Mother Load (23 page)

“I already gave your wife the lecture about taking advantage of every opportunity she had to rest.”

“She told me all about it,” Lily said. “I just think it’s a lot easier to rest when I’m with them or when I know they’re just here in the next room. Don’t get me wrong. I like everyone who works here, and I trust them. But if I went home now I’d feel like I was leaving them at the very moment they needed me most, to say nothing of the fact that I doubt I could sleep away from them anyway.”

“Rubbish. It isn’t as if they’ll take their first step or call someone else Mama while you aren’t here.” She nodded her head in the direction of George’s incubator. “Even that one over there…he knows who his mothers are already. Not that he actually knows what a mother is, mind you. But he knows that the ones who come and hold his fingers for hours are his people. And I believe he knows this even when you’re gone.”

Lily dipped her chin as Eleanor mildly squirmed on her chest. “I’m not as worried about their missing me as I am about missing them. I hadn’t planned on being away from them at all until September when I went back to work, and now it’s going to be tomorrow. I know it’ll kill me because it already kills me to be away from Andy.”

“I bet you’ll see one very happy boy tomorrow when you’re discharged.”

“At least I have that to look forward to.”

“That and a whole night’s sleep.”

In her own bed with Anna’s arms around her, and with Andy just down the hall. She had to admit she was looking forward to that feeling.

Sylvie tugged up her fallen socks and stood. “For your sake and everyone else’s I hope you’ll come visit for only a few hours a day. Let Anna have her time here too, maybe in the evenings while you’re having special time with Andy. She can give them Kangaroo Care too just like you, and while I always recommend my mothers breast-feed, you and Anna will have your hands full with two of them for at least a couple of years. It’s very likely they’ll take the bottle first anyway, so I see no reason you shouldn’t let them do that sometimes. They’ll still be drinking the nourishment you provide, and the two of you can share the load.”

“What about all the research that says it’s best to breast-feed?” It was easy to imagine all the ways Anna would help with the babies, but she had never really considered bottle-feeding her babies.

“Most of that argument is nutritional. As long as you’re providing breast milk, the emotional and physical advantages of mother-child bonding can be realized by Anna as well, which in my view, more than evens the tally. Besides, I’d never advise you not to breast-feed, just to let Anna help where she can. She seems excited to do it, and certainly capable.”

“If there’s one thing she is, it’s capable.” She gently rocked and watched with amusement as Eleanor’s fist tightened and relaxed in rhythm to the sway. Once Anna held her daughter this way, she would never want to stop.

When Anna showed up at six o’clock with Andy, Lily dressed and took him downstairs to the cafeteria for dinner. Anna took a turn holding Eleanor and, as Lily had predicted, was so captivated she didn’t want to leave.

“You have to get this young man to bed,” Lily said, and hugged Andy. “I’ll be there to help tuck you in tomorrow.”

The neonatal ward always quieted in the evening, with nurses popping in for occasional checks and attending physicians making their circuit through the ward in the middle of the night. Lily loved these peaceful hours when she could commune with her babies. Deidre, the night nurse, helped move the recliner next to George’s incubator so she could be close to him too as she held Eleanor. It was easy to imagine nights at home like this, rocking one of her babies while the other slept. She could probably get used to sleeping in the chair too…

“Get the attending, and page Sylvie at home,” a woman’s voice snapped.

Lily’s eyes shot open to find Deidre examining George’s connections, and two other nurses coming to her aid. The clock on the wall said a quarter to ten.

“Susan, help Lily put Eleanor back in her bed so we can move that chair out of the way.”

“What’s happening?”

“Tachycardia…rapid heart rate. He’s in respiratory distress.”

It was all Lily could do to wait for Susan’s help with Eleanor. By the time she was up the attending physician had arrived and was calling for new IVs to deliver chemicals and drugs she hadn’t heard of before. The other nurse reported that Sylvie was on her way.

Deidre patted her arm. “Dr. Tomlinson knows what he’s doing, Lily. Maybe you should step out and give Anna a call. She might want to be here with you while they make decisions.”

Lily was in full-scale panic mode, so much that she dropped the phone twice before finally dialing home. “George is in trouble. I need you here.”

Sylvie arrived at twenty after ten and took the lead. After a thorough assessment, she pulled Lily aside. “It’s called respiratory distress syndrome…not at all uncommon for preemies, but I had hoped we’d gotten past the rocky part.”

Anna rushed in, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and denim jacket, her hair tied back in a ponytail. Andy was draped over her shoulder, still pajama-clad and clearly half asleep. Deidre took him and laid him in the recliner, which had been moved to the corner, and covered him with a blanket.

“What’s happening?” Anna gasped.

Sylvie delivered her update again. “We need to do an endotracheal intubation.”

“Why something so drastic? I thought he was already getting air from that mask.”

“The CPAP pushes air into his lungs, but his body still has to do all the work inside, and right now his lungs are at risk of collapse. The intubation ensures the appropriate gas exchanges whether he’s able to breathe on his own or not.” She took a set of papers from Deidre and drew a pen from her lab coat. “We need a consent form. We do this all the time, but the procedure isn’t without risk. His airways are tiny and there’s always the danger we’ll nick something on the way in. But I’ll be honest with you. If we don’t do this tonight, his condition will deteriorate rapidly.”

Anna didn’t bother to read the forms, going straight to the back page to affix her signature.

Lily tried to get closer to George but realized her knees were weak, and she grasped Anna’s arm for support. “Oh, God…we could lose him right now.”

“No, no.” Anna drew her into an embrace, cradling her head as she murmured assurances. “He’s in good hands. Sylvie does this all the time. She said that. He’ll be okay.”

Though it pained her to watch, she followed Anna’s lead and looked on as Sylvie assembled her tools and ordered the CPAP mask removed. She made quick work of inserting the thin tube and attaching it to a hand pump, which she gently squeezed several times while Deidre assembled the tubing for the mechanical ventilator. As soon as it was ready, Sylvie made the switch, laying the tubing alongside George’s tiny body and taping it into place over his mouth. The whole procedure took less than two minutes.

“That went about as well as it could go,” she proclaimed, looking up briefly to give Anna and Lily an encouraging smile. “We need to watch him for a little while or so and make sure that’s all he needs.”

Anna squeezed her. “See? I told you he’d be okay.”

Lily’s relief was palpable, though she was still shaking with fear. “What happens if he still isn’t breathing right?”

“He’ll be breathing just fine…or rather the ventilator should be breathing for him just fine. We can give him a few things to adjust the gases if we have to, but I’m hoping he’ll take over from here.”

“Is he out of danger?” Anna asked.

“I’ve done all I can do right now. Let’s give him a couple of hours.”

It was possibly the longest two hours of Lily’s life, but when Anna finally hoisted Andy onto her shoulder at two a.m., George was stable. Sylvie assured them he would rest well for the night and they should do the same. And to prove it, she put on her own jacket and headed for the door.

“Go to bed,” Anna said, pausing in the doorway to give Lily a quick kiss to her temple. “Our days will be even longer starting tomorrow.”

“Thanks for coming so fast. I would have lost it if you hadn’t been here.”

“Just a few more weeks, Lily…then we’ll bring all of our babies home.”

“…because the membership won’t support that this year,” Anna said, holding her hand over the receiver to stifle a groan. Her longtime compatriots at the Chamber were drawing up a platform strategy for their candidate, one she knew would go down in flames in next month’s officer elections. “We need to shift our priorities back to the small businesses or we could lose half our membership.”

As she finished her call, Andy walked into her office and dropped his book bag in the corner.

“Hey, pal.”

Trina, the payroll clerk who had moved out of the back office to take Carmen’s place in reception, beeped in. “Anna, Marco called and said to tell you four, whatever that means. And Nancy is in the conference room with Walter.”

“Great, another migraine on the horizon,” she mumbled. If Nancy, her human resources chief, had driven all the way up from Palm Springs to meet with Anna and the dealership’s attorney, it couldn’t be good news. She glanced up to see Andy taking her ledgers off the bookshelf to use as buildings in the make-believe town where he would drive his toy cars. “Not those, please. They aren’t toys.”

Across the hall in the conference room, Nancy and Walter were already speaking in agitated tones. “From a legal perspective, it’s a pretty tough case to make. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say he doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” Walter said.

“Who doesn’t?” she asked, foregoing the offered chair to pace the room. It had already been a long day, with calls to Lily every hour to check on George.

Nancy sighed and pushed a letter across the table. “Ricky Hill filed a grievance over JoAnne Cowens getting the service manager position at the VW lot in Palm Springs. He’s been working for the company four years longer than she has, and he’s claiming reverse discrimination because he’s a white man.”

“Yes, a white man who spent his entire career working on BMWs. All of JoAnne’s experience is in the VW garage, and if I’m not mistaken she worked somewhere else before taking that job. On paper she’s the better candidate.” Anna hated to micromanage personnel issues and it irritated her that this one had been brought to her attention. “Maybe I’m missing something, but I really don’t understand what this meeting is about.”

“Normally it wouldn’t be an issue,” Nancy explained, “but Ricky is saying it’s part of a hiring pattern. Ever since you acquired the new dealerships, all the top jobs and promotions have favored women and people of color. Four of the managers in Palm Springs have submitted letters for Ricky in support of this fact, but they all wanted me to tell you they weren’t taking sides, just stating the facts.”

“It’s called a business strategy,” Anna said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “We hire and promote a variety of people because we want to attract all potential buyers, not just young white guys, who held almost all of the managerial jobs when we acquired the other dealerships. Walter, are we covered here?”

“After the Supreme Court ruled for the firefighters in that Connecticut case, there will be less inclination to accept diversity for diversity’s sake when it comes to hiring and promotion practices. But I like that you’re casting it as a business strategy. That changes the argument substantially. I think a reasonable—”

“Cut to the chase. Is this going to be a problem?”

“I think it could be annoying and perhaps time-consuming, but I don’t think it’s a winnable case for Mr. Hill if he takes it to the next level.”

“And I’m not sure he’s inclined to,” Nancy added. “He’s basically a nice guy. He’s always worked well alongside everyone in the garage, and people like him a lot. I think he’s just frustrated that there probably won’t be any opportunities to move up for a long time. He honestly feels that since both the BMW and VW dealerships in Palm Springs have always been part of the same company, his tenure and job performance earn him the promotion over JoAnne.”

“So talk to him, Nancy. Let him know we appreciate his loyalty, and encourage him to apply for any future opportunities that might arise.” Perhaps he would make trouble, but it was situations like these that called for the courage of her convictions. “I think our choice of JoAnne was the right one, and I’d make it again tomorrow. I’ll defend it in court if I have to.”

Walter closed his leather portfolio and put away his Mont Blanc pen. “I agree. Mr. Hill deserves a respectful response, but not one that gives support to his grievance.”

Nancy scribbled a note to herself and gathered up her papers. “Thanks, Anna. That was my gut instinct, but I thought under the circumstances—with the potential for legal action and all—you should make the call.”

Anna left them to find their own way out and returned to her office where, much to her annoyance, her ledgers remained scattered across the floor as Andy played with his cars around them. “What did I tell you about those books?” she demanded sharply. “When I tell you to do something, I expect you to listen. You know those ledgers are important to me. I don’t come and get your favorite toys and leave them out where people can step on them. Do I?”

Looking ashamed, Andy began sliding the books back into the slots on the shelf.

“You’re putting them in backward. They go…never mind. Just leave it alone. I’ll do it myself.”

As she approached the bookshelf, he burst into tears and darted past her out the door.

“Damn it,” she muttered. Her whole day had been one disaster after another. Yes, she was annoyed he hadn’t listened to her, but dressing him down the way she had was uncalled for. Last night had been just as hard on him as it had been on her.

Hal appeared in her doorway only moments later. “Is everything all right? I heard…”

An array of emotions bombarded her—frustration, fear and no small amount of shame, and she realized she was crying too. “We’re just tired. George had a setback last night and we had to go back to the hospital. They put an air tube down his throat and we didn’t get home until after two.”