by Leisha Kelly
“We can see it in the mornin’. That’s good enough,” George was telling her. “Hey, Sam!”
Sam had been petting at Thelma’s hair and jumped at his father’s call. “What, Pa?”
George didn’t stick his head in this time, just called loud enough for Sam to hear. “You’re welcome to come along and rest over t’ home with us if you want. You hadn’t oughta be in the middle a’ things anyhow! Samuel’d be glad to bring us the news later. Or they can send Robert.”
Sam Hammond looked genuinely insulted at his father’s suggestion, and I was glad about it for Thelma’s sake. “No, Pa. I ain’t about to go nowhere.”
“Suit yourself. Bad luck, if you ask me.”
I shook my head, and Thelma was shaking hers too. “Don’t listen to him,” she whispered. “You was there for Georgie, and he’s strong as a bull elephant.”
“I know.” Sam sighed. “I know. It’s just Pa says it ain’t what’s done, me stickin’ around you so close. He gets testy at times like this.”
I was feeling a little testy myself. Worrying. Over the baby, of course. A little over Franky. And now I was really wondering what could be keeping Samuel and Ben. It was almost 8:00, and they’d been gone more than two hours. A blessing that Thelma wasn’t further along by now.
“Ah—” she started to cry out but then just clenched her teeth together.
“Are you pushing? Thelma, are you pushing?” I could feel my heart thumping through my chest. Maybe I’d just thought we had time.
“No. I don’t think so,” she told me when she could breathe. “Oh!”
There it was again! Lord, have mercy! These pains are close now. Samuel, Ben, Dr. Howell! Where are you?
“I wish I was pushin’!” she groaned. “I wish it was done!” She grabbed for Sam, missed his hand, and got hold of his shirt.
“Why didn’t I think about this part?” she lamented. “A wonder any woman ever has more’n one!”
“They make up for themselves,” I reminded her. “Don’t they, now?”
I could hear George ushering all his clan out the door. Little Georgie started crying, and I heard Sarah taking him upstairs.
Robert poked his head in. “It’s been awfully long, Mom. Dad wouldn’t stop for nothing else. You think I should go after them in the truck?”
Ordinarily I would have said no, but this night was different, and I knew he was right. I’d tried to talk myself out of worrying over it, but I knew they’d been too long. And now I wondered if maybe they were lying smashed up along the road someplace. Maybe Ben had been hurrying too fast.
I couldn’t voice such a thing, though. “You’ll probably just find them coming up the road,” I told him as calmly as I could. “But go ahead and go. It won’t hurt anything. Drive careful.”
If George Hammond had waited two minutes, I might have sent one of his boys with Robert. But it was surprising, really, that George had stayed as long as he did.
Robert seemed glad to have something constructive to do. He was out the door in seconds, and I prayed I’d told him right.
“What are you hopin’ for?” Thelma suddenly asked her husband. “Another boy?”
“I don’t much care,” Sam said quietly. “So long as you’re both strong as Georgie.”
She wiped at her face with a hanky Lizbeth must have given her. “Did I sleep long?” she asked me.
“A while. I was pretty surprised you could sleep at all.”
“Gettin’ my strength up. Gonna need it.” She grunted as a pain swept over her again. But then it was finished, and she tried to smile. “We oughta call this one Sam, honey. Just to confuse everybody. What would Mr. Wortham think? Or maybe George again, wouldn’t that be somethin’? I could call one name an’ turn three heads.”
“You’re gettin’ goofy again,” Sam told her. “Jus’ like last time.”
Lizbeth went to the kitchen. It sounded like Katie was doing the dishes, and I knew that whatever else Lizbeth was doing, she’d be making sure we had plenty more warm water. I could hear Sarah singing upstairs now too. She’d have Georgie asleep pretty soon. Probably on her own bed. I looked out the window, hoping to see the headlights of Ben’s car. Robert was already gone, and there wasn’t a sign of anyone on the road.
Thelma was panting and sweating, and I felt like time was standing still and we’d be going on forever in her painful cycle, one wave followed by another and another. Eventually she gave up trying to smile or talk in the moments of calm in between. She was getting weaker, the pains were getting stronger, and I was getting really worried. I kept hoping to find the baby’s crown of hair, to get this over with before the doctor got here, but I found nothing when I checked. I took to bathing Thelma’s forehead with some cool water until Lizbeth came and relieved me at it.
I noticed for the first time that I was sweating as much as Thelma. My heart was thumping like galloping horse hooves as I went walking around the kitchen, trying to figure whether we had everything we might need. Clean scissors held in the lamp flame to cut the cord. Bias tape to tie it off, just like Emma had used. Towels and clean sheets and water and . . .
Suddenly a noise outside. Our old dog, Whiskers, came running up from the barn and gave just one gentle bark, the way he always did when greeting a car coming up the drive. I ran to the window, just about falling over myself hoping. And when I saw two sets of headlights coming up the lane, I almost shouted. Praise the Lord! Finally our help!
I ran out the back door, not waiting for them to get inside. I figured the doctor should know just exactly what had happened so far. I could tell him everything we had ready, how Thelma’d been doing. I ran to the car, almost tripping over iris stubble in the side yard on my way. Samuel jumped out from the passenger side and caught me in his arms, starting to talk at the same time I was noticing that there was no doctor with them. Nobody at all.
“Juli. Juli, honey, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “The doctor wasn’t at home, and we couldn’t find him. The neighbors weren’t sure where he’d gone, but they said they’d send him our way when they saw him come in.”
I was shaking in his arms. Dr. Howell was a busy man, despite his advanced age. He might’ve been called anywhere. What would we do without him?
Ben stepped out of the car and solemnly went for the house.
“W-what about Delores?” I asked.
“We tried to find her too,” Samuel told me. “We went clear over to her son’s place. He said she might’ve gone to Frankfurt, calling on Lora Bloom again. He’s going after her. They’ll get her here as soon as they can. We went after Dr. Hall in Mcleansboro, but he couldn’t leave the hospital tonight with a woman there birthing twins and a man from the town that’d just come in sick with his heart. Dr. Hall said we could bring Thelma in if she can be moved. Do you think we ought to try?”
“She doesn’t want to be moved, Samuel. And tell you the truth, I don’t know how she’d stand it over these roads. She seems so weak. I’d be afraid the baby would come halfway there.”
I took a deep breath, thinking that now was the time to be extra strong. But I ended up bursting into tears, and he had to help me inside.
“It’ll be all right, Juli,” he said. “We can do this.”
“I can’t. I don’t even want to.”
It was silly for me to argue. Of course Samuel knew that. But he was patient and reassuring anyhow. “Relax. We’ll be praying. Thelma’s healthy. They’ll be all right.”
Dear Samuel. Wise and unruffled. At least he was here with me. At least I had that much.
If Thelma even noticed that the doctor wasn’t there, she didn’t let on about it. She was bearing down and pushing when I got back in the room. Breathing in hard little gasps, she looked me straight in the eye. “This . . . baby . . . she’s . . . she’s . . . comin’ . . . right . . . now!”
She screamed and pushed, and Lizbeth tried holding her hand the way she’d done with her mother, but Thelma pushed her away. “Sammy!”
Sam Hammond leaned close, looking afraid to say or do much of anything. “Yes, honey?”
“Are you glad? Are you glad?”
“About the baby? Yes, I’m glad.”
“Me . . . too . . .”
She yelled again, and I felt like I was going to pass out. But Thelma kept pushing, and I stayed with her for what seemed like hours but was surely shorter. And that baby came right on, headfirst like it was supposed to, screaming and squalling like it should. I was so relieved I could barely see straight. A girl. A teeny thing. Didn’t take Sam and Thelma two minutes to name her Rosemary and start kissing each other. And all I wanted to do was kiss Samuel and cry because it was over.
Ben and Lizbeth decided to go on home once we had everything cleaned up and mother and baby were finally sleeping. I hugged Lizbeth, so very glad she’d been there, but she shook her head.
“I did nothing at all, Mrs. Wortham. You know that.”
Ben was looking at her just a little uncertain, but he reached and patted her hand kind of quick, and she gave just a hint of a smile. I wasn’t sure what their problem had been earlier, but hopefully it was fixed now.
I was standing at the back door watching them go when Samuel came up and closed his arms around me. “You did well, Juli Wortham. You make me proud.”
“Oh, shush! I was fit to be tied, and you know it.”
“I know I love you.”
That easily, I melted completely. He was hugging me close, kissing my neck, sending little shivers of delight all the way to my toes. Wonderful. I hugged him back, loving every minute of it. We kissed full and warm until I saw Robert come in the kitchen behind us.
Our near-grown son looked awfully embarrassed to see his parents carrying on so. He ducked his head and was about to turn away. But I stopped him.
“You need us for something, Robby?”
“Um . . . no. I was just wondering if you might want my room tonight, and I’ll sleep on the floor in the sitting room. Thought it might be easier that way.”
“Thank you, Robert,” Samuel told him, not letting go of me. “That’s very generous of you.”
Robert gave his father an indefinable sort of look and left us alone, shaking his head.
I could hear the baby stirring again, and I went to check on her, hoping she’d be anxious to suck. Emma Graham had told me there were two things you’ve got to know for sure: if a baby can suck and if the mother’s strong enough to let it. They tried. It was a start. And I ended up rocking the baby a while as the father sat holding Thelma’s head and talking too low for me to hear.
It was sometime around midnight when I left them all in our room. Robert had stretched his covers out on the sitting room floor. Sarah and Katie had gone to their room and were surely asleep with Georgie, the house was so quiet. Samuel and I tiptoed upstairs.
Most days we were so tired when we went to bed that we couldn’t do anything but hit the pillows and go to sleep. But that night was different, and neither of us had a thought of sleeping.
“Maybe I should’ve stayed down there,” I whispered to Samuel. “In case the baby—”
“Shhh. Sam’s there. If they need anything, we’ll hear them.” He pulled me gently across his chest and petted my hair with his callused hand.
“I thank God for you,” he whispered.
“Oh, Sammy. I thank God for you.”
I lay against his shoulder a while, and we were both quiet. This is the way things should be, I thought. No matter how much of the day crowds over your mind, there should be times just like this to wipe away the load.
I would’ve been sleeping soon. I would’ve just floated away into dreams of bliss. But Samuel suddenly stiffened beside me. He lifted his head, looking toward the window.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.” He sat up, still looking out the window. And I could see an eerie glow in the sky out across the timber.
“Fire,” Samuel said, springing up and grabbing his shirt. “That’s at Hammonds’.”
He was dressed before I could even think. I jumped up and dressed too, but he told me I had to stay here, that I had a newborn in the house, and Thelma, and they might need me.
“Robert John!” he yelled. “Sam! There’s a fire!”
He ran down the stairs two at a time, and I could hear Sam Hammond and Robert stirring down below. Sarah stepped out of her room, looking bleary eyed, and asked me what was wrong.
“A fire at Hammonds’. I just hope it’s the barn or one of the outbuildings and not the house.”
Katie came up behind Sarah, looking so sleepy I wasn’t sure she heard. But Sarah stared at me, looking scared. “I can help. Mom, I can go help.”
“I’m not sure your father—”
“I can sit with Emmie Grace! None of them will have time for her if they’re fighting a fire! She’ll be so scared—”
“All right,” I told her. “All right, go. Hurry. Your father won’t be waiting on anything.”
“What about me?” Katie asked. “You want me to go too?”
“You oughta stay,” Sarah told her before I could answer. “In case Georgie wakes up and Mom’s busy with Thelma or the baby.”
Katie nodded. I nodded. And quick as anything, Robert and Sarah and Sam Hammond piled in the back of our truck, and Samuel wheeled it around and went racing down the lane. I’d never seen any of them move so fast.
I wished I could have gone with them. I suddenly was afraid not to be there too. But I knew that Samuel was surely right. It was too soon. Too soon to leave Thelma and little Rosemary. They seemed weak, both of them. Not bad. But enough that it wouldn’t do, me leaving them.
I stood in the kitchen and cried, wishing I had Samuel with me still to hold. What would this mean? Losing a barn, maybe, or worse yet, their house. I prayed that all those Hammonds were awake and out and that we didn’t lose not one of them.
I could hear sobbing somewhere else in the house. Thelma. The poor dear. I ran to her and found her crying on the bed. “Thelma, honey, are you all right?”
“I’m scared!” she cried. “What if it’s the house—oh, Mrs. Wortham, what if they’re all inside?”
“They’re not. You just calm down. They’re not. That’s all there is to it. You hear me?”
She was shaking, and I tried to calm her, but I was probably shaking a little too, at least on the inside. I started praying out loud, and she got calmer and calmer. Pretty soon Katie came downstairs with Georgie awake in her arms. I thought surely they’d all go back to sleep, but they didn’t. They just sat. We all just sat, until the baby woke up and there was something I could put my hands to.
4
Sarah
The barn was burning. I should’ve been relieved it was the barn. But all I could think about was Rorey.
“In the barn at midnight,” she’d said. “He’s my boyfriend.”
Oh, God, I should have told.
Sam Hammond and Robert jumped out of the truck before Dad even stopped it. Fiery little embers were all over the sky like fireflies, and the Hammonds had already started dousing the porch roof, trying to save the house. Emmie was standing by the well hugging at her doll while Harry kept pumping water into one thing after another. Dad yelled for me to take Emmie clear to the pumpkin patch and stay with her. He was counting heads. Pulling our buckets out of the truck, he kept checking. Harry’s there. Frank’s over there. Mr. Hammond and Kirk and Willy and . . .
I kept looking for Rorey, feeling tighter and tighter inside. Finally when I was just about to bust, I saw her standing in the barnyard, just staring into the flames. She wasn’t doing a thing. Maybe she couldn’t. She was just standing there, looking. I didn’t see Lester Turrey anywhere, and I was too scared to ask if he’d been there.
“Where’s Bert?” Dad was calling toward Mr. Hammond, and I looked up. I grabbed hold of Emmie’s hand so I wouldn’t lose her and pulled her toward the pumpkin patch, looking every which way, hoping I’d catch sight of Berty safe and sound. Som
e of the goats and a pig were just running around loose, but everybody was turning their attention to the house.
The barn had gotten too much ahead of us already. With no more folks and no more water than we had, there wasn’t a hope for it. But all those frightful embers were flying over and landing on Hammonds’ new porch. It would take some doing to keep the house from burning to the ground.
Emmie was tugging at my shirt. “The cows get out?” she asked me tearfully.
“I don’t know,” I told her. “I sure hope so.”
Berty bumped into me suddenly. I hadn’t even seen him coming.
“Hold on,” I told him. “Where you going?”
“I found Bess,” he said, sounding funny in his voice. “I gotta go back for Imey.”
Bess and Imey were calves. Berty loved his calves. He was running toward the barn, to the north section, where the flames weren’t touching yet. I tried to grab him, but he got away too quick. And I thought sure nobody else had seen him.
“Dad!”
My dad turned his head. I pointed to the barn. “Bert’s going after his calf, back into the barn! He—”
I was going to say he looked okay. I thought maybe he’d be okay. That part of the barn didn’t look touched by the fire at all yet.
But Dad turned on his heels and ran. Right in there after him, and then I was scared. Berty ran in after a calf, and Dad ran in after Berty, and Mr. Hammond and Robert and all the rest were so busy saving the house that they didn’t even know. I squeezed Emmie’s hand till she hollered and pulled, so I had to ease up and just stand there watching. I knew how it was supposed to end up. Berty would come out, pulling his calf. And Dad right with him, giving him an earful for risking himself over some dumb animal.
I waited. I waited. And then I heard the most awfullest crack, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I started screaming and screaming. The others turned to look, but they didn’t know what they should be looking for. Something gave way in the top of the barn in the south section, where the flame was the worst. Something gave way, and it leaned and crashed in on itself, a whole chunk of the barn falling down in a heap of smoke.
