Chapter 54 - A Cry in the Dark
"Doc! Thank God!" A sodden Alf sagged against the doorframe while Louisa burrowed under the sheets to hide. His eyes peered into the darkness in the general direction of the bed. "Sorry. Really am. But Deirdre…" A bolt of lightning lit the sky and I heard Louisa screech as the man's eyes widened as no doubt, he got a perfect view of the female crouching there. "Lord, Doc, that is one beauty…"
"Has her water broken?" I interrupted.
"Yeah!" Alf's face was strained and white as the lightning flashed. "You are one lucky man, doc." He sucked in his breath. "My word…"
"When did her water break?"
"Not sure 'cause she was in the loo. Then she started to pant and yell. Tried to call but the phones went along with the power!"
"When was this?" I asked the man who was edging further inside to escape the rain.
"About an hour?" Once more Alf's head turned to peer into our bungalow and he craned his head about to catch another glimpse where Louisa lay doggo under the damp sheets.
That tore it, so I grabbed his arm and pushed him backwards. "Look! You have to quit looking at my wife's, uhm… that is my wife, erh… Just stop it!"
"Sorry, Doc. I…" he blew a wolf whistle and winked at me. "Lucky man you are!"
"Let's go see about your wife, shall we?"
"Right."
"What's your room?"
"Uhm, just down the way, Doc. Number twenty. Can you hurry?"
"Fine. Be there shortly."
"But, Doc, what should I do until you get there?"
"The baby will not be coming in the next few minutes, so trot your fat body back to your room, and I'll be there as soon as I throw on some clothes." I pushed the peeping Tom out and slammed the door. "Good Christ."
I sagged against the door and caught some air. "Louisa?"
The lump under the covers shifted. "Is he gone?"
I ripped off my robe and pulled on the pants and trousers I had laid out for the morning. "Gone but not forgotten, I'm afraid!" I hopped about on one foot pulling on socks. "Damn it!"
"Martin, I never heard you curse about a patient before." She rose from the bed, like Venus from the waves, and rummaged about in her case, pulling out underwear.
"I had hoped to get some sleep, Louisa!" I peered at my wife as she bustled about. "Where do you think that you're going?"
She stepped into a pair of shorts and stuffed her head and arms through a blouse. "I'm coming with you."
"No you're not."
"Yes, I am! I am a mum, I have given birth in case you forgot, and you and I helped Isobel when she had her little boy on the village headland!" She pulled her flowing locks into a rough bunch, popped a hair tie onto it and faced me. "Right, let's go!"
I looked her up and down in the dim room. "You forgot something, haven't you?"
"No, don't think so."
"Oh?" I pointed at the floor. "Shoes." I knelt and pulled on my trainers.
She pushed her delicious toes into a pair of flat shoes. "Ready and they even match."
I ducked into one of the open-necked shirts that Louisa had bought the other day, and held the door for my past helper. "As you wish." I had thrown a raincoat over our heads and we trudged through the dripping night to the bungalow were the miracle of birth was trying to happen.
000
Deirdre lay on the bed panting and grunting. I rapidly ascertained that she was indeed in full labor. "I thought you said this child was due in eight weeks?"
The laboring woman looked at me through a tear stained face. "Well, Alf kept saying that we should wait…" she held his hand grimly. "To get preggers, that is, but maybe I didn't use protection once or twice."
Alf patted her hand. "It's alright, luv."
"But Alf I been lying to you! I knew all along! I thought the baby would wait for a few more days!"
I groaned as my suspicions were confirmed. "So you're nearly full term?" I took her pulse and it was rapid but not unduly so. I palpated her abdomen and felt the fetal head well engaged in her pelvis. "We may not have much time."
"About eight months." She said. "You was sayin' that you needed to finish this case and I so wanted to come along. Never been to Spain afore."
I shook my head. "So you lied and have endangered your child and yourself!"
"Martin!" spoke Louisa sharply. "Don't yell at her. Nothing to be done about it now."
"Swell. Just bloody perfect," I muttered half under my breath. Alf had pressed his face against his wife's and was blubbering away. "You!"
"What?" Alf replied his mouth muffled by her hair.
"Run yourself over to the main resort and find help. There must be an emergency radio or something that works. Use that over fluent Spanish of yours and rustle up some help. An ambulance and medical technicians might not be a bad thing. I suspect they know the way here, considering the number of times they've been called this week." I clapped my hands. "Come on man, get to it!"
Alf kissed his wife, murmured praises on her and departed into the storm. "Now, Deirdre, you may feel pressure…" I told the laboring woman who was now grunting once more.
"How much Doc? I didn't finish my childbirth classes and I'm not much of a reader, have a stack of those baby books back home… Never even opened them." She took a deep breath and bore down.
Louisa caught my eye as she turned her mobile to flashlight mode to light up the scene. She reached out and brushed at the woman's damp hair. "Deirdre, dear. I've done this, and so have most of the women on the planet. We're going to help you have your baby, if it comes to that." Louisa caught my eye. "Are you going to help out Doctor or are you going to stand there looking bad-tempered and grumpy?"
I sighed. "Right." I washed my hands in the loo and returning with a stack of clean towels, began to drape the bed. The sky was now black with rain the lightning suppressed.
Deirdre moaned loudly and repeatedly and in rather short order, I was catching a rather large and red-faced baby girl who started to cry and as I caught the look on Louisa's face, saw she was sobbing right along with the baby and her mother, the scene lit by the fading light of a mobile phone.
