Elizabeth Harbison - Mission Creek Mother-To-Be

The boy pointed a pudgy little finger and moved it across the next page to the picture of the little mouse. Melanie laughed with sheer delight, remembering how she used to do that same thing herself. Find the mouse in every color picture. She supposed it was something all parents passed on to their children.

He moved his finger to the picture of the window. “Star,” he said, pointing at the little white specks.

“That’s right, stars.”

She read the rest of the book, stopping to linger over the pictures on every page. It gave her a funny feeling to see them again. In a way, it made her melancholy, remembering the warmth of her childhood, and then the sudden cold when she’d lost her parents. But it also lit within her an optimism that she could feel that warmth again, with her own child. The fire would be rekindled and she would keep it stoked this time.

She finished the book and closed it. “Should we read another one?” she asked Dan, setting the book aside.

“Book,” he said, but he stayed where he was, leaning comfortably against her. She loved the feeling so much she didn’t want to move.

He tipped his head back and pointed to her ear. “Star,” he said.

“Ear,” she corrected.

Dan was insistent. “Star.” He touched her diamond stud earring.

“Oh, I see. It looks like a star, yes.”

“Star,” he said again, nodding and pushing his finger against it.

“Hey, Dan,” a familiar voice said next to them. “Melanie. How’s it going?”

Melanie looked up, surprised to see Jared Cross again. Was he checking up on her already? He’d only been gone for about twenty minutes. “Fine,” she said in a clipped voice.

“Good.”

“Did you come back hoping I’d given up?” she asked, certain that he’d done exactly that.

“Star,” Dan said again.

“That’s right, honey, star,” she said, hoping Jared would notice the instant rapport she had with the child, the ease with which she dealt with him. “Well?” she asked Jared in a low tone.

He was looking at her strangely. Or so she thought. “What are you doing there, Dan?” he asked.

“He’s looking at my earring,” Melanie told him. “We just read a book and talked about the stars in it and now he’s telling me that my earring looks like a star.” She looked at Jared steadily. “Everything is under control.”

He frowned. “You’re not wearing an earring.”

“What do you mean I’m not wearing an earring? Yes, I am. Right here.” She lifted her hand to her ear and felt for it.

It was gone.

She looked at Dan, just as he raised his pinched finger and thumb to his mouth. The diamond caught the light for an instant and flashed.

“Oh, my God, Dan, no,” she said, panicked.

Unfortunately, the child also panicked at the tone of her voice and he jerked his hand into his mouth.

Melanie saw it just as it went in. “No!”

The child began to cry.

The blood drained into Melanie’s toes. “Dan, honey.” She tried to sound calm but she could clearly hear the mounting hysteria in her voice. “Let me have that back. Open your mouth, honey.”

The baby stopped wailing and poked his lip out, still sniffling softly.

“What’s going on?” Jared asked, leaning down. “What’s he got?”

“My earring,” she said a little shrilly. “A diamond earring.”

“He’s got your earring in his mouth?” Jared bent down to try to get it out.

She poked her finger into the child’s mouth and felt around. Nothing. “No,” she said, pulling a shaking hand back and looking at Jared in terror. “Not anymore. He swallowed it.”

“He swallowed it?” Jared picked the child up from Melanie’s lap. He was still calm, but there was an undercurrent in his voice.

She nodded, kneading her hands in front of her. “One-carat diamond stud. Oh, my God, what am I going to do?”

He gave her an impatient glance before turning his attention back to the child. “I’m sure your insurance will cover it.”

His words didn’t compute. “Insurance?”

He set the child on top of a table and told him to open wide. “Yes,” he said into Dan’s mouth, poking around with his finger. “You can get yourself a new— What did you say it was? One carat diamond?”

Melanie understood his implication. “I’m not worried about the diamond,” she said, drawing herself up. “I’m worried about the b-o-y.”

Dan looked at her with wide blue eyes. Oh, no, could he spell? She didn’t want to alarm him any more than necessary.

“The earring wasn’t huge,” she continued in a very soothing tone, with half an eye toward Dan, “but it wasn’t exactly a strawberry seed, either.” She took the other earring out of her ear and showed it to Jared. “It was this size. Can this hurt him?”

Jared took the earring and examined it. “It’s a short post, that’s good.”

She nodded eagerly. “I have them made that way because I don’t like getting poked when I sleep.”

He gave her a puzzled look.

“By the post, I mean,” she explained. “They’re sharp.”

“I see.”

Silence hung between them.

“I swallowed an ice cube once,” Melanie said, trying to reassure herself more than to inform him. “It was a lot bigger than that and it went down. Of course, I was older and it melted eventually, but still… Maybe this will go right through him, right?”

“Hopefully.”

Em came into the room from the kitchen area, with two children with wet hair. “Is something wrong?” she asked, her brow furrowed.

“It’s my fault,” Melanie said quickly. It was all she could do not to throw herself into Em’s arms, sobbing. “Dan was fiddling with my earring and I startled him and he—he swallowed it!”

“Your earring? How big was it?”

Melanie held the other one out to Em in a hand that trembled. “It was like this.”

“Oh, thank goodness it wasn’t a big one.”

Melanie was somewhat relieved. “It seems big when you think of it going through that little digestive system.”

To Melanie’s surprise, Em patted her arm kindly. “These things happen. Quite a lot around here, as a matter of fact. What do you think, Dr. Cross?” There was concern in her eyes, but at least she didn’t look alarmed.

“He needs to go upstairs for an X ray,” Jared said.

“An X ray?” Melanie’s knees felt weak. Oh, no. This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Em put a hand on her shoulder. “Now, now. It’s just a formality, to make sure it’s not stuck someplace it shouldn’t be. We always have to have an X ray, then we just let nature take its course.”

“I’ll call up there and tell them he’s coming,” Jared said briskly, going to the small office in the next room.

Melanie nodded and took the child back into her arms. Immediately he leaned his head against her chest. A sob caught in her throat, and she laid her cheek against his feathery-soft blond curls. “I’m sorry, baby. You feel okay?”

He didn’t answer, but she didn’t expect him to.

“Why don’t you take him to the X-ray department on the seventh floor now?” Em suggested. “I can hold down the fort here.”

“Do you really trust me to do that?” Melanie asked, worried that Em had forgotten who’d caused all this trouble in the first place.

“Why, of course.” Em looked surprised.

“Thank you.” Melanie’s words came out in a rush of gratitude. “I won’t let you down.”

“Melanie, dear, it was a mistake. Please don’t beat yourself up about it. Just let them check Dan out, then call Linda on the hospital phone and let her know what happened.”

Melanie nodded. “I will, absolutely.”