AllFreeNovel
Share Us
40
Seven and a half months later…
“Ohhhhhh! Zo! Why?! Why’d you do this to meeeeee!” I screamed, as another contraction hit. “Where the hell is Cass at?! Did you even call her? She needs to come get this baby out NOW!”
Zo leaned in close to my ear. “She’s on her way, baby. Just breathe. Breathe like we practiced. Inhale—”
“Zo! I can’t breathe, shit! I’m gonna die! There’s no way I can survive this! I owe every patient I ever told to breathe through this an apology. Ohhhhhhhh!”
“Sweetie, it’s going to be okay. It’ll all be over soon. Cassandra will be here shortly. And it’s not like you can’t deliver the baby yourself,” my mother said soothingly.
I loved and respected my mother, so I didn’t respond to her at all, because whatever I said was definitely going to hurt her feelings.
My life had come full circle, so to speak. There I was, sitting in the same tub where I had delivered little Loren, with an anxious Zo by my side. My mom and Zo’s mom were in the bathroom with us. So were my sisters. Since the bathroom was so ridiculously huge like everything else in that house, it wasn’t crowded.
Daddy and Ryan and Mel were downstairs, awaiting the arrival of the first Strickland grandchild.
I turned to my sisters, who both wore horrified looks on their faces as they huddled way across the bathroom from me. “Angie, don’t let Ryan do this to you. Don’t do it. It hurts. It hurts like hell. You’re gonna die. You won’t survive this shit. You won’t. Nicky, just stay engaged. Don’t even get married because the next thing you know, you’ll gain forty damn pounds and be in a tub fighting for your life like I am. Although I was pregnant when I got married, but whatever. And—ohhhhhhhh, shit! I need some medicine! Zo! Why the hell didn’t you talk me out of this home birth mess? I thought you loved meeeeee!” I wailed, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and between labored breaths, hissed, “I hate you for doing this to me.”
He pressed his mouth to my ear, and whispered, “You know you wanted this D.”
I would’ve laughed or hit him had I not been on the brink of death. Thankfully, at that moment, Cassandra finally showed up. “About time!” I shouted. “You got a damn epidural in that bag?”
She smiled, turning to Zo. “Pain’s pretty bad, huh?”
“Yeah, she’s cursed everyone out, but I seem to be her main target,” Zo said, trying to shake his hand free of mine.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I snapped.
“I’m just tryna give Cassandra some room, baby.”
“She can work around your big ass. Don’t fucking move!”
“Damn, okay. Shit…” he mumbled.
“Got me in this tub about to decease. I should’ve thought through this better. This baby is probably gargantuan just like you, and that’s why—oh, shit! Here comes another one! Cassandra! What the hell are you doing?!”
She held up a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. “About to check your blood pressure. Has the water helped with the pain at all?”
“Hell, no! That’s another damn lie we need to stop telling people.”
“Well, it might be because you’re so worked up. Try to relax,” Cassandra suggested.
I sat up straight and stared at her. “Cass, I just almost slapped the shit out of you. How in the holy hell can I relax when my damn pelvic bone is opening as we speak? A bone. Opening. Oh, and let’s not forget I’m about to have to push a whole human out of my body. You see the size of my husband? That’s whose seed is inside of me!”
“Okay, okay, sorry.”
Somehow, my blood pressure was normal. A few seconds later, she snapped on a pair of gloves, and said, “Open your legs so I can check you.”
I squeezed Lorenzo’s hand tighter as I reclined a little in the tub and opened my legs.
A second later, she said, “You’re at eight centimeters right now.”
I shook my head. “Ain’t no way in hell, Cass. I’ve got to be at ten. Shit, Zo, take me to the hospital. I can’t do this without drugs. Mama! I want my mommyyyy.” That’s when I started full-on crying. So did Nicky’s perpetually-engaged-with-no-wedding-date-in-sight butt. Mama rubbed my shoulder and said something in an attempt to comfort me, but it didn’t work.
Angie whimpered, “I’m so scared.”
“Hell, you should be!” I shouted. “Don’t you let Ryan put no light-skinned babies in you. It’s gonna hurt like a motherfucker when it’s time for it to come out!”
