Jo's contractions were coming regularly now. Tootie was timing them, and they were about seven minutes apart. "I want to go to the hospital," Jo said. She turned to Blair. "Call Rick and tell him to meet us there."

Blair nodded her head. "Okay," she said. "Let's get you to the car, and we'll call from my cell phone on the way to the hospital."

Everyone piled into Blair's car. Blair was going to drive and Mrs. Garrett sat in the passenger's seat next to her. Natalie and Tootie sat in the back with Jo. Tootie was holding Jo's hand and Jo squeezed tightly every time she had a contraction. Blair threw her cell phone back to Natalie. "Call David's cell number." Blair said. "It's 555-6721."

Natalie dialed and waited. Then she looked up, "Voice mail," she said.

"What?" Blair asked. "Try it again." Natalie dialed again and again got the voice mail message. "Leave a message," Blair said. "Sometimes you get voice mail if he's on the phone." Natalie left a message. Then she passed the phone back up to Blair.

They arrived at the hospital. Tootie helped Jo out of the car. They went inside and checked in. Finally Jo was in her room. "Where is Rick?" she asked. "They should have heard Nat's message by now." Blair picked up the phone, but Jo grabbed her arm as another contraction began. As the pain of the contraction lessened, Jo looked pleadingly at Blair. "Please call again," she said.

Blair dialed the phone, but again heard the voice mail message. She looked sadly at Jo. "The phone must be turned off or something," she said. "I'm sorry."

Jo started to talk, but stopped with the pain of the next contraction. When it stopped she looked at Blair. "You have to find Rick," she said almost in hysterics. "I need him. I can't do this without him. I've never had a baby without him before, and I can't do it. I just can't."

Blair took Jo's hand. "He'll get here," she said. "We will get a hold of him. I promise." She looked at Natalie, Tootie, and Mrs. Garrett. "And until then, you have all of us."

An hour later, Mrs. Garrett was sitting next to Jo's bed. "You're doing a good job honey," she said.

Jo looked at her. "Where is Rick?" she sobbed. "He has to get here soon."

Mrs. Garrett began to stroke Jo's hair softly. "I know you want him," she said. "It'll be okay."

Blair went to the hall and Natalie and Tootie followed. "What are we going to do?" Natalie asked. "How did that phone get turned off anyway?"

Blair shook her head. "I don't know, but we have to get Rick to the hospital somehow. I don't think we have much time."

Tootie looked at her friends. "Well, the fireworks display doesn't even start for about an hour. Do you think one of us could drive there and find them at the lake?"

Blair shook her head. "No way," she answered. "It is so crowded there we would never find them."

Blair looked at Natalie and Tootie. "Hey, do Snake or Jeff have cell phones?"

Natalie shook her head. "Snake doesn't believe in all this 'technology.' He thinks it is destroying the world."

Tootie laughed. "That sounds like Snake." Then she looked at Blair. "Jeff has one at home, but he didn't bring it on the trip because we don't have nation-wide coverage and he is too cheap to pay roaming charges."

Blair rolled her eyes. "Well great…a cheapskate and a cave man. Boy can you two really pick 'em."

They continued to discuss possibilities, coming to no answer. It was noisy in the hall. Nurses were going to the front desk and talking on the phone. One nurse, a young woman with brown hair, bumped into them, and then rushed to the front desk. They watched her as she told an older nurse at the desk to page a Dr. Groves. "He's not on tonight," the nurse replied. The younger nurse responded, "Page him anyway. We need him up here."

"Hey," Natalie said suddenly. "Doesn't David work here?" Blair nodded her head, confused by what Natalie was trying to say. "Well," Natalie began, "Have them page David. Then when he calls back, they can tell him Jo is in labor and Rick needs to get up here."

Tootie smiled. "Great idea Nat. Also when he gets out his phone to call the hospital, he'll see it was turned off and how many messages we've left. He'll know it's urgent."

Blair walked up to the desk. She explained the situation to the nurse, who laughed a little but stopped when she saw Blair was not amused by their predicament. The she paged David, and they all waited for him to respond.