Joyous Day Dead

This was supposed to be the happiest day of our lives. It was the day when we would welcome the little one home. The one we’d talked so long about in the car rides, picking names for hours, daydreaming about the hue of the eyes or the color of the eyes. Whether they would need braces, or glasses, or a brace. What was this little life that we awaited so eagerly? Who would they be?

               Irene sat up in the bed, her right-hand slapped Andy’s head. “She’s coming!” she screamed, and Andy shot out of bed. His truck was ready for her, they knew it would be soon and he had taken extra time and care to make sure there were no wrappers, bottles or receipts strewn about the cabin. He lumbered her way down the steps of the apartments and into the chili pepper red vehicle.

               They zipped down the New England drives toward the hospital, the early morn had begun to shed light on them early. The truck’s clock read, “5:34” and the clock was always fast. The road twisted and turned around precarious bends and blind corners.

               They arrived at the hospital in twenty-three minutes, an impressive feat considering it normally took nearer to forty-five. Andy was a hard worker, and he took this drive seriously. He was normally quite comical, but today his face was stern and focused, and he made sure that his wife was ready to go. As soon as she settled down in her hospital bed his mood lightened, and he was ready to be his normal, funny self.

               Irene on the other was the other way around. She had been trying to lighten her husband up the whole drive over, and as soon as she was in bed she was stressed out. Her belly was large. Larger than most pregnant women and she struggled now to peer over it at her feet.

               Andy stood in the corner, “Yeah Ken, she’s about to calf.” He winked over at her, and she rolled her eyes. She knew that he’d waited months to say it because his father had said the same thing when Andy was born. “Make sure you bring the first present for the kiddo…No, we still don’t know the sex. Irene’s orders.” He said to his brother in law.

               “Andy. I need you.” She said.

               He walked over to her and held her hand. She looked beautiful, her sparkling eyes were terrified and excited, and she began to cry gently. He held her face his rough, worked palm and she brushed herself into him. With his other hand he held hers and she began to scream for the nurse. It was time.

               For the next few hours Irene screamed as she worked her hardest to push out the newborn child. Andy watched as his child was born, a dark-haired, healthy child came into the world. Irene’s face glistened with sweat, she winced heavily.

               “It’s a boy.” Said one of the doctors.

               “I knew it!” Andy said, as he watched the child being handed to the mother.

               Irene smiled at the child and began to cry, as the baby landed in her soft arms she began to wail again. The nurse quickly grabbed the child from her.

               “There is another one.”

               Then the morning took a turn. Irene’s body struggled to birth the baby. She screamed, and wailed, and cried. She looked ragged, she was exhausted from the process and beyond any amount of tired she had ever experienced. Her knuckles were white as snow, and the shine was exacerbated by the fluorescent lights that shone down on her.

               One of the doctors came over to Andy and walked him out to the hall. He put his hand on his shoulder and said, “We need to do a Cesarean. Her body is not handling the second child very well and won’t come. The procedure will be routine, and she should recover fine, but we will need to put her under.”

               “And she will be okay.”

               “That’s the plan. If she does not the baby will die…but I’ll be honest, this will not happen with zero risk. The first child put on its own pressures, but the second could do some damage.”

               For the next hour she was under the knife, and Andy paced back and forth in the hallway. He sweat profusely and struggled to keep his eyes dry and away from the passersby and the new family members that arrived at the hospital.

               He moved to a chair nearby and slunk into it. The members of the nearby family were filled in on what was happening and waited with him. Ken, his brother in law, announced his presence with the rattling of the first toy. A large treble hooked fishing lure, more of a first fishing day present but it was perfect all the same.

               “There is another one coming…” said Andy.

               Ken’s eyes widened and he spun around on the spot, “Be right back!” he shuffled back down the hallway asking for directions to the gift shop.

               Andy began to pace again, and he saw one of the nurses around the corner, he headed straight for her. As she saw him, she waved him in, “It’s a girl.”

               When he entered the room, he was handed his son, swaddled in a light blue cloth. He was beautiful, his light brown hair wispy and wafting as the door’s drafted signaled the entrance of more family.

               A few at a time the family watched the new parents hold their children. Irene smiled weakly, her face was flushed, and her hair matted with sweat. She held the small twin girl; she was smaller than her brother by at least a pound but seemed just as healthy.

                Irene’s eyes went blank, she stared at the base of the bed and an alarm started to blare. Machines winked and blinked in all colors. The tension in her arms limped and their daughter settled against her chest.

               The doctor and nurses whipped into action. They checked machines, pulled the baby away in an instant and shut everyone out of the room. “What’s happening?” yelled Andy to them as he was pushed from the cubicle. They didn’t answer him.

               He heard them behind the door. They were moving around quickly and their muffled voices, behind the masks and door.

               The minutes eked by like millennia passing over the family. What was wrong? What were they doing? Was Irene okay?

               The noise of them bustling quieted and a doctor emerged from the room. He took his mask down and his OR cap off. “The children are exceptionally healthy, but Irene…she suffered from a stroke, and it was more than she could bear.”

               Andy grabbed at the man’s scrubs. He began to fall to the floor, but Ken caught him, tears streamed down both their faces. He picked himself up and went to the room where his children awaited them. He saw them, two bundles of beauty nestled in the nurse’s arms. Irene asleep in the bed. He went to her side, “Darling, don’t leave me. They need their mother. I can’t do this without you, anything without you.” The mans face was pink, and his eyes pinker. They swelled and the tears were covering his face like a film of rain.

               The doctor came back in, “If it means anything…She went quite peacefully, so peacefully we didn’t know she was going. We did everything we could, but by then…it was too late.”