A tree grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith [36]
Katie was screaming in pain when they got to her. The flat was filled with neighbor women who stood around praying and reminiscing about their own child-bed experiences.
“When I had my Wincent,” said one, “I…”
“I was even smaller than her,” said another, “and when…”
“They didn’t expect me to come through it,” proudly declared a third, “but…”
They welcomed the midwife and shooed Johnny out of the place. He sat on the stoop and trembled each time Katie cried out. He was confused, it had happened so suddenly. It was now seven in the morning. Her screams kept coming to him even though the windows were closed. Men passed on their way to work, looked at the window from behind which the screams were coming and then looked at Johnny huddled on the stoop and a somber look came over their faces.
Katie was in labor all that day and there was nothing that Johnny could do—nothing that he could do. Towards night, he couldn’t stand it any longer. He went to his mother’s house for comforting. When he told her that Katie was having a baby, she nearly raised the roof with her lamentations.
“Now she’s got you good,” she wailed. “You’ll never be able to come back to me.” She would not be consoled.
Johnny hunted up his brother, Georgie, who was working a dance. He sat drinking, waiting for Georgie to finish, forgetting that he was supposed to be at the school. When Georgie was free for the night, they went to several all-night saloons, had a drink or two at each place and told everyone what Johnny was going through. The men listened sympathetically, treated Johnny to drinks and assured him that they had been through the same mill.
Towards dawn, the boys went to their mother’s house where Johnny fell into a troubled sleep. At nine, he woke up with a feeling of coming trouble. He remembered Katie and, too late, he remembered the school. He washed and dressed and started for home. He passed a fruit stand which displayed avocados. He bought two for Katie.
He had no way of knowing that during the night, his wife in great pain, and after nearly twenty-four hours of labor, gave bloody birth to a fragile baby girl. The only notable thing about the birth was that the infant was born with a caul which was supposed to indicate that the child was set apart to do great things in the world. The midwife surreptitiously confiscated the caul and later sold it to a sailor from the Brooklyn Navy Yard for two dollars. Whoever wore a caul would never die by drowning, it was said. The sailor wore it in a flannel bag around his neck.
While he drank and slept the night away, Johnny did not know that the night had turned cold and the school fires which he was supposed to tend had gone out and the water pipes had burst and flooded the school basement and the first floor.
When he got home, he found Katie lying in the dark bedroom. The baby was beside her on Andy’s pillow. The flat was scrupulously clean; the neighbor women had attended to that. There was a faint odor of carbolic acid mixed with Mennen’s talcum powder. The midwife had gone after saying, “That will be five dollars and your husband knows where I live.”
She left and Katie turned her face to the wall and tried not to cry. During the night, she assured herself that Johnny was working at the school. She had hoped that he would run home for a moment during the two o’clock eating period. Now it was late morning and he should be home. Maybe he had gone to his mother’s to snatch some sleep after the night’s work. She made herself believe that no matter what Johnny was doing, it was all right and that his explanation would set her mind at ease.
Soon after the midwife left, Evy came over. A neighbor’s boy had been sent for her. Evy brought along some sweet butter and a package of soda crackers and made tea. It tasted so good to Katie. Evy examined the baby and thought it didn’t look like much but she said nothing to Katie.
When Johnny got home, Evy started to lecture him. But when she saw how pale and frightened he looked and when she considered his age—just twenty years old, she choked