After a while he tried to mount her. But the position was too awkward because of the size of her belly. Finally she rolled over on her side and he took her from the rear. She began to moan and climax almost immediately, but he couldn’t feel her at all. It was as if he were putting his prick into a giant barrel filled with warm oil. There was no way he could reach a climax, but he kept driving until she climaxed herself into exhaustion, panting heavily like a bitch running in heat.
She turned to face him and kissed him. “You don’t know how much I needed you. No one ever could do it for me the way you do.”
He didn’t speak.
“Was it all right for you?” she asked anxiously. “I didn’t feel you come.”
“How could you?” he lied. “You were so busy coming yourself you wouldn’t have felt anything if the roof fell in.”
“I love you,” she said, and was asleep almost before the words were out of her mouth.
The next day he went to the doctor’s office with her. The doctor came out of the examining room while she was dressing. “Mr. Huggins?”
Daniel got to his feet. “Yes?”
“There’s nothing to be alarmed about,” the doctor said. “But there is a strong possibility the baby might be breeched.”
Daniel stared at him. “Exactly what does that mean, Doctor?”
“If it proves out, we may have to take the baby via a caesarian section,” the doctor said. “But that’s nothing to be alarmed about. We do operations like that every day.”
“If there’s nothing to be alarmed about, why do you keep telling me that?” Daniel asked.
The doctor smiled. “We find that prospective fathers need a lot of reassurance too.”
“I’m reassured,” Daniel said. “You mentioned that it was a possibility. When will you know for sure?”
The doctor assumed a pontifical air. “We have a problem. Your wife is much too heavy. I’m placing her on a strict diet. From now until the baby is born, she must lose weight—or at least, not gain any more. You’ll have to see that she sticks to the diet.”
Daniel didn’t answer. There was no way he could do that from the other side of the country. He nodded.
“Another thing,” the doctor said. “And again, I must repeat that there is nothing to be alarmed about, but I notice that Mrs. Huggins has developed a mild coronary fibrillation. That is, a heart flutter. It could be a result of the excess weight she is carrying, and I think it might correct itself if she loses the weight I ask.”
“She still has another two months to go?” Daniel asked.
“Roughly,” the doctor said. “My guess is six, seven weeks. By then we will know the exact condition of the child and prepare to do whatever is necessary. If the baby is in a difficult breech position, I would prefer to take the child before she enters labor.”
“Six weeks?” Daniel said.
The doctor nodded. “I would prefer that. But please feel reassured. There’s nothing to be alarmed about. The baby is fine, and your wife is in generally good health. There should be no problem whatever happens.”
Daniel looked at him and nodded. “Thank you, Doctor.”
The doctor went back into the examining room, and a few minutes later Tess came out. “What did he say?” she asked.
“He said there was nothing to be alarmed about. You were in good shape. You just have to lose some weight, that’s all.”
That had been almost two months ago, and now the train was pulling into Los Angeles. He got to his feet as the trainman came through the aisle. “Los Angeles. Last stop. Everybody off.”
He took his valise from the overhead rack and went out on the platform and was off the train almost before it came to a stop. He had asked Tess to wait for him at home; he didn’t want her caught in the press of the railroad station. He walked rapidly through the terminal to the cab rank. Once in the cab, after giving the driver his address, he leaned his head back against the seat wearily.
“Coming in from the East?” the driver asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
“New York?”
“No, Pittsburgh.”
“Lot of snow back there?”
“Some.”
“Can’t beat the weather here,” the driver said. “Nothing but sunshine. Best weather in the world, I always say.”
Daniel didn’t answer. He closed his eyes. Suddenly he was very tired. No way for him to come home. He straightened up and tapped the driver on the shoulder. “Stop at the first liquor store.”
When he came out of the store, the small bottle of bourbon in his pocket, he saw the flower shop next door. He picked out a large bouquet of roses, then got into the car and pulled the cork from the bottle with his teeth. He finished the half-pint of whiskey, and by the time the taxi pulled up in front of the house, he didn’t feel tired anymore.
***
“You’ve changed,” Tess said as he sat down at the dinner table. “When I talk to you, you don’t even seem to be listenin’.”
“I have things on my mind,” he said. “Murray’s going to call a strike, and I think we’re all going to wind up in the outhouse.”
“That’s goin’ to be bad for you?” she asked, taking his steak from the grill and placing it in front of him.
“It’s not going to do anybody any good.” He cut into the steak and tasted it. It was medium rare and juicy, just the way he liked it. He smiled up at her. “Nothin’ beats home cookin’.”
She was pleased. “How about home fuckin’?” she laughed.
He looked at her swollen belly. “Let you know just as soon as you’re back in business,” he teased.
“Won’t be long,” she said. “Doctor said mebbe just a few weeks after the baby.” She sat down opposite him and began to eat her own steak, helping herself generously to the gravy-covered mashed potatoes.
He watched her. “How about your diet?”
“I had to go off it. I was gettin’ too nervous,” she said. “Besides, some of my friends said that doctors are always after women to lose weight just to make their own work easier, not because it does any real good.”
He didn’t answer.
“You lost weight,” she said.
“I’ve been moving around a lot,” he said.
“It would be nice if you could find work closer to home,” she said. “A man called Browne has been calling you. He says he’s with the movie union, the I.A. something. He wants you to call him.”
“He leave a number?”
“I have it written down. Mebbe he wants to give you a job.”
“Maybe.”
“That would be good,” she said. “Then you wouldn’t have to go back.”
“I have to go back,” he said. “I gave Murray my word.”
“But if you’re gonna lose, what difference does it make?”
“I still gave my word.” He looked at her. “Besides, even if George Browne offered me a job, I wouldn’t take it. He’s nothing but a cheap crook, taking orders from the mob. There’s a guy named Willie Bioff who’s the real boss, and he gets instructions straight from Chicago.”
She stared at him. “If that’s true, why don’t they do something about it?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. But it’s none of my business anyway. It’s an AFL union. It’s up to them to police their own locals and affiliates. There has been some talk at CIO headquarters about coming in and challenging them, but we have enough on our plate right now. Maybe later, when some of our own things are cleared up, we’ll try to do something about it.”
“You should talk to him anyway,” she said. “Maybe it’s not as bad as you think.”
“I’ll call him,” he said.
She picked up the empty plates and put them in the sink. “I have apple pie and ice cream for dessert.”
“I’ll pass,” he said. “I’m stuffed.”
“I’ll just take a small piece,” she said. “I never feel satisfied unless I have somethin’ sweet after eatin�
�. Coffee?”
He nodded. He waited until she put the cup of coffee in front of him. “What time is the doctor’s appointment for tomorrow?”
“Ten o’clock,” she said.
He got out of his chair and went over to the sideboard and poured himself a shot glass of whiskey. He brought it back to the table.
“You ought to cut down on your drinking,” she said. “It’s bad for your liver.”
“I feel okay,” he said. He swallowed the drink, then sat there with his coffee while she finished her dessert. “Mind if I turn in early? I’m beat from the trip.”
“You go right ahead,” she said. “I’ll clean up, mebbe listen to the radio a little. Rudy Vallee Hour is on tonight, an’ the Lux Theatre. Then I’ll come to bed.”
“Okay,” he said. He went into the bedroom and began to undress. He folded his pants neatly over the back of a chair and placed his shirt over it. He placed his wristwatch and money on the dresser next to the vase of roses that he had brought home. In the dim light of the room the roses were a soft dark red, and their faint perfume hung in the air. He sat on the edge of the bed and unlaced his shoes and pulled off his socks. Then, still in his underwear, he stretched out on the bed.
Slowly he let his eyes wander around the room. She was right. But it wasn’t only he who had changed. Everything had changed. Or maybe it hadn’t. Right from the beginning she had never pretended to understand what he was doing. And she still didn’t.
It came to him, the moment before he closed his eyes and fell asleep. That he had realized it all along but had never admitted it to himself. They were strangers. And always would be.
***
“There’s no point in waiting,” the doctor said. “She won’t stop eating, and every day that passes she just puts on more weight.”
“Did you tell her?” Daniel asked.
The doctor nodded. “She said she couldn’t help it. She had nothing else to do but listen to the radio and eat. Without you home, she was just bored.”
“When do you want to do it?”
“Tomorrow morning,” the doctor answered. “You bring her into the hospital tonight. I’ve reserved a semiprivate room.”
“She agreed?”
“Yes,” the doctor said. “Matter of fact, she says she feels better now that she knows it’s going to be over.”
Daniel was silent.
“There’s nothing to be alarmed about,” the doctor said. “We do caesarians every day. Many women even prefer it to going through the pain of normal childbirth. Afterward, she’ll be perfectly normal. She can have other children. Nothing will change.”
“We don’t have any choice, do we?”
The doctor shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Not with this kind of breech.”
“Okay,” Daniel said.
“My nurse will give you an admission card to the hospital,” the doctor said. “Have her there by five o’clock. And don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.”
***
The Sunnyside Maternity Hospital was on Pico Boulevard near Fairfax, a pink stucco three-story building, surrounded by a pleasant lawn and garden. Daniel drove the car into the parking lot just behind the building and into the section marked patients and visitors. They got out of the car and he took the small valise she had packed.
She looked at him as she got out of the car. “I feel funny. I never been in a hospital before.”
“This place looks real nice,” he said as they walked toward the entrance. “Not like the hospitals I’ve been in. They were all gray and dirty.”
“Still a hospital,” she said.
“A special kind of hospital,” he said. “A place for kids to be born in. That makes it better.”
She was silent as they went through the entrance. The halls were soft pink and there were pleasant paintings and pictures on the walls. The receptionist in a white uniform smiled up at them. “Welcome to Sunnyside. The admitting office is straight down the hall.”
The admitting office was as pleasantly decorated as the entrance. There were several desks with chairs behind and in front of them. Comfortable couches lined the walls.
A nurse in white came into the office from a room next door. She sat down behind the desk and gestured them to the seats in front of her. “Welcome to Sunnyside,” she smiled. “You’re Mr. and Mrs. Huggins?”
“Yes,” Daniel answered.
“We’ve been expecting you. We have a nice room all reserved for you,” she said. “But first, there are some forms to be filled out.”
The forms took about twenty minutes. When she had completed them, she excused herself and went into the next room. A few minutes later she returned. “Everything seems to be in order,” she said, pushing several papers across the desk to them. “If you and Mr. Huggins would be kind enough to both sign each of them. They’re standard consent forms giving us permission to take care of Mrs. Huggins and do whatever is necessary to ensure her well-being.”
They signed. She picked up the papers and checked the signatures, then clipped them to the file in which the other forms had already been placed. “Just one more thing, Mr. Huggins,” she said. “A deposit check of two hundred dollars is required in advance. This covers the room for eight days, use of the operating room, anesthetist and other hospital services. Of course, when you leave you will receive an exact accounting, and any refund due you will be made immediately.”
Daniel took out his wallet. He counted out two hundred dollars in twenty-dollar bills. She counted the bills and placed them in the folder, then pressed a button on the desk.
“A nurse will be down in a moment to take you to your room,” she said. She looked at them and smiled. “What will it be, a boy or a girl?”
“Daniel says it will be a boy,” Tess said.
“I’m sure he won’t complain if it’s a girl,” she said.
They laughed just as a nurse came in, pushing a wheelchair. Tess looked at it for a moment. “There’s no need for that. I kin walk.”
“Hospital rules, Mrs. Huggins,” the admitting nurse said. “You’re our patient now and we’re responsible for you. Sometimes those floors are slippery.”
Awkwardly Tess got into the chair. “Kin Daniel come with me?”
“Of course,” the admitting nurse said. She smiled again as they started from the room, Daniel following the wheelchair and carrying the small valise. “Good luck. I hope it’s a boy.”
They took the elevator to the second floor. The nurse stopped in the corridor outside the room and turned to Daniel. “There’s a waiting room just down the hall. If you’ll give us just a few minutes, I’ll call you just as soon as we make Mrs. Huggins comfy.”
Daniel nodded, and the nurse took Tess into the room. He walked down the hall to the waiting room. There were three men in the room. Two of them were playing cards, the third sitting back in his chair, a bored, weary expression on his face. The cardplayers didn’t even look up.
Daniel sank into a chair. He felt like a cigar, but decided against it. The nurse had said only a few minutes, and the halls were filled with no smoking signs.
After a moment, the third man sat up in his chair and looked at Daniel. “Just bring your wife in?”
Daniel nodded.
“I been here since last night,” the man said. “I hope you have better luck.”
Daniel didn’t answer.
“Doctors are full of shit,” the man said. “Every time they tell me it’ll only be a few hours, an’ each time I wind up spendin’ two days here.”
“Been here before?” Daniel asked.
“Three times,” the man answered in a disgusted voice. “This is our fourth kid. I got to be a glutton for punishment. But this one is the last, I promise you.”
One of the cardplayers let out a hoarse laugh. “Only if they cut his pecker off first.”
“Shit,” the man said. He looked at Daniel. “When did the doctor tell you yours would come?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
> “You sound sure.”
“She’s having a caesarian,” Daniel said.
The man stared at him. “Hey, why didn’t I think of that? I wind up blowin’ three days’ pay every time. I’m goin’ to talk to the doctor.”
The nurse appeared in the doorway. “You can see your wife now, Mr. Huggins.”
Tess was sitting up in bed, a small silk bed jacket over her shoulders, as he came into the room. She was in the bed near the window; the other bed in the room was empty. He crossed the room and kissed her. “You look comfortable.”
She smiled. “They’re really very nice here.” She giggled self-consciously. “They made me pee in a bottle. And look…” She held up an arm. There was a white cross-patch bandage in the crook of her elbow. “They also took some blood. It didn’t hurt at all.”
Daniel nodded without speaking.
“They won’t let me have any dinner,” she said. “They said they’re gonna clean me out. My stomach has to be empty.”
“That’s right, Mrs. Huggins,” the nurse said, coming into the room. “We’re going to do that right now.” She opened a cabinet next to the bed and took out an enema can and hose, then looked at Daniel. “You’ll have to leave now, Mr. Huggins. We want her to sleep afterward, so that she’ll be strong and fresh in the morning.”
A note of fear came into Tess’s voice. “You mean I won’t see him until afterward?”
The nurse smiled. “Of course you’ll see him. In the morning, before you go upstairs. But now it’s more important that you rest.” She looked at Daniel. “If you get here at seven o’clock, you’ll be in plenty of time.”
“I’ll be here,” Daniel said. He bent over Tess and kissed her. “Be a good girl and do what they tell you. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You won’t be late?” Tess said anxiously. “You better set the alarm clock.”
“I will,” he said reassuringly. “You just don’t worry about a thing. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
Chapter 14
The telephone was ringing as he opened the front door. Leaving the door open behind him, he went into the living room and picked it up. “Hello?”
It was a man’s voice. “Mr. Huggins?”
Memories of Another Day Page 29
