Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares [77]
Christina kept her eyes fixed on Tibby’s, on Tibby’s very pupils, and Tibby did not blink. As long as she could keep Christina right there with her, she could make a difference.
“I see the baby’s head! I feel it!” Lauren shouted.
“Oh, my God. Did you hear that!” Tibby thundered. “She can feel the baby’s head!”
Christina smiled a real honest-to-God smile.
“The baby is right there. Right there!” Tibby was beside herself. She had Christina’s shoulders in her hands, then her face. “You got it! You know that?”
“I got it!” Christina cried. She was coming to life.
“I feel it,” Lauren said. “I feel the hair.”
“Tina, your baby has hair!” Tibby screamed. “Can you believe it?”
Christina looked like she liked the idea of a baby with hair. “Carmen had hair,” she said faintly, “when she was born.”
“Well, lucky thing, that is. I love hair. Hair is great!” Tibby was giddy now. She pushed long, sweaty strands of Christina’s hair off of her neck.
“One more push, and this head is out,” Lauren said. She left Tibby to her own insane translation.
“Tina, one more big one! Biggie. Big big big push. Don’t you want to meet your baby?”
Christina went all out. She screamed bloody murder. Her face turned dark purple.
“And…it’s…a…baby!” Lauren shouted.
One more gigantic push and the rest of the baby followed the head. Tibby was afraid to look down, because it was all pretty damn gory. But Lauren raised this wriggling, slimy, purple little body up.
Tibby could barely breathe. The baby waved its hands and let out a cry. It was a very tiny person, a real person, who had hands to wave and a cry to cry.
Lauren landed the purple body on Christina’s chest and Christina sobbed. She held her baby and cried. Tibby watched in wonder and cried too.
The professionals did their professional stuff between Christina’s legs. Then they cut the cord, weighed the baby, and did a few other medical things. Then the baby, now more pink than purple, arrived back in Christina’s arms.
Christina held the baby to her breast, and Tibby knew it was done. Christina’s little world remained at two, but the second one wasn’t Tibby anymore. That was as it should be, sad and happy at once.
Slowly Tibby unfolded her limbs and climbed off the bed. She wanted to leave quietly, to let Christina have her unadulterated joy.
But before she did, she planted a kiss on Christina’s head. “You kicked ass,” she whispered. It wasn’t quite the wording of a Hallmark card, but it did express her true feelings.
Near the door, she bumped into Lauren, bustling about. Lauren paused. “Tibby, you have an unorthodox coaching style, but it is very effective. Would you be available for future labors?” Lauren was half laughing, but Tibby could see she’d been crying too. She was wiped out.
“No way.” Tibby stopped. She needed to know something. It felt important, like her future suddenly hung on the answer. “Hey, Lauren?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you get used to this? I mean, haven’t you done it hundreds of times?”
Lauren pushed her hair behind her ears. Her purple liner was smudged. Her face was shiny with sweat. “Yes.” She looked at her hands. “But no. It’s a miracle. It’s different every single time.”
To love another person is to see the face of God.
—Victor Hugo
The three of them, Carmen, David, and Win, crashed into labor and delivery with such speed and force you would have thought they were each having a baby of their own.
Tibby’s was the first familiar face they saw. She was wearing hospital scrubs with a lot of scary-looking stains, standing in the hall with a bewildered expression. As soon as she saw Carmen she burst into tears. “You have a baby!” she screamed.
“We do?”
“Oh, my God.”
David was darting around, trying to find Christina.
“Over here!” Tibby grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him into a room.
It was a hospital room and, of course, it featured a bed. The bed featured a flushed woman in a pale pink gown, and she in turn featured a tiny,