"Max and Laura, you'll have to keep an eye on Amon," Paul told his son and daughter. "I'm taking your mother to the hospital."
It was a warm, sunny evening in early September. Elizabeth had been having backaches off and on all day. At first she'd thought it was a pulled muscle from working in the garden, but as the pain had increased in intensity, a worried Paul had insisted on taking her to the hospital.
"It can't be labor pains," she said. "My due date isn't even until the fifteenth." Dr. Banion had scheduled her Cesarean section for September 8.
As they got closer to the hospital, she panicked.
"Please drove faster!" She began to hyperventilate, her breath coming out in loud puffs. "It is the baby, I know it now! It's about to be born!"
Hearing her words, Paul went into high gear, flooring the accelerator, glancing in the back window to make sure there were no police cruisers.
Elizabeth was panting and rising up from her seat, almost banging her head on the car's roof, as Paul finally peeled into the hospital's parking lot.
"Paul...uh...I need to push...ah!" she shrieked.
Paul stopped the car and raced around to the passenger's side, nearly ripping the door from its hinges in his haste. Elizabeth lay down on her back, her feet dangling out the door. Paul saw the baby's head was already crowning and got into position to catch it when it slid from its mother's body. Within seconds, it did.
"Paul?" asked Elizabeth. "Is the baby all right?"
"He's beautiful." Paul handed the infant, still attached by his cord, to his mother.
At that moment, a stretcher arrived, and a couple of nurses helped Elizabeth to lie back on it. A warm blanket was placed over mother and child, and then the stretcher moved toward the emergency room entrance.
"Don't leave me, Paul!" called Elizabeth's frightened voice.
"I'm right here, sweetheart." Paul trotted beside the stretcher so he could hold her hand.
Once inside the hospital, events seemed to pass in a blur. The baby was taken from Elizabeth, weighed, and wrapped in a blanket, while Elizabeth was examined.
After his cord was cut, the newest Brimmer gave out a lusty wail. He was handed to Paul, who cuddled and shushed him.
"May I please hold my baby?" asked Elizabeth.
"As soon as I finish sewing you up," the doctor on duty replied. "You have quite a large tear."
When the doctor finally finished, Paul came closer to his wife and laid the warm little bundle in her arms.
"Well, hello there!" Elizabeth cooed to her new son as he gazed up at her with soft midnight blue eyes. "Let me look at you!" She unwrapped him from the blanket so she could touch his soft, velvety skin, and as she did so, Dr. Banion arrived.
"Congratulations!" he said. "This baby was sure in a hurry to get here, wasn't he?"
Paul laughed. "You could say that!"
"I need to examine you, Mrs. Brimmer." The doctor's voice was solemn. "You know that in cases such as this, the main concern is that the uterus may have ruptured. What's your current pain level?"
"I just feel a little sore and achy, like I did after Max was born," Elizabeth said to him. "Nothing like after the Cesarean."
"The bleeding seems to be no more than what one would expect," said Dr. Banion. "I'm keeping you here for observation for a few days, anyway, which is, of course, the normal procedure."
Elizabeth was moved to a private room with white walls, a window beside the bed that looked out onto the parking lot, and a desk containing a flower pot with a single flower.
"Can my husband stay with me?" she asked as she was settled into bed.
"If they want me to leave, they'll have to throw me out," Paul assured her. When they were alone, he sat in the chair beside the bed, stroking his wife's hair. "You get some rest now," he told her. "I'm going to make some phone calls."
"Looks like you're gonna have to fix dinner, Laura," Max said to his sister.
"All I know how to make is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," Laura replied.
Just then the telephone rang. Max beat Laura to the receiver.
"Dad?"
Laura watched as her brother's face broke into a wide grin.
"Well, all right! But how's Mama?...Can I speak to her?...OK, I will! Bye!" Max sat the receiver into its cradle and looked at Laura.
"We have a new baby brother!" he exulted.
Laura's heart sank as her eyes filled with tears.
"It's not fair!" she cried. "Our family already has two boys!"
Max smirked. "Sorry!"
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door, and Max opened it to admit his cousin Ginny.
"I fried chicken for dinner and had extra, so I thought I'd bring it over to share," she said. "There's turnip greens and corn bread, too. Your father just called and told us the exciting news. Why, Laura, what's wrong?"
"I was so sure I was gonna get a baby sister!" Laura spat out.
"Oh, sweetheart!" Ginny gave her cousin a big hug. "I never had any brothers or sisters at all!"
Laura sighed. "Jo has a little sister, Annie has a little sister - "
"You just wait," said Ginny. "As soon as you meet your baby brother, you'll fall in love with him! I know you will!"
Laura rolled her eyes. "What's it gonna be like for me with three boys around here?"
Ginny smiled. "I think you'll be surprised!"
