Diana Orgain - Bundle of Trouble

My eyes welled with tears. My little girl was growing so fast!

I turned down the hallway toward a Coke sign. Something connected in my mind. The last time I had had a Coke was at Heavenly Haight. Brad and Svetlana had owned that together-that much I’d been able to gather from the reports.

The reports!

With my rush to eat, I’d left the reports at home on the coffee table.

I returned to Jim and handed him the Coke. “Do you think it’s strange that Jennifer worked first at El Paraiso, owned by Brad and Michelle, and then later at Heavenly Haight, owned by Brad and Svetlana?”

“Strange? Not really. If Brad liked her, and we know he did, then he probably moved her ‘job.’ Maybe people at El Paraiso were getting hip to the affair and he wanted her out of there or something.”

“All the owners are dead now.”

“Not all. Mrs. Avery owns everything now.” Jim said.

“You think Rich is also managing Heavenly Haight?”

Jim shrugged. “Don’t know. Why?”

“Maybe George is hiding out there.”

“Forget about him, honey. What’s the use? We can’t force him to come to the birth of his child.”

“He may not even know she’s in labor.”

Jim snorted. “Why wasn’t he staying close to her, then? Why isn’t he picking up his cell phone? I know you like to hope for the best in people, and I don’t want to disappoint you, but my brother is a major loser, Kate, with a capital L.”

Thoughts of Brad dead in the bay flashed through my mind, followed by the image of Michelle sprawled in her living room.

“What if he’s in trouble?”

Jim pivoted on the plastic chair. “What kind of trouble?”

A nurse cruised by us. I stopped her with my hand. “How is Kiku doing?”

“Are you her family?”

Jim nodded.

“Let me get her doctor to speak with you.”

Kiku’s doctor, a tall Indian man with a very pleasant de meanor, assured us she was all right. He reported that despite all the efforts to assist in Kiku’s labor she wasn’t dilated past three centimeters. They had scheduled a cesarean for the morning.

We peeked in on Kiku, who was sound asleep.

Ah! The miracle of drugs.

Even though it was half past one in the morning, I convinced Jim to drive past El Paraiso on our way home, thinking that George might be there. All the lights were out. Not a single car in the parking lot.

“Let’s get home and look at those reports,” Jim said.

“Can we swing by Heavenly Haight first?” I asked.

Jim glanced at me.

“It’s on the way,” I pleaded.

No lights were on at Heavenly Haight. I asked Jim to get out and bang on the door anyway.

No answer.

Jim shrugged and made his way back to the car. “You want to check out the pier, too?”

“Yes, but it’s totally out of our way and I thought you didn’t care about finding him.”

Jim grimaced. “Of course I care. The bum is my brother, after all.”

The trip to the pier didn’t get us any closer to finding George. We headed home, only to find Mom sacked out on the couch and Laurie asleep in her bassinet. I shook Mom awake.

She pried her eyes open and looked up at me. “Laurie’s been a dear! She’s been asleep the entire time!”

Figures. Why did Laurie always sleep when someone else was watching her? Now she’d probably be up the rest of the night.

“Kiku’s only dilated to three. There’s gonna be a C-section at eight in the morning.”

Mom yawned, then stood and stretched. “I’ll be back at seven.” She gathered her things together. “Oh! A nice man named Galigani called as soon as you left. Said they released Jennifer today.” She picked up a Post-it note and read the message. “The DA doesn’t have enough evidence to prosecute.” Mom looked up from the note. “And he said the gun was registered to William Connolly.”

Jim sucked in his breath. “Dad’s gun.”

I lay down next to Jim, who was studying the reports.

“How can you read right now? I feel like someone threw sand in my eyes.”

Jim put his arm around me. “I have to do something to keep my mind off my stupid loser brother. Go to sleep, honey.”

I rested my head on his shoulder and tucked my ice-cold feet in between his calves. That’s another thing I love about my darling husband-no matter how cold my feet, the man has never ever complained or hesitated in warming them up. He’s my own personal heater.

“Anything interesting in those reports?” I asked through a yawn.

“They were making a ton of dough for selling knick knacks on Haight Street.”

“Maybe we should go into retail, too. I could sell Mom’s beautiful knit items.”

Jim laughed. “Seriously, there’s something hinky about these ledgers.”

I sat up. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, exactly. Something’s not right, but I’m too tired to figure it out.”

I reached across him and shut off the light. “We’ll look at them in the morning.”

He kissed me. “Night, honey.”

“Night.”

There was silence for a minute, long enough for me to see the edge of sleep in my mind. Long enough for my subconscious to ask the question again: What had Rich been looking for at Michelle’s house and who had been with him? Then Laurie began to cry.

After a fitful few hours of sleep, I awoke again, this time to Laurie’s hungry cries. I pulled her into bed with us and fell back asleep while breastfeeding.

Something was nagging at my mind, not letting me rest properly. What was it?

Kiku! The new baby! We were going to miss the birth. I struggled to open my eyes and look at the clock. Quarter to seven.

I shook Jim. “Wake up, Jim!”

He didn’t move.

“Jim, Kiku’s going to have the baby soon! Mom will be here in eighteen minutes! Wake up!”

Jim turned and slowly rolled over toward me. My hand shot out to stop him. “Laurie’s right behind you.”

Jim moaned, then sat up. “We’ve got to get to the hospital, huh?”

“Yeah. Get up.”

Jim’s red eyes peered at me. “I’m exhausted.”

“Welcome to the club.”

“Why don’t you stay here? I’ll go.”

“No way. I want to see the squishy baby.”

Jim smiled. “Okay, you go. I’ll stay here with our cheesy little one.”

“Nope. Get up.”

“Thought so.” Jim swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “I’ll make coffee.”

We arrived at the hospital in record time. The nurse would only allow one of us into Kiku’s room. We decided that Jim would stay in the waiting room.

I went into the labor and delivery room and, to my astonishment, saw George at her side.

“When did you get here?”

Kiku looked over to see me. “Kate!” she cried happily. “George here for baby!”

“Of course he is,” I said, making my voice sound as casual as I could.

The nurse started to prep Kiku for the cesarean. I slipped out into the hallway to wait with Jim.

After about an hour, George appeared, looking haggard. “Healthy baby boy, ten pounds, two ounces. We’re going to name him Robert. Momma’s doing fine. They’re going to move her now.”

Ten pounds, two ounces? Good Lord, that was almost twice as big as Laurie had been at birth! Even now at six weeks she was still only about eight pounds.

“Congratulations, Daddy,” Jim said, patting his brother on the back.

Tears streamed down my face.

George leaned into Jim and said, “I thought I was going to pass out in there, man.”

We laughed. Jim embraced George. When they let go of each other, both of them had tears in their eyes.

“I do love you, buddy. You know that, right?” Jim said.

George nodded. “I know. Me, too.”

Kiku and Baby Robert had been moved to a third-floor recovery room with a partial view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We sent Jim to get breakfast for Kiku and me.