by Natalie Ann
“That being said, we’re hoping that you and Joey will consent to being her foster parents. Once she is released for adoption, the adoptive parents will step in, and that could be as soon as next month.”
“She’s not available for adoption now?” Candy asked, the barriers she had erected beginning to crumble.
“No, not until ninety days have passed. That will be around Christmastime.”
“I had no idea,” she said, humbled. “I guess we could do it for a month. When’s her discharge scheduled?”
“She’s technically physically able to go now, but we wanted to get your license in place first.”
“I’m not clear why you’re doing this. Why isn’t the state contacting us?”
“They’re so busy in San Diego County; they have over two thousand children waiting for foster placement. Most of them are victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. The hospital steps in when we have probable cause of suspicion of abuse or neglect, and by the same token, when we meet people like you and your husband who are interested in becoming foster parents, we jump at the chance to pin you down for a commitment.” Here, she smiled at Candy.
“We’re just announcing today that we’re pregnant,” Candy said, watching Sherrie carefully. She was sincerely surprised, so maybe Joey hadn’t confided in her.
“Wow, what wonderful news,” she exclaimed. “Congratulations to both of you.”
“What do we have to do next?” Joey asked, ending the conversation about their baby, which Candy found troubling.
“We can schedule a home visit on your day off next week. They’ll push it through for us, so if everything goes as planned, she can be discharged in your care.”
“I don’t see how I’ll get a nursery ready for her that quickly,” Candy said.
“We already have one all set,” Joey replied.
Feeling like she’d been slapped, that room was for her baby. But she was aware that might sound slightly childish, so she didn’t reply. She could see how this situation could escalate into a nightmare if she didn’t tread lightly. Joey was acting like a selfish jerk.
“Okay then, I’ll be in touch when we get the go-ahead.”
Sherrie walked to the door, smiling while she droned on about what a great guy Joey was, and how unselfish, blah, blah, blah. Ugh.
“Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and congratulations again!”
Joey walked her out to her car, which was another shock for Candy, who was ready to have a knockdown drag-out with him, something they’d never had in all the years they’d dated. There was a first time for everything.
Then some wisdom from her mother-in-law surfaced again. Thank God for Roberta.
One day at a time. She didn’t want to fight with Joey about something that might never happen. When he came back inside, however, she did tell him what her expectations were for the day.
“I have a request,” she said.
“Go for it.”
“Today is about our baby, okay? We don’t even know if this other thing is going to pan out.”
“Okay, scout’s honor. Our baby only. I’ll get dressed,” he said, disappearing into the back of the house.
She watched him leave, and the fragility of their relationship was magnified. They were newlyweds. Everything was fine as long as nothing disturbed the surface. Well, they were stirring up a big storm by even considering fostering this poor little baby, with their own baby on the way and her last year of medical school still to go. She blamed Sherrie Colecki.
She’d felt the change in him. It was subtle, but there. A pink elephant in their house that he’d invited in. Following him, she was going to force him to discuss what she felt.
“Before we go to your mother’s house with everyone there, preparing to announce the best news I’ve ever had to share, I’d like to clear the air.”
“Sure,” he said, buttoning up his shirt.
He was in front of the bathroom mirror, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from saying like a broken record how hot he was. Did he even hear her say it anymore?
He tucked his shirt in and turned to her. “What is it?”
“There’s something going on. I can’t pinpoint what it is. At first I thought I was imagining it because I don’t like your relationship with Sherrie.”
He started to interrupt her, to get defensive, but quickly stopped when he realized that just doing what he was doing proved her point. Going right to her, he put his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t have a relationship with her,” he said, trying to reassure her.
“Okay, I will try to remember that. Then what is the problem?”
“I want that baby,” he said without hesitation. “I want her. I feel like she chose me. She let me know where she was, and now when I go to see her, they tell me her heart rate goes up a little bit the minute she hears my voice. She drinks her entire bottle when I feed her. I wish I could go there seven days a week. It’s killing me today that she’s in the hospital and we’re going to make pigs of ourselves for Thanksgiving.”
“Joey, let’s go down after we eat. I never said I didn’t like visiting her. I try to go every day, you know that.”
That offering made the old Joey return. The weird Joey stayed away after that as long as the future plan included Annie.
“Now you’ve got me thinking of her as Annie,” Candy said.
“If we get her, we’ll name her. Sherrie already said we could.”
“And are you prepared to give her to an adoptive family or, worse, back to her mother if the court crap doesn’t pan out?”
“I don’t even want to think of that,” he said firmly. “Let’s go. Are you ready? I’m holding you to it that you won’t let me eat like it’s the Last Supper.”
“You might as well give it up, Saint,” she said. “You go to Thanksgiving at Roberta’s, you’re going to eat like a pig.”
So they did, too, and after it was over, Joey, feeling like he needed to run around the block a couple of times, nudged Candy. “Let’s make our announcement before everyone falls asleep.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “Stand up. We’ll go for a walk after this and then drive downtown before it gets too late.”
“Everyone, listen up!” Joey called out. “Before you doze off into oblivion after that wonderful meal, Candy and I have a surprise.”
“Oh, Jesus Lord, I pray it’s not her apple cake because I’ll have to eat it if it is,” Big Mike moaned, laughter ringing out.
“Nope, but she did make the cake, Pop. It’s in the kitchen. No, we have something more exciting to tell you.”
“We’re gonna have a baby!” Candy cried.
The reaction was just what she needed; everyone stood up and formed a circle around them, crying and hugging them, patting Joey’s back, saying prayers over Candy. After the requisite questions were answered, they excused themselves.
“We’re going for a walk. Anyone want to come with us?”
To Candy’s disappointment, three of his brothers, their wives or girlfriends, and his uncles all wanted to go. Their neighborhood was at the trailhead of a popular hiking trail that wound around a lake, and although no one was really dressed for much strenuous exercise, they headed off in the direction of the lake.
Inevitably, the baby Joey had named Annie came up, his promise to limit the conversation to their own baby forgotten. The crowd was definitely invested in the story of the baby Joey saved. By the sounds of it, he’d been talking about Annie to his brothers, because they knew all the details of the foster parent situation.
Feeling oddly excluded by his family as they walked together, laughing and sharing their opinions and feelings about the baby, Candy wondered if they realized how rude they were being. She’d be the adult caring for the child most of the time. Joey didn’t know the first thing about taking care of a baby. The time and work involved would shock him when the time came, but it would be too late by then, the commitment would be made.
“What do you think about becomi
ng a foster parent when you’re pregnant?” Uncle Charlie asked.
“Pregnant and going to medical school,” his girlfriend, Lila, added. “I can’t even imagine doing one of those things, let alone all of them.”
“And at the same time,” sister-in-law Bridget replied.
“Let her answer,” Charlie said. “You guys talk so much no one can get a word in edgewise.”
The laughter rang out over the canyon into which they were hiking.
“I’m scared, honestly,” Candy said, and that evoked a shocked Joey to reach for her hand. “I’m afraid of the work involved just to get our house to pass inspection. They’ll ask who’s going to babysit while I’m at work and school. They don’t question the male parent.”
“That’s so unfair,” Lila replied.
“We aren’t completely unpacked yet, and we’ve been in the house over two months.”
“Get Roberta over there,” Bridget said.
“She’s been there already. She’s completed most of the work.”
“Yes! You know she’s been bugging us to finish the house,” Joey said. “We had to make her stop because she was barging in unannounced all the time.”
“That’s Ma,” Tony and Leon chorused, laughing.
“Anything I can do to help, just ask,” Lila said.
So their attention made Candy feel better, and she was able to put aside her guilt over feeling jealous of a tiny baby no one wanted. No one but her husband.
Later that afternoon, they took the ride downtown to see Annie. After being on edge all day, Joey finally showed signs of relaxing now that they were on their way. He took her hand across the console. “Are you ready for this?”
“I think so. Is there something different about this visit?”
“Just that she might be ours next week. I’m mentally ready to take her home today.”
“We’ll have to work at making a space for her, Joey. It’s not like a dog where you just need a leash and can of food. I’m not going to be able to do much toward getting the house ready for the inspection, either. It might fall on your shoulders alone.”
“That’s okay. I’m going to get Roberta to help out. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
“Ha! Worry’s my middle name.”
“You heard her at the house, ‘Just let me know and I’m there.’”
“Your mother has already been wonderful. I’m hoping I can get my mother to lend a hand when this one is born.” She rubbed her hand across her still-flat belly, never forgetting for a second what was in there, even though she didn’t have any symptoms other than the few she had right from the beginning: a zit, sore boobs and tiredness.
The traffic going downtown was awful for a holiday, another sign that people didn’t just sit home and gorge themselves on Thanksgiving. The parking lot wasn’t as full as it was during the week.
“I hope this means that staffing is light,” Joey said, “not that there are kids here with no visitors.”
Inside, there were lots of kids in hospital pajamas wandering around the lobby with their visitors. The restaurant on the ground floor held a special meal for patients and their families, and the gift shops were open, with sales going on, hoping to take advantage of the pre-Christmas shopping fever.
“Should we buy her a gift?” Joey asked.
“They don’t allow balloons or anything like that in the unit. It’ll be enough that we showed up, Joey.”
The automatic doors were open when they got off the elevator. “Hello,” he called out.
“Oh, Miss Jane is going to be so happy,” the nurse said, waving them in. They stopped to don their isolation gowns and were told the masks weren’t necessary.
“She’s been moved into the step-down unit.”
Following the nurse to Annie’s new room, Joey’s excitement was catching.
“I can’t wait to see her,” Candy said.
“She’s wide awake. Go ahead and pick her up! No tubes or wires in this unit. She doesn’t even need oxygen.”
They leaned over the crib, and the baby smiled at Joey immediately.
“Pick her up, Candy. I’ll wait my turn,” he said, laughing.
“She wants you.”
“Go ahead.”
So the baby kicked and grabbed, thrilled to be picked up after lying on her back. Candy cradled her, and the baby immediately turned to her breast, rooting around.
“Will you look at that, and she never nursed as far as we know.”
“I’ve held her before, and she never did this,” Candy said. “Is she hungry?”
“She can have a bottle. I’ll be right back.”
“I wonder if she can sense you’re pregnant,” Joey whispered.
“I see her every day though, and she’s never done this before. Maybe because I always have the lab coat on when I hold her.”
The nurse returned with a bottle, and they sat down side by side in rocking chairs, taking turns holding her and rocking her. The staff observed them, and when she had a moment, the nurse wrote in Baby Jane Doe’s chart, as they did daily, Joe and Candy Saint visited today.
Chapter Six
Waking up late on Monday, Candy ran around trying to get ready to leave, throwing a lunch together before she rushed out the door, hoping to stave off the impulse to buy something fattening from a street vendor.
When she slid behind the wheel, her phone beeped. It was Joey.
“Hi, I usually hear from you by now,” he said.
“I’m sorry, honey, I was going to call you as soon as I got to school. I overslept! Talk about feeling like a zombie.”
“Oh no, poor Candy. Go. Call me later.”
“I will. Kiss, kiss.”
The drive to school was insane, adding minutes to her commute. She made it with one minute to spare. It didn’t happen until she got into her seat in the lecture hall. Her mouth filled with water, and she could feel something coming up in her throat. Thank god she hadn’t had time to eat, not even a cup of herbal tea. Taking slow, deep breaths, the feeling leveled off after a while, but her professor was well into the lecture by then, and she spent the next hour trying to catch up, her notes making no sense later that evening.
As soon as the class was over, she went to the cafeteria across campus and got a bowl of oatmeal and an apple juice. She sent her mom a text.
First bout of morning sickness today. Almost barfed during a lecture on the problem of racial/ethnic disparity in diagnosis and treatment.
Then on her way to Rady, she felt so tired, she just wanted to pull over and take a nap. Instead, she went through the drive-thru window at Starbucks and got coffee. “I’m sorry, baby,” she whispered, rubbing her belly. “It’s drink this or miss my rotation, and that’s not allowed.”
But the coffee didn’t help. She literally dragged herself through the day, yawning and leaning against anything handy so she didn’t fall over.
“Pull it together, Saint,” the resident in charge, Terry Bono, snapped. “You look like you’re ready to keel over.”
“Because I am,” she said. “At least I’m here, Bono.”
Her reference was meaningful because one of her classmates had taken the forbidden sick day and was still in the program. It had set a precedent.
“Go take a break, then.”
“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to stay upright as long as I can. I’m afraid if I stop, I won’t get started again, and I have to get home tonight somehow.”
“If you’re that bad, stay home tomorrow. You look like crap.”
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “I’m doing my assignment. I don’t look attractive, but I’m working.”
Later, he came up to her to apologize. “Look, stay home tomorrow.”
“No. I’ll be here. I might be cross-eyed, but I’ll be here.”
“What’s wrong with you?” He wanted to ask her if she had her period, but that was sexist, so he bit his lip.
“I’m pregnant. Don’t tell anyone.” She said
it loud enough for the others to hear.
“Great planning.”
“You know, that’s none of your business.”
“I know that, but great planning.” Smirking, he enjoyed teasing Candy because she was usually so easygoing; plus he was attracted to her. Hearing that she was going to have a kid by that macho Italian goon she was married to set his teeth on edge. “I guess Italian Catholics don’t believe in birth control.”
That did it, and Candy was ready for a fight. “You’re acting like an asshole, Terry. I’m taking notes of everything you’ve said to me that was inappropriate. They don’t put up with the harassment of students anymore, you know. Especially female students, so don’t even try it.”
“It’s too late,” Kelly Boyar, one of her classmates, replied. “That was a dumb thing to say in front of all of us.”
“Whatever. Get busy, all of you,” Terry grumbled.
“Candy, why are you putting up with that jerk?”
“He doesn’t bother me. If he tries any funny stuff, I’ll sue him.”
“Ha! That’s the spirit. So congratulations!”
They waited for the next elevator.
“Thank you. I’d take the stairs if I could. I’m going through something right now that I can only describe as exhaustion for no reason. My husband worked this weekend, so I lay around like a slug. My mother-in-law came over to work, and I pretended to be asleep the whole time she was there.”
“What was she working on?”
“You won’t believe it,” she answered. “You know that baby Joey rescued? We want to foster her.”
“Wow, you’re amazing. It sounds like too much.”
“It probably is, but I’m counting on my husband to help out and get his family to help, too.”
“When’s this baby due?” she asked, pointing to Candy’s belly.
“According to my calculations, I’m due at the beginning of the summer. I haven’t been to the doctor yet.”
