.
After looking at her watch, Charleigh turned and looked back toward the front doors of the church just in time to see Grant and Mellisande walk out. Her grandmother was wearing a lavender-colored dress, with a floral scarf draped over her shoulders. She immediately smiled, seeing Charleigh, as they came toward the ramp.
“Are you ready to go, cowgirl?” Grant asked when they reached the bottom.
“Yeah, I’ve been sitting out here, enjoying the smell of exhaust fumes and having dust thrown all over me,” she replied, and winked at her Pop. “You can go back in for a little while longer if you like. I’ll just be right here.”
“Well, I was meaning to ask Gloria about her mother’s gallbladder surgery.” She looked from her husband to her granddaughter, shrugged a shoulder. “Oh, I’ll ask her this evening. Besides, we should head out to Madie’s for the picnic. I am famished.”
The early spring breeze tousled Charleigh’s hair as they sat in Madie’s backyard, enjoying the lively conversation, and Chris’s barbecued ribs. Lordy, Charleigh loved Chris Matthews’s ribs. It was like nothing she’d ever tasted before. The homemade barbecue sauce made her mouth water with anticipation, just thinking about it. It was a special recipe that Chris himself had come up with. It had just the amount of sweetness and spiciness. Charleigh had even offered to buy and bottle the stuff, but even though her Uncle Josh’s best friend said that he would keep the recipe a secret, he promised to bring her very own bottle of the delicious concoction.
After a while, the food had been devoured. There was little to nothing left. All of the kids seemed to amble in several different directions. A few were playing softball in the pasture.
Sitting at the table across from Madie as she told a hilarious story, Charleigh only listened half-heartedly as she picked at the desserts on her plate. She was full of food and was starting to feel sleepy. Carrying around thirty-five extra pounds and two other people, no matter how tiny they may be, was exhausting.
“Charleigh?” Madie said from where she sat across the table. With heavy eyes, it took all Charleigh had just to raise her head and look at the old woman. “Why don’t you go lie down for a while? I bet you could use a nap,”
The mere mention of sleep made Charleigh yawn. She nodded. It sounded like an excellent idea.
Cordell stood up, helping Charleigh free herself from the picnic table. She smiled at him and headed for the backdoor.
She had thought about lying down in the den, but people would be streaming in and out. What Charleigh really needed was quiet, so she decided to go up to Jamie’s old bedroom.
Taking the backstairs one at a time, Charleigh made her way up to the second floor. Here lately, if felt as if one of the babies’ heads, or maybe even both, were resting right on the other side of that crotch bone, whatever it was called. Charleigh’s brain was so boggled at the moment, she couldn’t even think straight.
Opening the door, she was met by the smell of stale air. Charleigh wondered if the room had even been opened since Jamie died. The bed was made with the same hand stitched quilt and the blue and white striped sheets, as always.
It occurred to Charleigh that nobody had probably slept in it since Jamie moved in with her. She went over to the far side of the bed, the one that faced the window, and sat down. The memory of that morning when she came to tell Jamie that she’d accepted his proposal filled Charleigh’s mind as if she were still standing in that doorway and watching him sleep. It seemed like so long ago. Years. But Charleigh could still remember how sexy he’d looked sleeping there. She closed her eyes and lay back on the bed.
***
Lying in the quiet, Charleigh had the sensation--- the warmth and closeness, the pressure --- of someone lying there next to her, with their arms holding her close. Maybe it was just Charleigh’s imagination. Her subconscious. A memory of the last time she had lain in this bed with Jamie.
Or maybe it was something else. Something from beyond the world of the living. Could Jamie’s spirit really be there, holding her at that moment?
Charleigh breathed deeply and snuggled closer into the pillow as she exhaled. She could almost swear she felt Jamie nuzzle the back of her ear with his nose, the way he
always used to.
It was only when the sound of squeaky hinges startled Charleigh that she realized that she'd fallen asleep. She propped her head up on one arm and looked towards the person who peeked in through the cracked doorway.
“I didn't mean to wake you,” Gavin whispered, coming into the room. “Gram just wanted me to come and check on you.” He sat down on the foot of the bed.
How long had she been asleep? Peeved that she’d been woke up, Charleigh groaned and wiped the sleep from her eyes. She didn't speak, just laid her head back down on the pillow and stared at the ceiling.
“Aunt Lenore mentioned that Cordell has stayed a few nights with you since Doctor Emerson put you on bed rest. If you ever want me to come and stay, just give me a call.”
“Nana and Pop are here to stay until a few days after Easter, but thanks for the offer,” Charleigh said a little more tartly than she intended.
“Well, you don't have to be so grumpy. I was just saying that I’m here to help,” he snapped back.
“And I was just stating a fact that I wouldn’t be needing anybody to stay with me for another week or so.”
“Ok, then.” He nodded. After a moment, Gavin asked, “What happened with me and you?”
Another groan escaped Charleigh’s throat. Not this again. “Do we really need to rehash the past? Can't we just say that it didn't work and leave it at that?”
“But I’d like to feel like I didn't let you down in some way.”
What was it about his affair with her cousin that Gavin had to justify? Charleigh wondered if it was more about relieving his guilt than actually having her forgive him. She had just let it go, being the one whom had been cheated on in the first place. So, why couldn’t Gavin? It was frustrating when he wouldn’t drop the subject and chalk it up as a mistake.
“I’m fine, Gavin,” Charleigh told him, a little aggravated.
“I just want to get back to where we used to be, Char.”
You're Gone (Finding Solid Ground) Page 35