Warning: I’m invoking the 5th. Read at your own risk to your tissue box.
Red Sox: Believe.
FEEDBACK: is welcome at p.phair@comcast.net
FIVE HOURS LATER
by Phair
Lindsey exited the examination area of the Urgent Care Center while examining her finger. It was completely purple and twice as big as usual. The Nurse Practitioner taped the wounded digit to the third finger to keep it stiff. Then he handed her two prescriptions and a fistful of papers.
“And, still it hurts like a motherfuckinpissbucket,” Lindsey thought to herself.
She came into the waiting room and looked up to get her bearings. Lindsey figured Beth would be upstairs with Nikki and the new baby. So, Lindsey figured she would need to find the lobby to wait for a ride back home to Blandford. Whichever home she would get to sleep in tonight was still up for grabs in her mind.
“There’s no way Beth would want me at her house after Nikki get done trashing me. I hope Beth at least remembers to come find me after to tell me off so I can bum cab fair back to Mrs. Ng’s,” she thought with a lump in her throat. “Not that she’s gonna want to see me tonight either.”
Lindsey hated the familiar abandonment feeling quickly infected her heart. Glancing around the room, she tried to find the exit. To her utter amazement, Lindsey saw Beth getting up from a chair and walking toward her.
“Wh…what are you doing down here?” Lindsey asked in breathless disbelief.
Beth smiled, “Waiting.”
“For what?”
Beth smirked at the question, “You, of course. How’s the hand? What do we need to do for it?”
Lindsey replied in a question, “Why aren’t you up with the baby and Nikki?”
“Because I wasn’t about to leave you alone down here. Honey, I’d never leave you by yourself when you’re hurt. Now, what did they say we should do for your hand?” Beth tried again to get the information she needed.
“Nikki’s gonna be pissed,” Lindsey warned. “I mean, mega shit pissed about this. You should get going before she…,” Lindsey didn’t finish the thought. “I can wait in the lobby.”
“Oh,” Beth was a bit surprised by Lindsey’s choice, “I thought, you’d come up with me to see them.”
“I doubt Nikki would like that very much,” Lindsey said with narrowing eyes.
Beth shook her head and replied, “Then you’d be wrong. Nikki asked for you specifically when they called me a few minutes ago. Harvey said, they just got settled in a room and they’re all looking for you.” Beth gave a slight grin, “Inviting me up was an afterthought.”
Lindsey tried to consider all the possibilities. “Why would she want me to come up? Do you think she’s gonna get her husband to bitch slap me…I mean…let me have it…she doesn’t like me, you know.”
“Yes, I gathered that and I believe you are of a like mind about her. However, there will be no ‘bitch slapping’ or ‘ass kicking’ or profanity laced insults!” Beth wrapped an arm around Lindsey’s shoulders and guided her to the elevators. “There will also be no name calling, discussion of paternity, or…why don’t I just suggest you two limit the conversation to the baby.”
Lindsey gave a noncommittal shrug.
“I do understand what you both are going through, Lindsey. The educator in me believes you girls are making up for a lifetime of sibling rivalry in just a few hours and we should all step back an let you work it out for yourselves. But, the mother in me is barely keeping from washing both your mouths out with a bar of soap.”
Lindsey felt the arm tighten around her as they stepped into the elevator. She panicked from a combination of the close confines, stern accusation, and threat of parental discipline. She had to defend herself.
“She started it! Ssshe, well, sshe said, called me a name…,”
“Lindsey,” Beth eased the sting of the criticism with a kiss to the Lindsey’s forehead, “sticks and stones, remember. Name calling can’t hurt you. Don’t let people control you with your emotions. You’re better than that. You’re smarter than that.”
Lindsey struggled to hold her tears in check, “Are you mad at me…I mean…, are you disappointed in me?”
Beth knew how important the answer to this question was. She would not misspeak this time, “I love both you and Nikki very much. However, I do not like what either of you said to each other back at the house. But, I still love you both. And, while I might get disappointed in some of the choices you or Nikki make, I could never be disappointed in you as a people. You both have good hearts.”
“Do you mean that? Really? Or are you just being nice?” Lindsey understood all the words but couldn’t understand how Beth could truly believe such a thing about her.
“Mrs. Pretty never lies, Lindsey. You should know that by now,” Beth chuckled when the elevator doors opened.
The pair walked in silence to Nikki’s room. Lindsey was glad to have Beth’s reassuring arm around her shoulders. However, old fears die hard, bitter deaths. Despite the conversation, Lindsey was convinced Nikki was going to try to do real physical damage to her.
When they got to the door of the room, Lindsey stopped moving. Her eyes darted nervously around looking for trouble. All seemed calm in the semi dark room. Nikki was laying in the bed with the only light lit over her. Next to her, was the hospital’s newborn crib with the clear plastic sides. Mr. Elmwood, who had been sitting at the foot of Nikki’s bed, got to his feet and crossed the room as soon as he saw Lindsey.
“Here it comes,” Lindsey thought to herself and cringed inwardly. “He’s gonna pop me right here.”
Instead, Mr. Elmwood gabbed hold of Lindsey and practically lifted her in the air. He hugged and sobbed and spun her around.
“Oh, fff…,” Lindsey remember Beth orders about profanity at the last minute, “boy.”
“Thank you, thank you so much. I was out of my mind looking for her all afternoon. I knew the baby was close. Begged her to stay home. She wouldn’t listen…,”
Lindsey smirked as she pulled herself out of the overpowering embrace, “Yep, I noticed that about her.”
Even Beth chuckled at the remark but very subtly. Nikki sat up on the bed at the sound of her name. She watched the group for a few minutes before losing her patience.
“I can’t get over to you guys so how ‘bout you bring the party over here?” Her voice was much more subdued than earlier in the day.
“She must be high. Something really strong to get her remotely human like this,” Lindsey thought.
The trio made their way to the bedside. Beth hurried the last few feet and wrapped her arms around Nikki. Nikki seemed to completely deflate into the hug. Her bravado was spent. Short sniffles and smothered whimpers briefly filled the room.
“I’m so sorry,” Nikki wept. “Don’t understand what I was thinking. Seeing Daddy like that…I thought, I was going crazy. Then the pain…,”
“Shh, we’ll talked about those things some other day. Tonight is a happy time. Tell me about your son,” Beth said as she sat on the side of the bed still keeping Nikki in her arms.
Nikki grinned. “Isn’t he beautiful? Harv, he is beautiful, right?
Mr. Elmwood nodded with a big smile.
Nikki continued, “He’s seven pounds and…,”
“Six ounces…,” Mr. Elmwood added.
Nikki’s smiled broadened with her husband’s enthusiasm, “…twenty one…,”
“…and one half inches long,” Mr. Elmwood finished with a puff out of his chest.
“He’s all that,” Nikki stated and hugged her mother.
Harvey let a moment or two pass before he interrupted, “Sweetheart, can I introduce our son to Lindsey?”
“Yes, please do,” Nikki answered with a giggle. “I’ve been waiting all night for this.”
Lindsey flinched at the words as she thought, “Okay, here’s where they lay into me. I’m okay. I can stand it. Not afraid of them.”
Mr. Elmwood went to the crib and lifted the tightly wrapped bundle of a baby out. He turned and approached Lindsey. His movement left her no doubt that he expected her to take the boy from him. Lindsey wiped her sweaty palms on her pant legs.
“Would he hit me while I’m holding his kid?” Lindsey questioned the man’s action before worrying about how to handle the boy. “Come on, be brave. You caught the baby when he was all slimy. How hard could this be? He’s cleaned up and wrapped in a blanket?” Lindsey silently gave herself her version of a pep talk.
As Mr. Elmwood was placing the baby in Lindsey arms, he said, “Lindsey, I know you two already met but I’d like to formally introduce you to your nephew, Lee Stuart Elmwood.”
Lindsey’s jaw dropped but she kept a firm hold on the baby.
“Lee, this is your aunt, Lindsey. You’re as safe with her as you are with your mother and me,” Mr. Elmwood hushed in the boy’s pink ear before stepping away.
Lindsey was left standing with the newborn and staring through her tears at Nikki.
“Thank you, Lindsey,” Nikki whispered but everybody heard the words as well as the intent. “Thank you for saving us.”
Lee Elmwood snuggled closer to Lindsey’s chest. He sighed in utter contentment when his ear pressed close and heard the hammering beat of her overstrained heart.
