Ready Or Not, Here I Come!

 

painting by Joanquin Sorolla

 

I was just pouring the boiling water off the potatoes when I started feeling something odd. I set the pan back on the stove and sat down on a chair next to the table. It wasn’t like pain. It was like a gripping sensation.

Lou looked at me curiously. “What are you doing?”

I said, “I’m not really sure Lou. But I think it might be time.”

“Time for what? This chicken isn’t done. What are you on about….oh!!”

She finally seemed to grasp that I wasn’t talking about dinner. She put her hands on both of her cheeks and looked at me with her mouth hanging open, but no sound coming out.

“Lou, will you go out to the yard and get Doug quietly? Tell him I need a word with him. Try not to act excited.” She strolled out of the back door exhibiting her theatrical manner of looking calm. I saw her walk up to Doug and have a short conversation with him.

Elvin looked at me and I looked at him. He said, “let me know when and I will go get Ellen.”

“Thanks Elvin. You are always right on point aren’t you?” I squirmed a little on my wooden kitchen chair. I shut my eyes. When I opened them, Doug was standing there with Lou just behind him.

“Do you think it’s now Jen?” Doug looked serious and a little wary. I was a little sorry for him. He had never been through anything like this any more than I had.

I felt that grip again. I put my hands on my knees and shut my eyes. When it loosened, I said, “I think so Doug.” “Ok baby,” he said to me with his eyes wide and dark.

In that relaxed moment I said, “Elvin says he will go get Ellen if she is home.” I sure hoped she was home. I had no idea how long this might take. We were all beginners here.

Roops stepped into the kitchen to see what was happening. He got the picture quickly. “Is there anything at all I can do here kids,” he said softly.

I said, “yes. Will you hang around tonight and kind of keep a lid on things around here while Doug and I are busy?

“Can you finish setting up dinner with Lou? If you could just take that off my mind I would be thankful. I won’t need to eat, but you guys will.”

Roops said, “sure. Easy. Don’t give it another thought! I’m a cooking fool!”

I spend another minute inside my mind, waiting for the tightening to pass.

Elvin went outdoors. He left immediately, riding his bike.

Doug said, “maybe while it’s quiet we should move you in to the bed?”

“I’m not sure. I guess so. I don’t want to make a big mess, you know?” I stood up. That was interesting. It brought on another cramp.

“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “I’ll fix you up a nice nest that will be ok.” And he did just that, quickly.

With Lou on my left arm, and Doug’s arm around my waist from the right side I slowly moved into my parents’ bedroom. I thought of my mother then. I missed her terribly and I wanted her then. I looked at their bed and saw that it was stripped of most bedding and that Doug had made it waterproof.

I sat down on the side of the bed facing the doorway. We waited through another spell of tightening in my belly. I didn’t feel like lying down. I felt like staying upright and active. Doug sat beside me and didn’t talk. I felt some impatience growing. I felt almost irritable.

I wanted Ellen. I was thirsty. Doug got me some water. I told Lou to go see if she could help Roops in the kitchen. Time passed. Maybe an hour. I was having longer cramps and they were getting closer together.

I said to Doug “will you bring me that basket of the baby’s clothes. I just want to look at them for a minute?” He brought them to me. I looked at them for a moment and then asked him to put them back. I was getting deeper and deeper into this experience. I felt restless. My back began aching. I had a cramp in one of my legs. Doug rubbed it out.

I thought about the child. I had been feeling him or her moving quite a lot until just recently. He still moved but not as much. I thought that he or she was getting too big to roll around so much as before.

I said, “Doug, pray for me and this baby, will you?” He did. He kept his hands on me because I felt it calming.

There was some new activity in the kitchen. I could hear Elvin and Ellen talking to Lou and Roops. I felt like it was all a bit dreamy. Time was passing quickly. That’s the way it seemed to me anyhow.

Ellen came into the bedroom with her special blue backpack full of her medical gear. She laid it on the dresser. Then she sat beside me and said, “Hi Jen. So! Now is the day, is it? Looking at you, it seems to be. I think you will have a quick labor. Let’s have a look, shall we?” I nodded and lay back. Doug picked up my legs and swung them around, so I was straight with the bed.

Ellen said to Doug, “why don’t you take a little break and eat, then come back to us?” He winked gratuitously at me and strolled out.

Ellen said I was nearly ready. I was so glad she was here. The drowsiness was leaving me. I felt a sort of muscular intensity that is hard to explain. I was wide awake now and maybe a little cranky, but Ellen had seen this all before and didn’t take it seriously. I told Doug to go drink coffee for a few minutes, or whatever! He left obediently.

So, if you have given birth, you know. If you have not, I can’t really explain it to you. People can try to help. They can do all that is in their power to support you, but it is you and God on that table or in that bed or in that field or wherever it happens. Bargains are made, promises kept. Thanks are returned. This is how life continues.

Doug came back in time to meet his son, before even I saw him. Ellen laid the boy in Doug’s hands where he was holding a big bath towel. He waited for a few minutes while she dealt with the cord.

He brought our towel wrapped still messy son to me and put him in my arms. I thought he was huge. He was noisy. He cried loudly. Ellen said that was good. It meant he was healthy, and everything was working right. He had deep blue eyes and a lot of dark hair.

I looked at his father and said, “what is your son’s name, Doug Simpson?”

He looked at me with his mouth open and finally said, “Gabriel Arnold Simpson,” almost in spite of himself.

I laughed for sheer joy and said, “Gabriel it is! So be it!”

Ellen had me all fixed up and in blankets. Gabriel was lying in the crook of my left arm, fussing around a bit. It seemed like a good time for a family meeting, so Doug called them all in.

Lou got into bed with me and kept her eyes on the baby. Roops stood grinning at the whole scene, looking benevolent. Elvin stood back but looked pleased. Doug looked beyond goofy and happy. His dark hair, long again, hung in his eyes a bit. He smiled brilliantly; he was so beautiful to me right then.

Ellen was gathering her supplies and packing up. She had brushed my hair and washed my face for me.

Even OZ came to take a look and reminded Doug that he would obey him! That settled he went back to the kitchen and his special chair to be quiet for a while. I could hear him out there talking his weird almost English to himself.

As I looked around the room at the people gathered there, I noticed a now familiar point of light up in a corner by the ceiling. It settled down at about eye level and grew to something like beachball size. It shone with a soft, slightly peach toned, pearlescent light. Obscure patterns almost like written words moved over the surface. Rays of gentle light touched all of us adults and Gabriel too. Peace like a river filled the room.

A soft voice from no direction spoke then.

“Gabriel will be our special care. The Lord, All Being has looked upon him and is pleased. He is to be greatly blessed today and, in all the days to come. His name was given to you as a gift.”

As we all looked on the Light moved out of our realm of seeing and left us there together.

I took Ellen’s hands in mine and thanked her. She smiled and said she had only seen one of these Lights once before, the time one had appeared to her and said she would be needed by us.

I had prepared a gift for her of my mother’s best jewelry, real gold and gems, a necklace, and a ring. They were wrapped in a small wooden box and a nice silk scarf. I hoped that they would be of some value to her. She accepted gracefully.

Elvin walked her back home to her husband and home and came back home to us. Roops settled down in the living room on my dad’s recliner, having decided to walk home in the morning. Elvin took his usual spot on the sofa.

Lou stayed in bed with me until she got too sleepy and went upstairs. Doug lay and just watched Gabriel.

I couldn’t sleep. I was just too happy.

It was the best night ever.

Link to all: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx