Just Before Dawn

Just Before Dawn

by

Anne Olivant

'I can't stop! I've got to pu. . !'

'No, no Mariella!" interrupted a voice from her nether regions, 'you can't yet. Pant! And pant. And pant. Good girl, that's better.'

Some five metres away, two figures made invisible by the blackness snuggled deeper into their insufficient coverings and watched the dim light rocking to and fro.

'Wonder what they're doin?' asked one.

'Don't ask!' the other replied, with a smoker's cackle.

'And pant. And pant. And pant.' The mantra took over in Mariella's brain and the rhythm she had practised took over her body, just like the NCT teacher had said. What she hadn't described was the power of the need to expel, she'd kill to do it . .

And pant. And pant.

At last it receded. She flopped onto the cushion, drenched with sweat.

The voice materialised into Gaby, a midwifery student, who had appeared on her way to work. She gently mopped Mariella's face with a wet wipe and smiled.

'Only a couple more, I think, then you'll be able to push.'

Mariella freaked out.

'There's no way I could do one more, honest, Gaby! Not more, please.'

'You coped very well with that one and you weren't expecting it. Next one we'll be prepared for. Where's that hand?' She grabbed a large hand from the gloom behind her back, placed it in Mariella's and swapped places with a worried looking Joe. 'Here. As soon as the next one starts, squeeze onto this . . and pant! Until I tell you." She shimmied awkwardly back to where the action was and her voice became slightly muffled. 'Tell me, how did you get to be doing this, here?' She actually sounded interested. She was probably just trying to distract.

Joe waited for Mariella, but she was concentrating on breathing.

'You know the census we had to do in March? Well, that day was our wedding day. We had a field full of people camping and the party went on for days. We really didn't know what to put on the form. . .'

'We forgot all about it, to be honest,' said the resting form.

'We did,' admitted Joe. 'Then Mariella's mother had a bit of a breakdown… '

'About the baby.' Mariella gently patted her belly. "It was already a bump…'

'And her family are very religious. Anyway, last week in the news it said people who hadn't filled in their forms would be fined £1000. We were shocked, weren't we hon, we hadn't realised it was a legal thing. So we thought ...'

'We thought, wouldn't it be a nice idea to have a weekend in Portsmouth seeing as we probably won't have another chance for the next eighteen years, and there was three weeks to go and no way would it come early but here it comes AGAIN!'

'AND PANT! ' went two voices in unison.

Mariella tried to focus outside herself, as the NCT teacher had said.

And Pant! Finding Titchfield, where the office for National Statistics was, and hand delivering the completed form.

And pant! Stuck in traffic in their old VW camper van, banners everywhere proclaiming naval day celebrations.

And pant! Joe's disappointed face as he came back from yet another completely full hotel. They could drive back home, he'd said. But it was now after midnight and her back was killing her…

And pant! Cheekily but desperately asking the kindly hotel porter if they could park up in their underground car park, overnight . . .

'I can't!' she screamed, ‘I’ve got to push NOW! Ohhhhh . . .' and she flopped back again.

'I think,' said Gaby ‘that you'll be all right to push next time.'

'Thank God,' gasped Mariella, 'and thank goodness I packed the hospital bag. Whatever made me do that I do not know.'

'Go on with the story, please,’ said Gaby. 'I want to know why we're doing this in an underground car park in a VW campervan and not in a nice hospital delivery suite.'

'I woke up wanting to push.'

'And I couldn't get a mobile signal for an ambulance and she wouldn't let me run outside.'

'Then you came along, on your way to work. Where do you work, Gaby? '

'Oh, all over, really.'

'Do you mean, like an agency nurse?'

'Yes, sort of. Wherever I'm needed.'

'Well, you're an angel in disguise, isn't she, Joe?'

Gaby laughed. 'I've been called worse! OK! Next one? Joe, get your arm around her back. As you come up, Mariella, take a deep breath, chin on chest and push!'

Mariella suddenly, for the first time, understood the meaning of the phrase, “the agony and the ecstasy.” Simultaneously it became perfectly clear what she had to do. She just had to push and push and she'd soon have a baby. . .

'STOP!' Gaby ordered 'and pant!'

Oh, not again, thought Mariella, but somehow it wasn't as bad, and the baby's head was just visible, to anyone at that end, anyway. Then off she could push again and now she could see it and touch it and, with a satisfying rubbery squelch she delivered her first born safely onto yesterday's newspaper and into the arms of an angel. The baby yelled. Perfect.

Joe was digging in the hospital bag for a towel and baby clothes and the student midwife was wiping her hands on wet wipes when it happened. Everywhere flooded with a golden light. At first, Mariella thought it was the car park lights coming on, but it was the wrong yellow.

'What's happening?' she whispered.

Gaby bent down to look out of the rear window. 'It's the sun,' she said 'it's coming in through those slits up there. It must only happen for a minute or two, until it gets too high.' She looked at her watch. 'Yes, the baby was born just before dawn. Look, I'm going to have to go - I'm late already. Bet you no-one'll believe why! Everything looks fine but promise me you'll go to the A&E here for a check up before you set off for home?'

Joe and Mariella wanted to get her number but she was already on her way.

'Thank you!' they called.

'It's been a privilege' she called back, 'God bless.' Then she was gone.

Suddenly the car park seemed full of people. The sympathetic hotel night porter led the way, a powerful torch in hand.

'Is everything all right?' he asked, concerned. 'We could see something was happening on the CCTV, then it all quietened down again.' Mariella showed him the baby, now just a tight, white bundle with a tiny red face. This seemed to cause the porter problems and Joe handed him a wet wipe to blow his nose.

Several others, all men, now crowded round and peered in through the windows. From their high viz jackets and at this time of the morning, Joe guessed they must be refuse collectors. Something seemed to make them remove their headgear - baseball caps, knitted hats, even a balaclava - and Mariella thought she had never seen such a load of soppy men, making silly faces and even sillier crooning noises.

'It's a long, long time since I saw such a new baby" said one, huskily.

'What yer goin' to call it?' asked another.

'The baby was born just when the dawn was breaking, so if it was a girl that would have been easy, wouldn't it, honey? Dawn!'

'But it wasn't. He's a boy,' said Joe, suddenly realising the importance.

'I always knew it'd be a boy' said Mariella. ' Joe chose the name, didn't you? It's very popular at the moment, so there'll be loads in his class! But I don't mind, it's wonderful. Tell them Joe.'

'His name,' said Joe, 'is Joshua.'

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