by Miley Maine
I couldn’t wait for us to be a family.
As I drove the pontoon boat into a shady cove, a pleasant breeze floated over us.
“This is so different from Lake Michigan,” Ava said. “Sometimes it’s like an ocean there. And it’s so cold this early in the spring.”
As we cruised along the lakefront, my mother turned suddenly to Ava. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked.
I looked over where Ava was wincing and holding her back. “My back aches.”
“Is it a sharp pain? Or a dull one?” my mother asked.
“It’s been dull for days. This is sharper.”
She hadn’t mentioned her back hurting, not even once.
My mother tapped the boat steering wheel with her hand. “Tyler, take the boat back in.”
Shit. “Are you in labor?” I looked at my mother. “Is she in labor?”
“I’m a teacher, not a nurse or a doctor,” my mother said. “But I’ve had two kids, and the way she’s wincing and moving around sure does look like early labor to me.”
Oh hell. Why had I rented a boat? Why had I taken us on vacation? I was not going to let Ava see that I was rattled. I turned the boat around. “I’ll have us back to land in no time,” I said, hoping I was reassuring.
Abigail went to sit beside Ava. “What can I do?” she asked.
My mother went to sit on the other side of them. “Is it okay if she rubs your back?”
“Yes.” Ava nodded rapidly. “That’s fine. I’ll take any suggestions.”
“Are the pains getting sharper?” Abigail asked. She rubbed Ava’s back with big, sweeping motions with both hands, and talked to her stomach the entire time, saying things like, “hi baby Susan Abigail Whittaker, we can’t wait to meet you.”
On our last visit, we’d found out the baby was a girl. Ava had insisted on naming her Susan, after my mother, and Abigail after my sister.
“I’m going to start timing the contractions,” my mother said.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter and stared at the bank of the lake in the distance. We were still a few miles away from the land. I pushed the speed a little faster. I had to be careful; if I pushed the speed level too far, then the boat ride would be bumpy. The last thing I wanted was for her to deliver the baby out here on the lake.
Ava cried out, and my mother looked up from her phone where she was looking at the stopwatch app. “Your contractions are five minutes apart.”
She panted. “That means I’m in labor, right?”
“Yes. That means we need to head straight to the hospital.”
“But my doctor’s not here. I don’t even have a bag packed!”
My mom patted her cheek. “This baby is on her way. She’s going to be born in Branson, not Pine Hills.”
I gritted my teeth as Ava cried out again. She was suffering, but there was no one for me to tackle. There was no one for me to blame.
After fifteen minutes that seemed like fifteen hours, I got the boat back to the marina and got it docked. I helped Ava step off the boat, but we had to stop every few minutes so she could bend over at the waist and pant.
She gripped my forearm each time, and I did my best to support her.
Getting her into my truck was torture for her. I had to lift her into the seating area, and fasten her seatbelt for her. While I drove, my mother took over the navigation to the hospital, while my sister continued to try and rub Ava’s back from the backseat.
I don’t know how much it helped, but hopefully it eased her pain a little bit. Eventually, we made it to the entrance to the Emergency Room. I left the truck parked at an angle, and lifted Ava out, carrying her straight to the triage area.
Everything was a blur after that. The good news was that Ava was fairly far along in her labor by the time we got to the hospital, that she only had to wait an hour before we met our daughter.
She was seven pounds and four ounces, and she looked exactly like her mother.
When the doctor handed her to me, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She cried for a minute, and then made an adorable sighing sound.
I perched by Ava on the edge of the bed. “Look, Susan, there’s your mommy.”
“Hey sweetheart,” Ava said, brushing her hand over the baby’s soft forehead. At the sound of Ava’s voice, Susan blinked and stretched her arms out.
“She’s perfect,” Ava said.
I leaned over to kiss my wife, just as my mother and sister walked into the room.
“Come meet your granddaughter and your niece,” Ava said.
I leaned over and kissed Ava on the cheek. “Congratulations,” I said as she smiled up at me. “You were amazing, as usual.” She had given me more than I could have imagined -- a family.
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