Diana Orgain - Bundle of Trouble

I flopped onto the couch. “So do both. Keeping looking for a job and prepare the proposal for them.”

Jim took a swig of beer. “I’m stressed out about not bringing in a paycheck.”

The phone rang. I leaned over and grabbed it. Kiku’s voice filled the line. “Kate! The baby’s on the way! I’m scared and I can’t find George!”

Excitement fluttered inside me. “Are you sure?”

Kiku groaned.

“Okay. Yeah. That sounds pretty real. Hang on, okay? Jim and I will be right over.”

I felt like an old hand at this mommy business. Of course, it’s totally different when you’re not the one in labor.

“Where could George be?” I asked.

Jim rolled his eyes. “Another birth that the shithead is going to ruin.”

We pulled up in front of Kiku’s apartment. She was pacing the sidewalk as we doubled parked.

She bent to pick up her overnight bag.

Jim popped out of the car and yelled, “Don’t worry about that. I’ll get it.”

Laurie began to cry. She had settled down when the car was in motion, but now that we had stopped, her howling had started again.

I moved to the backseat. No need to make Kiku sit next to a screaming child before she had to.

Kiku studied Jim. “You look like George.”

“He looks like me. I’m older,” Jim said through a smile as he picked up her bag and took her arm. “Have you timed the contractions?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“We have time,” I said, feeling like a pro.

Kiku settled into the front seat and I rubbed her neck as Jim raced down the street.

We arrived at the hospital and checked Kiku in. They wouldn’t let Laurie into the room, so Jim and I decided to take shifts with Kiku.

We tried calling George on his cell phone. No answer.

“Why don’t you go home with Laurie and rest for a while?” Jim said.

“Really?” I asked, trying to stretch my neck.

“You look really tired, honey. Besides, George is my brother, so I should be here.”

“I’d like to be here, too. Let me see if Mom can watch Laurie.”

“Go home and rest, and if Mom can come to the house later, come back in a couple of hours. We’ll be here.”

I drove Laurie and myself home.

Where could George be? I tried his cell phone again. Still no answer.

As soon as I reached home, I unloaded the bucket car seat and breathed a sigh of relief that Laurie was asleep.

I napped for two hours, then awoke to Laurie’s hungry wails.

I selected a fresh Winnie the Pooh sleeper and got Laurie out of her grungy onesie and diaper, but before I could get a clean diaper on, she peed all over the changing table.

Nice.

“See all the fun stuff I’d miss if I had to go to the office every day?” I asked Laurie.

She cooed up at me.

“You’re going to have a little cousin soon,” I said as I cleaned her off and settled her into the bassinet. After I mopped up her changing table, I went to hunt down some food for myself.

The refrigerator was practically empty again. Who had time for shopping?

I glanced at the clock. Six P.M. No wonder I was hungry. When was the last time I’d eaten? I settled into our “nursing station”-anywhere on the couch, near the phone-and called Mom.

The paperwork I had taken from Michelle’s lay discarded on the coffee table. Jim hadn’t had time to review it. I picked it up as I left a voice mail for Mom.

The reports didn’t look any clearer to me now than they had earlier. I’d take them to Jim at the hospital, along with some dinner.

Thoughts of the taqueria near our house flooded my mind. Maybe I could pick something up on my way back to the hospital. I hoped Kiku had eaten. They don’t let you eat once labor has started.

To-Do List:

1. Help Jim find a job.

2. Find George AGAIN.

3. Figure out what Michelle’s reports mean.

4. Get more diapers for Sugar Pop. (size 1!!! No longer Newborn!)

5. Return overdue books to the library.

6. Exercise.

7. Stock up on pumped milk.

8. Ask doctor about pelvic pain.

Mom arrived a little after 7 P.M., dressed in a flowered skirt that clashed with the striped shirt she had on. “Darling! Kiku’s in labor?”

I nodded, appraising Mom’s outfit. “What are you wearing?”

“Festive, isn’t it? It’s my ‘salsa uniform.’ Hank and I are taking a class.”

“A salsa class? As in dancing?”

“Yes. Preparing for our cruise on the Mexican Riviera.”

“Is salsa a requirement?”

Mom winked. “To me it is!”

I drove straight to the taqueria down the street. When I left, Mom and Laurie were watching the Spanish language station, which had made me even hungrier for a burrito.

I ordered a carne asada taco for me and a chicken burrito for Jim.

What about poor Kiku? Suppose she hadn’t eaten?

I ordered a cheese quesadilla for her, just in case. Maybe I could sneak it past the nurse.

By some miracle of the parking goddess, I was able to park directly outside the hospital.

I tried George’s cell phone again.

No answer.

I dialed Kiku’s home phone number.

Nothing.

I knew he’d been evading the police, but now that they’d made an arrest, why go into hiding? I tried to ignore the bad feeling creeping into the pit of my stomach. Where was he? How could he miss the birth of his child?

I climbed the hospital front steps and made my way toward the maternity ward, clutching the food bag in my hands. It had taken all my willpower not to tear into the taco, burrito, and quesadilla in the car.

I asked the nurse at the front desk for Kiku’s room.

“She’s in room twelve. Let me see if she wants any visitors.” The nurse indicated some hard plastic chairs against the wall.

I sat and waited. When the nurse didn’t return in five minutes, I tore into my taco. I had salsa and sour cream dripping down my face when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Jim laughed. “Geez, Katie, did you just get off a life raft?”

“Breastfeeding makes you really hungry,” I said, covering my mouth with my hand.

Not even talking was going to stop my chewing.

Jim nodded sympathetically, then looked hopefully into the white bag on the chair next to me. “So does labor.”

“Right! Like you’d know. Last time you practically slept through it all.”

Jim stared at me. “I did not!”

I laughed as I handed Jim his aluminum-covered dinner. “How’s Kiku?”

He tore into the chicken burrito. “Asleep. They gave her the epidural and told her to rest awhile. Any luck finding George?”

I shook my head.

“Typical,” Jim muttered through a mouthful of food. “This is good. What else did you get?”

“I got a quesadilla for Kiku.”

Jim raised his eyebrows, looking like a puppy asking for a bone.

“You can eat it,” I said.

Jim happily gobbled down the quesadilla. “We haven’t had Mexican food in a long time.”

I smiled, although my mind was on George. “Where could George be?”

Jim grunted. “Who knows? Flake!”

We sat in silence as Jim polished off the rest of my taco.

“You really were hungry, huh?”

Jim ducked his head. “Nerves, I guess.”

I leaned in to kiss him. “You’ve already been through this once, and this time it’s not even yours.”

He nodded. “You see any vending machines around? I’ll buy you a Coke.”

I stretched my legs. “I’ll go. I think I saw one on the way in.”

I wandered through the maternity ward in search of a soda machine. I peered through the window at the newborns. Laurie suddenly seemed so big to me. Her umbilical cord had fallen off long ago, she was holding her own head up, and she definitely didn’t need the swaddling. Not to mention she could pee all over her changing table!