Be My Baby Tonight (27 page)

“Teenage boys catching a glimpse of Jennifer
Lopez get a little emotional. Mrs. B. goes ballistic.”

“Cute, Tim,” Suzanna said, then picked up her
head when a hand landed on her shoulder. “Oh, hi there, Joe. Aunt
Sadie said you were going to be here. Hello, Bruno, so glad you
could make it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bruno said, looking at the seat
behind him as if wondering how anyone could truly believe the seats
were one size fits all. “We wouldn’t miss it, would we, Joe?”

Joey Morretti leaned down next to Tim. “I’ve
got a minitapee stuck in my pants. Powerful little sucker, ya know.
We’ll be able to get it all on tape.”

“Gee, that’s... great, Joey. You planning to
copy them, sell bootleg tapes to the cast?”

“Just at cost, just at cost,” Joey explained
quickly. “And, ya know, and a small... service fee.”

“Of course,” Tim said, shaking his head. “One
thing about you, Joey, you know how to work all the angles.”

“Hey, it’s business. It’s family, sure, but
it’s business,” Joey said, sitting down in a huff just as Aunt
Sadie came rushing up the aisle in her grass skirt.

Tim tried to sink lower in his seat,
pretending not to know her.

“Bruno!” Aunt Sadie called out in a voice
that was made to be heard in auditoriums, if the auditorium doubled
as the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the middle of a bull
market. “Thank God you’re here. We need you backstage.”

“Me?” Bruno said, standing up. Bruno,
standing up, was sort of like finding yourself in the shade of an
elephant “What’dya need, Aunt Sadie?”

The woman took several quick breaths, fanning
herself with one of the leis around her pudgy neck. “It’s Willard
Osslid. He’s not coming. I don’t know,” she said, fanning faster.
“Something about emergency open-heart surgery, as if any of us
believes that. The man’s always bragging about his great lipids.
Anyway,” she went on, waving that off, “now we need a new islander.
This is, after all,
South Pacific.”

Tim raised his hand, as if he wanted to be
called on in class. “Wait a minute. Willard Osslid? The janitor in
the middle school? How’s Bruno going to fit into his costume? The
guy’s about five-foot-three.”

“It’s not that small a costume,” Aunt Sadie
said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, the palm tree keeps tipping, and
Bruno can just stay on stage and hold it up while he’s being an
islander.”

“I don’t know, Aunt Sadie,” Bruno said,
raising his shoulders as he seemed to be trying to sink his head
between his shoulder blades. “I’m , not... real good at singing,
and I don’t know the words or nothin’.”

“No, no, you won’t have to sing, sweetheart,”
Aunt Sadie said, standing on tiptoe, to pat Bruno’s cheek. “You
just have to stand there. That’s all.” She lowered her head, adding
quietly, “And keep everybody’s mind off the fact that Marilee
Wescott’s voice sounds like metal scraping across the bottom of a
very deep barrel.”

Tim stood up, motioned for Aunt Sadie to back
out of the row, so he could talk to her privately. “How small is
this costume you want to put on Bruno?” he asked.

She shrugged. “He’s an islander. They didn’t
wear fur coats, Timothy.”

“Okay. And, since I just saw Willard Osslid
peeking his head out from between the curtains, whose idea was it
to use Bruno?”

“It... It was sort of a joint decision,
Timothy. Margaret and I just thought...”

“You are a shameless, wicked woman, Sadie
Trehan,” Tim said, trying to be stern.

“Thank you, Timothy. Now, if you’ll excuse
us? Curtain is in five minutes, the overture any moment now, and we
still have to adjust the loincloth.”

Once Bruno and Aunt Sadie were gone, Tim sat
down again, laughing quietly.

“What?” Suzanna asked. “What’s so funny?”

“You’ll see,” he said, and took her hand in
his. “I don’t know why I thought this was going to be boring.”

The orchestra hit the first notes just as
Jack’s cell phone went off, and he quickly pulled it from his
pocket, put it to his ear.

“What? I can’t really hear—you
what?
Three minutes? Did you say three minutes?”

“What’s up, bro?” Tim asked, because his
brother was looking pretty pale.

“Okay, okay. You just stay there, honey. What
do you mean, where else would you go? I know you, Keel, you’ll take
a cab if I’m not there in ten minutes. So you just stay there. Did
you call the doctor?”

Suzanna leaned across Tim, put her hand on
Jack’s knee. “Jack? Is it Keely? Is she all right?”

Tim didn’t say anything. He was suddenly too
busy trying to keep down the steak and French fries he’d had for
dinner. Now he was having pregnancy symptoms for Keely? What in
hell was the matter with him?

Jack flipped his cell phone closed and
grabbed his coat from the empty seat back in front of him. “Gotta
go, Keely’s in labor. Damn woman’s been in labor all day, she says
now, but she didn’t want to spoil Aunt Sadie’s big night. Someday
I’m going to kill that woman, I swear I am.”

Suzanna was already on her feet, shoving her
arms into her own coat. “I’m going with you, Jack. Someone has to
stay with Candy.”

“Me, too,” Tim said, starting to rise, but
Suzanna pushed him back down. “No, you stay here. Aunt Sadie has to
have someone from the family in the audience.”

“So, like now I’m chopped liver?” Joey
groused from the next row. “You guys never did want me around.”

“Not now, Joey,” Tim said, then turned and
looked at his cousin. “Hey, wait a minute. You’re Candy’s uncle,
you go. Suzanna and I can stay here, then drive Aunt Sadie and Mrs.
B. over to the hospital. How’s that, Suze?”

“Reasonable, I suppose,” she said, also
looking at Joey. “Candy’s already in bed for the night anyway. Joe?
Is that all right with you?”

“I dunno. Can I leave my minitapee with
you?”

“Sure,” Tim said, wincing as Joey reached
into the front of his pants and pulled out a small black rectangle
that was warm when he took it in his hand. “Maybe you could
sterilize this thing first?”

“Picky, picky,” Joey said, making his way to
the aisle.

“Okay, gotta go,” Jack said as Suzanna
grabbed him, gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll... I’ll—see you
later.”

Tim nodded, then put his hand on his
brother’s arm for a moment before Jack sighed once more, then
turned and ran up the aisle just as the overture ended and the
curtains opened.

“Hey, down in front,” someone called out from
behind them. Tim helped Suzanna off with her coat, and they both
sat down once more.

“How long is this show?” he asked her.

“I don’t know. Two hours? Oh, Tim, look! Look
at Bruno.”

Tim looked at the stage, and the mountain of
a man standing at the extreme stage right, one shoulder propping up
a papier-mâché palm tree, both hands crossed in front of him in the
hope, the very vain hope, that nobody would notice that he was
almost entirely naked.

“We’re going to get raided and have to bail
Aunt Sadie and Mrs. B. out of the pokey,” Tim said, and Suzanna
pressed her face against his shoulder, laughing.

Predictions are difficult, especially about the
future.

— Yogi Berra

Suzanna and Tim arrived at the hospital, Aunt
Sadie and Mrs. B. in tow, within an hour after
South Pacific
ended to a standing ovation, and some raucous cheering when Bruno
took his individual bow.

“Excuse me,” Tim said, approaching a nurse on
the Maternity floor. “I’m looking for Jack Trehan?”

The young nurse looked at him quizzically.
“Aren’t
you
Jack Trehan? Where’s your greens? I gave you
greens. You can’t go back in there, you know, until you’re in your
greens.”

“Greens? What the hell are—oh, no. Wait. I’m
not Jack Trehan. I’m his twin brother. Where is he?”

“Tim? Hey, bro, I thought that was you,” Jack
said, walking down the hallway. “How was our star? Where’s your
roses? We bought you roses,” he asked, kissing Aunt Sadie’s
cheek.

“Never you mind about me, and the roses are
in the car,” Aunt Sadie said. “How is Keely?”

“You mean, other than driving everyone in
here nuts?” Jack asked, grinning.

Suzanna stood to one side, the newest member
of this family, and let them all talk. Besides, she had seen the
nursery as they had passed, and was longing to go back, take a good
hard look at all the babies.

“What’s she doing?” Tim asked as Jack led the
way to the waiting room.

“Oh, nothing much. Just telling everybody she
thinks her labor stopped, so she wants to go home.”

“Her labor stopped?” Tim looked at Suzanna.
“Can it do that?”

Suzanna shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“It can,” Jack said, holding up a pair of
green wrinkled cotton pants with a drawstring waist “Man, these are
weird. Anyway, the doctor’s here, and she says Keely should please
shut up and let the experts decide. In this case, the expert is a
big monitor they’ve got strapped around her belly, and it’s
recording contractions. It’s terrific. We can hear the baby’s
heartbeat, everything.”

“So she stays put?”

“Oh, yeah. Even if the labor stops, she stays
put. They already broke her water.”

Tim sat down, and Suzanna thought he looked a
little green himself. “Broke her
what?”

Jack stripped off his shirt and pulled the
green scrubs top over his head. “It’s the damndest thing, Tim. I
read about this stuff, and we talked about it in parents class, but
to see the doctor walking in there with this big... this big
hook?
Let me tell you, I was pretty happy when the nurse
said I had to leave, to get these scrubs on.”

Suzanna sat down next to Tim. “Are you all
right?”

He rubbed a hand across his mouth. “Sure, I’m
fine. So you’re going back in, Jack? They’re going to let you
stay?”

“Because I took the classes, yeah. I’m her
coach.”

“Do you know what he’s talking about?” Tim
asked Suzanna.

“Jack and Keely took classes, Tim. On how to
breathe, when to push, that sort of thing. Jack helps Keely time
her breathing, cheers her up, wipes her forehead, everything.
Right, Jack?”

“That’s it. Head cheerleader. And she
concentrates on her focal point. For Keely, it’s Candy’s rubber
duck,” he said, then slipped into the bathroom to put on his scrubs
pants.

“Keely is hoping to try natural childbirth,”
Suzanna explained to Tim, longing to touch a hand to his forehead,
because he looked as if he might have a fever. “She’s also
investigated all the different drugs, and may use some, if it gets
too difficult.”

Tim nodded, took two deep breaths. “Okay. So
how long? She’s already been here for at least three hours,
right?”

Aunt Sadie sat down on Tim’s left, and told
him, “Oh, honey, this is a first baby. We could be here until
morning, even longer.”

“Isn’t that a long time?”

“No, Tim,” Mrs. B. said from her chair across
the small room. “Keely has to dilate, and that takes time. There
are three stages to labor. The cervix has to—”

“That’s okay, Mrs. B. I’ll just wait,” Tim
interrupted quickly.

Suzanna found all of this fascinating, a sort
of rehearsal for the day she’d have her own baby. Tim, on the other
hand, looked as if he was rehearsing his trip to the guillotine,
poor thing.

Jack came back into the room, looking rather
adorable in his greens, and Suzanna thought about how Tim would
look when his time came. Probably as green as the scrubs, if he
didn’t stop having all these male pregnancy symptoms.

“Why don’t you guys go get some coffee or
something?” Jack said. “I’m going to go stay with Keely.”

Tim was the first on his feet. “Good idea,”
he said, taking Suzanna’s hand. “Come on, my treat.”

They all followed Jack to the door, then
stopped behind him as he put his hands on either side of the
doorjamb. “Wasn’t that—Keely? What the hell?
Keely!”

“Mr. Trehan?” the nurse who had been behind
the rapidly moving litter asked, looking at Jack, then Tim, then at
Jack again.

“Me,” Jack said, poking himself in the chest
“I’m Mr. Trehan. See? Scrubs? What’s going on? I thought Keely
would give birth in the room she’s—she was already in?”

“There’s been a complication, Mr. Trehan,”
the nurse said; then Tim grabbed Jack with both arms as his brother
moved to run down the hallway after his wife. “Don’t worry, Dr.
Phillips is very good.”

Mrs. B. stepped past the twins and confronted
the nurse. “Susan? Remember me?”

“Mrs. Butterworth? Hello!”

“Yes, dear, hello. Nice to see you again,
even if you never got more than a C in my class. I suppose your
talents lay elsewhere. Now, what’s going on?”

The nurse looked from Mrs. B. to Jack, who
was still struggling to get out of Tim’s grip. “Ah... the placenta,
Mrs. B. It started separating all of a sudden, and the baby’s heart
rate dropped.”

“What does that mean?” Jack asked, his voice
tight as Tim finally let him go.

“It’s called placenta previa. It means, sir,
that Mrs. Trehan has started to hemorrhage, and we have to take the
baby now. Dr. Phillips may have to do a C-section, but she’s hoping
not, because the cervix dilates all the way when the placenta
separates. We just have to get that baby out now, and the doctor
wanted your wife in the operating room. I’m sorry, but you can’t go
in there.”

“Oh, God,” Jack said, slipping down in a
crouch, his back against the wall, putting his head back and
looking up at the ceiling. “Oh, my God... Keely.”

Suzanna pressed both hands to her mouth as
she looked at Jack, who was rapidly falling apart.

And that was when Tim stepped up to the
plate. “Have you seen this before, Susan?” he asked, his voice
calm. “How serious is this? To Keely? To the baby?”