LIZ
“Can you pass this bottle to Craw?” I asked John. He reached for it and butterflies started jumping in my stomach as I watched the muscles in his arm twitch with the smallest move he made. I suppressed a sigh of frustration for the fact that I wasn’t home now, enjoying my boyfriend in all the ways I had imagined while he was away.
He saw my lustful expression and pulled me close. He was about to kiss me when we heard a cry from somewhere inside the house.
“What was that?” I asked, looking at the old man.
“That’ll be my daughter.”
“And no one is doing anything?” I was revolted.
“Calm down, Liz. She’s just having her early contractions and doesn't know what she’s gotten herself into.”
“I was wondering where Anne-Marie was. She didn’t come out to the barbeque,” John started, then realized what the boss had just said. “Wait, contractions? You mean, like pregnant contractions?”
“Yes, dummy!” I replied and stood up from my folding chair. “I’m going to check up on her.”
“Wait! Are we talking about little Anne-Marie? Like, she’s a little girl,” John demanded answers.
Giggling. “No, dummy. She’s 17 now. And pregnant.”
“Be my guest, go see her, but, I’m telling you, it’s nothing to worry about. You know she’s been having these damn contractions for a while. The doctors said it’s fine, she won’t give birth. Her mama's taking care of that.”
I rolled my eyes at the ignorance of men and left them to their devices. I had to see to this girl, she wasn’t really the brightest.
Reaching the screen door after a healthy sprint, I was again assured that I hated her. Why could she have a baby, when she didn’t even want one, while I had to ponder how to bring the issue to John. I mean, after five years away I figured the last thing on his mind would have been a baby. I could’ve cried out of frustration.
As I got further inside the house, the moans and cries got louder. I followed them into the old man’s room, where Anne-Marie was rolling around on the bed, cursing the unborn baby.
Her mother, Chrissy, was trying to calm her down without damaging her freshly painted nails in the process.
“Come on, baby, relax now. You know it isn’t happening now. Just breathe.” Then, she proceeded to demonstrate the TV interpretation of Lamaze breathing.
“What are you doing?” I asked, dumbfounded. I looked at the pool of liquid soaking the sheets and couldn't believe my eyes. “Don’t you see her water broke?”
“Oh, no, honey, it didn’t. She told me she peed herself.”
“I need some sheets or towels or anything you can give me. Just, go.”
“Stupid girl, why did you tell me you peed when your water broke?” she started scolding.
“Go!”
After pushing Chrissy out the door, I went to the bed. “Come on, girl, stay still and talk to me. I need to call 911, you tell me when your water broke, OK?”
“!”
“What?”
“I don’t want no hospitals. Someone told me they put things in your blood.”
“That’s what they’re supposed … Oh, for fuck’s sake! Fine. Open your legs.”
“No!”
“Annie, you aren’t giving birth with your legs closed, you dumb girl.”
“I don’t want to!”
“Do you want to get this baby out of you?” She nodded, her bloodshot eyes fixated on me. “Then open your damn legs and next time use birth control!”
She finally conceded and allowed me to position myself between her legs. My hands were shaking and I could barely keep the barbeque down.
“OK,” I told myself. “I’ve read about this, I know what to do. I deliver the baby, then put it in her arms and call an ambulance. OK, Liz, you can do this.”
“Girl, breathe. Let the contractions do their thing, you don’t need to do anything.”
“I need to push, how am I going to give birth if I don’t?”
“Fine, push, but it won’t change anything. Just keep it with the contractions, OK. Your body is pushing by itself, just listen to your body.”
She nodded, breathing loudly, and started syncing her pushing with the contractions. It happened instinctively, as nature took its course to bring a new life into the world.
“Good job, Annie. Good girl.”
I was starting to see the baby and it made me even queasier. “Oh, God,” I whispered, praying that this thing would be over soon.
There was a commotion at the door before it burst open and the gang leader came in shouting.
“Who did this to you? Who’s the bastard that doesn’t want to know about his baby? Don’t protect him, Annie! I’ll find out and destroy him.”
“I don’t know, daddy. I told you!” she screamed in between contractions.
“Shut up, both of you! Get out!”
“You listen to me, Lizzy...!”
“Get out, now! And send Chrissy in with those towels. I ain’t gonna say it twice, old man.”
He backed away, fuming with anger and half threw his wife in the room.
“Are these good?” she mumbled, giving me some bedsheets.
“These’ll do.”
And as if all the baby was waiting for was for us to stop staring at him as he came out, when I turned my attention back at Anne-Marie, the baby was almost half out.
“Oh, my God,” I said and hurried on my knees. I managed to catch the baby in time and it landed on the mangled sheets Chrissy had just given me. In the next second, the room was filled with tiny cries that changed something inside me.
I held the baby close, as tears sprang to my eyes. I was certain now, despite everything I had witnessed today, I wanted one of these. I wanted one of my own.
I wiped my eyes and rose to my feet.
“Here you go, Annie. You have a beautiful baby boy,” I whispered.
Her demeanor had changed. Instead of the rude attitude from before, she had gotten mellow and beautifully calming. She welcomed her son with a warm smile, unable to utter any word.
I understood, I was speechless myself.
I hadn’t noticed when the room had filled with people. Gone was the old man’s anger of Chrissy’s air headedness. All shared the same feeling, pure awe at the sight of this wonder of life.
Someone wrapped their arm around my shoulders as John’s scent invaded my nostrils. I leaned my cheek on his chest, unable to stop a sigh.
“How are you doing, baby?” he asked me quietly.
“I’m good. Really good. And I want a baby too.”
“Are you sure?” he asked me, then kissed the top of my head.
“Yes.”
“Then, let’s go home and put a baby in that tummy. What do you say?”
His reaction surprised me. I wasn’t expecting him to agree so fast.
“Are you sure?” was my turn to ask.
“Yes, baby. I love you, you’re the woman of my dreams. You’re the only one that’ll become the mother of my children and if you want it now, then so be it.”
He had made me cry so many times before, but this was one of the few occasions my tears were ones of joy. He still bent down to kiss them away, as he always did, no matter if I was suffering or laughing.