A tree grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith [119]
The family couldn’t speak much English and Sissy knew no Italian but as the months passed, they learned some English from her and she learned Italian from them and they were able to talk together. Sissy never told her name so they called her “Statch’ Lib’ty” after the lady with the torch which had been the first thing they saw of America.
Sissy took over Lucia, her unborn child and the family. When everything was settled and agreed upon, Sissy announced to her friends and family that she was starting another baby. No one paid any attention. Sissy was always starting babies.
She found an obscure midwife and paid her in advance for the delivery. She gave her a paper on which she had asked Katie to write her name, her John’s name and Sissy’s maiden name. She told the midwife that the paper was to be turned over to the Board of Health immediately after the birth. The ignorant woman, who could not speak Italian (Sissy had made sure of that when she hired her) assumed that the names handed her were the names of the mother and father. Sissy wanted the birth certificate to be in order.
Sissy was so realistic about her pregnancy by proxy that she simulated morning sickness in the beginning weeks. When Lucia announced that she felt life, Sissy told her husband that she felt life.
On the afternoon that Lucia’s labor pains started, Sissy went home and got into bed. When her John came home from work, she told him the baby was starting to come. He looked at her. She was as trim as a ballet dancer. He argued, but she was so insistent, that he went and got her mother. Mary Rommely looked at Sissy and said she couldn’t possibly be having a baby. For answer, Sissy let out a blood-curdling yell and said that her pains were killing her. Mary looked at her thoughtfully. She didn’t know what Sissy had in mind but she did know it was useless to argue with her. If Sissy said she was going to have a baby, she was going to have a baby, and that’s all there was to it. Her John protested.
“But look how skinny she is. There’s no baby in that belly, see?”
“Maybe it will come from her head. That’s big enough as one may see,” said Mary Rommely.
“Aw, there, don’t give such things,” said the John.
“Who are you to say?” demanded Sissy. “Didn’t the Virgin Mary herself get a baby without a man? If she could do it, I’m sure I could do it easier, being’s I’m married and have a man.”
“Who knows?” asked Mary. She turned to the harassed husband and spoke gently. “There are a lot of things that men don’t understand about.” She urged the confused man to forget the whole thing, eat a nice supper which she would cook for him, and then go to bed and get a good night’s sleep.
The puzzled man lay beside his wife throughout the night. He couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. From time to time, he’d rise on his elbow and stare at her. From time to time, he’d run his hand over her flat stomach. Sissy slept soundly all through the night.
When he left for work the next morning, Sissy announced that he’d be a father before he returned that night.
“I give up,” shouted the tormented man and went off to his work in the pulp magazine house.
Sissy rushed over to Lucia’s house. The baby had been born just an hour after the father had left. It was a beautiful healthy girl. Sissy was so happy. She said Lucia would have to nurse the baby for ten days to give it a start, then she’d take it home. She went out and bought a roasting chicken and a bakery store pie. The mother cooked the chicken Italian style. Sissy trusted a bottle of Chianti wine from the Italian grocer on the block and they all had a fine dinner. It was like a fiesta in the house. Everybody was happy. Lucia’s stomach was almost flat again. There was no longer any monument to her disgrace. Now all was as it had been before…or would be when Sissy took the baby away.
Sissy washed the baby every hour. She changed its shirt and band three times during the day. The diapers were changed every five minutes whether they needed to be or not. She