Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares [66]
“I think so.”
“Does that mean…?”
Christina transferred both hands to her spherical stomach. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like I’m in labor.”
“It’s too early!” Carmen shouted at her mother’s stomach, as though the baby should know better. “The baby isn’t due for four more weeks!”
“Nena, sweetie, I know.”
“Should I call the hospital?”
“I’ll call my midwife,” Christina said. She walked slowly toward the phone.
“Do you…feel okay?” Carmen asked, watching her mother call.
“I feel like I’m…leaking.” Christina pushed a button and waited. She waited longer while the receptionist paged her midwife.
Carmen paced while Christina alternately talked and listened. When she hung up she looked scared, and that pushed Carmen’s heart from a trot to a canter. “What?”
Christina’s eyes were teary. “I have to go to the hospital to get checked. If my water really broke, I have twelve hours to go into labor naturally and after that they induce. The fear of me getting an infection is bigger than worrying about the baby being early.”
“So the baby is coming…”
“Yes. Soon,” Christina said faintly.
“Where is David?” Carmen asked. It was obviously the thing Christina was thinking about.
“He’s, uh…he’s…” Christina put her hands over her face. She was trying not to cry, and that made Carmen feel worse. “I’m trying to think…. He’s been away so much. I think he’s in Trenton, New Jersey. Maybe he’s in Philadelphia now. I’m not sure.”
“We’ll find him!” Carmen shouted, further alarming them both. “We’ll call him!”
“First we’ll go to the hospital, okay? The midwife said go right over.”
Carmen’s hands were clammy and she raced around ineffectively. “Have you got your bag? I’ll drive.”
Once in the car, Carmen watched her mother intently.
“Nena, honey, keep your eyes on the road. I’m okay.”
“Are you having…” Carmen wasn’t sure what the right terminology was, having diligently tuned it out most of the summer. “…labor?”
Christina kept her hands on her stomach, her eyes vague, as though she were feeling for some message tapped in Morse code from within. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Does anything hurt?” Carmen asked.
“Not really. My back is cramping, but it’s just uncomfortable. Not really painful.”
Once they were at the hospital and Carmen had landed her mother with a resident to get checked out in an examining room on the labor and delivery floor, she called David’s cell phone. It went right to his voice mail without even ringing. That wasn’t a great sign. She left a message for him. She meant to sound calm, mature, and informative, but as soon as she hung up she knew she sounded more like semihysterical.
She shot up at the sight of her mother’s face, at the door of the waiting room.
“What?” Carmen said softy, inwardly screaming at herself to be calm.
“My water did break,” Christina said. She looked overwhelmed. Her voice was quiet and she was clearly scared.
“Okay.”
“I’m not in labor, though.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Yes.”
“So now what? We go home?”
“I have to stay here,” Christina said. “They want to keep an eye on me until eight tonight. Then they’ll induce.”
“Induce means like…”
“They give you chemicals to make you go into labor.”
Carmen nodded solemnly.
“But I told them we can’t do it until…I can’t have the baby until…” Carmen watched in agony as the tears brewed in Christina’s eyes. “I can’t do it until David gets here.” The tears spilled over, and Carmen pulled her mother into her arms. Christina let herself cry for real, and Carmen wondered if this had ever happened before in her whole life.
Christina always took her mothering so seriously, she hardly ever let herself cry or act scared in front of Carmen. Carmen felt scared too, but at the same time she felt grown-up. She felt proud that her mother was letting Carmen take care of her this time.
Holding her mother, Carmen wanted, really wanted, to be brave this time.
“I’m going to go get David,” Carmen promised