Бетти Смит - Maggie-Now

"I got to go, Aunt Lottie."

"Wait! They finally named one De Witt and the other Clinton."

"Put another coin. .'' "Good-by, Aunt Lottie."

"Listen! Tell your mother not to be brave. Tell her to give in and holler. You don't holler, they think it don't hurt. They don't do nothing. Tell her to holler…."

The phone went dead. Maggie-Now was sweating and the warm buns were crushed out of shape because she had held the bag so tight against her. \\rhen she got home, her father was up and dressed. Her mother was very nervous and Pat had been trying to calm her down.

"If you'd only stop telling me it's going to be all right.

. If you'd only stop talking," she said. Maggie-Now was astonished. She had always known her mother as kind and considerate. She'd never heard her speak that way.

"Where have you been so long?" she asked Maggie-Now fretfully.

"I promised to call up Aunt Lottie because she had a surprise for you. Gracie and Widdy had twins."

Mary's face smoothed out. She smiled and sat down.

"Oh, isn't that nice!"

"She said to tell you that you know how skinny and nervous Gracie is and Gracie had an easy time. In labor only two hours, Aunt Lottie said."

"Did she S.ly that?"

"Yes, and she was out of bed in three days."

"My, that makes me feel better. What did they name them?"

"De Witt and Clinton," said Maggie-Now. Mary smiled again.

"That Big Red," burst out Pat. "That Timothy Shawn.

Still butting in. Here," he said to Maggie-Now, "I been trying to quiet down your mother since you went to the store. She won't listen to me. But let her hear about Big Red's grandchildren. ."

"That's all right, Patrick," said Mary absently. She patted his arm and then began giving nervous instructions as she put her hat on.

"Keep the house up, Maggie-Now, so that it's nice and clean

[~37]

when I come back with the baby. And see that your father has a hot supper when he comes home…. Oh, Maggie, how could I get along without you! And make your father's coffee strong in the morning. And Sunday, go over and see Lottie. And keep off the streets while loll away."

i'Oh, Mama, now. "

"And Patrick," continued Mary in an offhand way, "I

want VOU to deed over this Louse to Maggie-Now when she marries."

"We'll talk about that when the time comes," he said.

She held his arm in a tight clutch. "Promise me. Patrick!"

"I will do so, Mary,' he said.

"You heard your father, Maggrie-.N'oN~ ' "Yes, Mama."

"Remember. He promised.' She gave the girl a little black bankbook. "When the tenants pay the rent, put the m`~neN: iT1 the hank. It must he saved for taxes and interest."

"I know, Mama."

Mary started to put her gloves on and a pain caught her. She dropped her gloves and held on to the hack of a chair. Thev watched for an agonizing moment.

"There!" said Mary. "That was the first one." Maggie-No put her gloves on for her. l\Tary looked around vaguely.

"I didn't get all the ironing done," she fretted.

"Now, Mama, I'll finish it," said Maggie-Now. "Don't worrNabout a thing. I'll take good care of Papa and the house will be shining clean for you when N'OU come back."

Mary started trembling violently when she walked into the hospital. 1~- was gloomy and smelled of sickness.

The downstairs windows were barred. People stood in line before a nurse's desk waiting to be admitted or treated.

Mary was told to sit on a bench along the wall until her turn came. She sat between her husband and her daughter. Pat sat- with his head down, his hands holding his hat between his knees. Maggie-Now pulled her mother's arm through hers and held it tightly.

The nurse finished filling out an old man's card. She tapped on a hell and an orderly came to take him to a ward. The old man was weeping.

~ ',y 1 "I will never come out alive," he wept. "No one ever comes out of here alive."

This was almost true. The poor people were terrified of the hospital and few entered unless they were at death's door. So it was logical that few cam' out alive.

They kept Mary waiting there because there were so many emergency cases that had to be handled immediately. Childbirth was considered routine not an emergency. The old man's weeping had unnerved Mary.

She had a sharp pain and when it had passed she said: "Patrick. Do something. Please do something!" her voice was hysterical.

Pat jumped to his fee' and shouted: "Where's that damned doctor; " An efficient, middle-aged nun, the steel bows of her eyeglasses making ridges in her fleshy cheeks on account of the tightness of her coif, was passing through the room.

She turned and scowled and was about to rebuke Pat when Doctor Scalani came into the room.

He looked neat and efficient and almost handsome.

Even Mary looked at him in surprise. He was so different from the last time she had seen him. He spoke authoritatively to the desk nurse. Mary was admitted imm'

diately. A nurse came with a wheelchair to take her away.

Doctor Scalani told Maggie-Now and her father to go home. He said he'd let them know….

At the start of Mary'. third day in labor, Doctor Scalani realized his life's ambition as a doctor. He was given a consultant a very important consultant indeed the chief of staff of the hospital, who examined I)octor Scalani's patient and gave him every professional courtesy, which made Doctor Scalani feel good. It was a brief consultation and they were in agreement.

If labor continued to teen, they agreed, the baby would be born dead. But there was a slight chance that the mother would live. If they intervened and took the baby from her, the child would live but the mother, in her weakened condition, would die.

So, according to the dictates of the religion, they saved the baby and let the mother die.

1 /,9] She knew she was going to die. She didn't review her ~

hole life as it is said one does at such a time. She had no last word of wisdom,r conclusion drawn from living, no great truth to articulate before she died. She h id no thorl~,ht save for her new-born SOII. I here was a great achint, place adhere the child had been torn from her body. The milk was beginning to fill her breasts. Like a primitive creature, she whimpered for her young and wanted to crawl to it. She begged the nurse tic get the child and put it to her breast. The nurse concealed her horror v. ith professional briskness.

"After a while," she said briglltly. "After we've rested a bit. Then we'll bring our b By in." Tile mlrse ran out in the corridor looking for Doctor Sc~lani. She found Dill.

S!lc s..id: 'She wants to nurse her baby. Isn't that awf~l`' "Let her," he said.

"But to let a live, he: iltilV t!.3bN tlLUSi' front a dN in`."

mother! It gives me the creeps."

"Let her have her Lab\;. I hat s an order."

"Is it?" She tossed h'r head. '~170u're just an outside doctor. T don't have to take orde s from y on."

He grabbed her am and held it tight enough to make her \vince. He spoke, putting a space between each word.

"I am the doctor on the case. I an1 divine Noll an order.

Nurse, take the baby to the patient."

"N'es, Doctor," the St1 d.

I~ilere wasn t nlucl1 t Nile. I he! — sent.\laggie-N'c'~\

to her first "Just act natural," said Doctor Scalani. "That's always best."

There Noms a screen around Mary's bed. Itlaggie Now's eves widened in fear u hen she S.ZNV her motller's waxy-looking face. 'Mama!" she said. "Oh Mama! ' She started to babble to avoid sobbing. "I got all the boiling done, Mama. And Papa ate evervthing I cooked. And I