The Journey Home

by K'Anne Meinel

  “What’s going on, why hasn’t he,” her thumb pointed at the doctor who was more concerned about washing up than on his patient. “Given you something or done something?”

  “It’s a woman’s cross to bear, it’s what God ordained for their sin the Garden of Eden,” she heard behind her as he came down the hall wiping his hands on a towel.

  Cass glanced at him incredulously not sure what to think about his idiocy. Also, given the amount of time he had ‘washed up’ there was no way he was clean. Looking at her friend, her former lover, her sister-in-law in the pain she was in, the contraction fading for a moment she realized she must already be in the final stages. “I’ll wash up,” she said to Stephanie and turned trying to get by the doctor. He had a little too much good living and his rotund shape offended her as she slid by against the wall.

  “You will want to disinfect or perhaps change those clothes,” he said as he looked her up and down.

  Cass wanted to say something snide but refrained as she ran down the stairs and looked for her birthing apron and some of her nursing fatigues and changed in the powder room. She raced back upstairs as she heard Stephanie screaming in pain.

  “That’s it, that’s it, let it out, it’s good for you,” the doctor encouraged her as he stood by watching his patient.

  “Good for what?” Cass asked coming into the room. “Her blood pressure?” she asked sarcastically.

  He was surprised at her neater appearance, she at least looked…presentable now. “I have found that a woman holding it in is bad for the baby, it’s better that she let it all out.”

  “Uh huh, you couldn’t take the edge off a little with something?” she asked him as she took the water pitcher on the side of the bed and grabbing one of the pillows slipped off the pillow case and wet it to wash Stephanie’s face down.

  The cool water felt wonderful as she removed the sweat from her body. “The pains are coming right on top of one another,” Stephanie panting told her as she checked her breath, the color of her skin and nails.

  Cass nodded as she felt Stephanie’s stomach. She could feel the tightening of the muscles designed to expel the baby. “I’m going to examine you okay?” she asked and at Stephanie’s nod she looked between her legs and up her nightgown.

  “I assure you, she is progressing along quite normally,” Doctor Mavis told her.

  Cass turned on him after she saw what she needed to see. “This? This is quite normal?” she asked waving at Stephanie who looked hot, beaten, and tired. “I assure you, this doesn’t have to be normal at all!” She turned around to ignore him again. “Stephanie…Stephanie!” she called through the pain the woman was experiencing again as she began to thrash on the bed. She could tell she could hear her but was fighting the pain. “I’m going to get everything ready and we are going to deliver this baby, okay?”

  Stephanie, despite the pain, was relieved at Cass taking charge. The doctor hadn’t done much and she had been miserable for quite some time, ever since he had arrived he had told her stories about himself as if that would distract her or impress her. She was neither. She hurt, more than she could ever remember with the other three.

  Cass got newspapers and spread them on the floor next to the bed.

  “What are you doing?” Doctor Mavis asked her but Cass ignored him.

  “Did you prepare clothes?” she asked Stephanie in between contractions and at a nod she looked for and found rags and clothes for the baby’s birth as well as a blanket to wrap it in. Placing these things readily about she filled the pitcher with water from the bathroom having to walk around the useless doctor time and again as she got ready.

  Doctor Mavis seemed to be fascinated in Cass’s technique and had quieted to observe her. She wouldn’t answer anything he said anyway preferring to just do what needed to be done.

  “Come on Stephanie, we are going to get you to the edge of the bed now,” Cass told her and Stephanie, remembering Summer’s birth several years ago nodded and held out her hands which Cass firmly grasped.

  “What are you doing?” Doctor Mavis asked alarmed as the woman pulled Stephanie to the edge of the bed.

  “Stop fighting the pain, bear down with it okay?” Cass encouraged Stephanie, ignoring the doctor. “Let the Earth pull help you, you’ve done this before, you can do it again,” she smiled for the first time in months at her friend.

  “What nonsense is this, the prescribed position is…” he began pompously.

  “The prescribed position is for your convenience, not the patients,” Cass snarled and made him jump back. She turned back to Stephanie who was trying hard not to laugh through her pain at the over-inflated doctor. They shared a little grin as they had many times in the old days. Cass could see that another contraction was starting and she hiked up Stephanie’s gown above her legs and anchored it under her hips so she was fully exposed and she could see the baby.

  “Damn that hurts,” Stephanie gasped as she began to bear down.

  Cass laughed at the swearing, she knew Stephanie would never remember it. Many of her patients never did and she thought of it as God’s way of perpetuating the species, if they remembered the pain and the agony much what they said at this time they would never have another child and the end of mankind would happen. Many times, if the husband was in the room he remembered it a lot longer than he should. Cass had warned many of them never to report what she had said or done while in the throes of childbirth if they valued their marriage. “Come on push!” she encouraged as she felt between Stephanie’s legs for the head.

  Stephanie tried, she really did but the pain overwhelmed her and she fought it.

  “Go with the pain Stephanie, don’t let it defeat you, it’s your body’s way of getting this lump out of your body, come on now PUSH!” she encouraged her.

  Stephanie was so relieved to have Cass there that she listened to her and gave a mighty push.

  “Now hold on, hang on there, don’t push…” Cass started to say.

  “Make up your mind…” Stephanie gasped and they shared another smile, almost a laugh.

  Cass felt for the head and instead felt a foot that popped through. Oh shit, she thought, it’s breech.

  “Okay now, push on the next contraction,” she encouraged again. She quickly adjusted the foot and then fingered for the other one so they would come out properly.

  “She’s breech!” the doctor exclaimed excitedly coming closer. “We should really cut in and do a Cesarean…” he said excitedly imagining how this would make him look.

  “SHUT UP!” Cass roared at him causing him to jump back. “She is doing just fine and wouldn’t have known if not for your big mouth!” She turned back to a now frightened Stephanie and said in a soothing voice, “We got this, come on now PUSH!”

  “You sure?” Stephanie gasped out through the pain.

  Cass smiled at her and encouraging her gently helped the baby to be born backwards. Slowly, surely, it slid from its mother’s body. Slimy, gross, but whole. It seemed surprised at the cold air as Cass lowered him to the rags that were covered in grime and immediately started crying. Cass allowed Stephanie to lay back for a moment as she reached for the baby. Just then Stephanie cried out in even more pain. Cass looked up to see an incredible ripple rip through her stomach, another contraction but not just from the placenta. Placing her fingers inside she pushed up and in and felt another head. “It’s twins Stephanie, come on, we’ve got to do this once more.” She wiped down the little boy baby and put him down at the end of the bed still attached to his mother by the cord.

  “I can take him,” the doctor offered but a look from Stephanie stayed his hand, he hadn’t wanted to dirty his clothes anyway as he watched horrified at her techniques. They certainly hadn’t taught him such nonsense at school! Why the proper procedure would have been a cesarean and while the mother wouldn’t have been able to have any more children…that wasn’t his concern.

  Cass pulled Stephanie back up to a sitting position. “Come on, you’v
e got this down pat, you just delivered your son, let’s see what else is in store for you,” she teased.

  Stephanie, weary from the first birth pulled from the reserves somewhere inside her, having Cass there, her encouragement, her knowledge, and she could see in her eyes, her love, that all gave her the strength to try once again, once more, anything for this woman as she began to push against the pain. “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD,” she shouted as she pushed as hard as she could.

  “I see the head, come on, another like that!” Cass said excitedly hoping to imbue that excitement in her dear friend.

  “No, no, I can’t do it,” Stephanie sobbed exhausted, it was just too much, it hurt too much!

  “Yes you can, you are almost there, come on Stephanie, for the baby, for Cal, for me…?” She looked up begging her friend to try again, to deliver this child she had wanted so badly. The baby on the end of the bed began to cry again and at the sound Stephanie looked over.

  She could do this, for Cass she would do anything. She pushed as hard as she could manage. The veins popped out on her forehead as she tried. Her face turned red as she pushed as hard as she could and Cass caught the baby in her hands but barely she shot out so fast among more fluids with the placenta right out behind her.

  “It’s a girl,” Cass started to cry looking up at Stephanie who looked exhausted down on them. She was wavering in her seated position so Cass quickly wiped her daughter down who immediately started to cry as she lay next to her brother who was also crying. Cass clamped off both cords and the placenta and left them in a pile next to the bed on the newspapers and rags. She checked Stephanie and washed her up as she helped her back into the bed and packed her with rags. “You did it, you DID IT! Twins!” she smiled down at her friend as she carefully stepped back away from the bed.

  “I can help you wash up these two,” the doctor offered but it was obviously a halfhearted offer. Cass looked at him with dull eyes.

  “Don’t bother, in fact you can leave any time,” she told him bluntly. She picked up the little boy, unwrapped him from the rags and washed him in the basin.

  “What about the circumcision?” he asked curious. “Are you a doctor that you are qualified to perform such surgery?” he asked pompously feeling he had her at this.

  “A circumcision?” Cass asked.

  “A what?” Stephanie asked at the same time.

  Cass rapidly washed the boy and cleaned him completely before competently wrapping him in the swaddling blanket that Stephanie had ready. She handed the baby not to the waiting doctor but to Stephanie as she reached for the girl baby to clean her up. “You aren’t performing any unnecessary surgery today, get OUT!” she said ominously as she cleaned the baby and snarled over her shoulder.

  “Well, we shall just see about this!” he said angrily. He had never been so insulted in all his life. Here he offered his services. Stephanie had called him! Once Cass had shown up he had been pushed aside, ignored, and insulted! “We shall JUST SEE about THIS!” he said ominously as he left.

  “Finally!” Cass muttered as she shushed the now squawking infant and wiped her down with the rags. “Here, I’ll have to find her something to swaddle her in. Are you strong enough to hold them both?” she asked Stephanie who was looking down at her son with such joy Cass wanted to cry.

  “I can manage,” she answered holding out her empty arm for the other infant.

  Cass gathered the soaked rags and newspapers and wrapped them up to dispose of them later. Carrying the now dirty water she poured it into the toilet in the bathroom and rinsed out the bowl. Then she washed herself up and removed her apron looking like the nurse she used to be in her outfit. She looked for and found a blanket in Summer’s room and turned to head back into the bedroom.

  “Cass?” a little boy’s voice stopped her and she whipped around to see Timmy, Tommy, and Summer all standing in the boy’s room looking scared. She hadn’t even known they were home.

  She smiled to cover her shock. They had to of heard everything from their mothers screams, to the language they had used. She was certain there would be some scars to cover up from this. “I didn’t know where you guys were, come and see,” she said tilting her head to their mother’s room.

  “Doctor told us to stay in here and not to move, I have to go to the bathroom!” Tommy said importantly. Cass smiled at him as he passed running into the bathroom and closing the door with a bang.

  “What about you two, want to see what your mom just did?” Cass asked and Summer got up to head in by her mother.

  “Is she okay?” Timmy asked scared.

  “Okay? She’s fantastic, come and see what she did!” Cass said enthusiastically, she knew that all the children were young and she hoped some memory of what they had just overheard would fade.

  The children were impressed, even Tommy when he joined them. They not only had a new brother but a new sister, both at the same time! It was just like a litter of kittens!

  When Cal came in from the fields to find dinner he found Cass of all people cooking and the children soon told him what had happened. He looked over their heads at Cass who didn’t say a word as she fed the excited children. He went upstairs to see his newborns and found Stephanie feeding them one at a time on one breast at a time.

  “You okay?” he asked gruffly. He was filled with pride, he had never thought to have children of his own and in one fell swoop he had two. None of the Indian women he had known had become pregnant with his children. He looked down on them with awe, they looked so small.

  “I’m fine, thanks to Cass,” she told him.

  “Cass, she delivered you? Why not the doc?” he asked with surprise.

  “Oh that idiot! I wouldn’t want him to deliver a cow!” she said heatedly. “He was born breach,” her head bobbed to the boy baby that was sucking at her breast, not getting much but enough that he was satisfied. “If it weren’t for Cass I don’t know what would have happened. She was wonderful.”

  Cal could hear the admiration and love she had for his sister in her voice and he understood. Their ‘accident’ had netted these two fine children but she still loved his sister. There was nothing he could do to change that. “Well, since there is two of them, folks will believe they came early then won’t they,” he said in reference to them actually being full term.

  Stephanie smiled and nodded as she switched the babies.

  “What are you going to call them?” he asked.

  “Would you like to name your son?” she asked feeling bad at how she could see he felt. She knew he was unsure and felt left out.

  He shrugged. “I never named anything,” he told her.

  “What about your mules,” she teased.

  “Daisy ain’t no name for a child,” he said with a laugh as she tried and failed to get the girl child to latch on.

  “This child is as stubborn as a mule,” she said exasperated as she tried again and again to get her to latch on to her nipple.

  “Maybe we should call her Daisy then,” he teased.

  “I think that’s a fine name!” Stephanie said with a laugh. “I think though we should call your son Cal, just like his father.”

  “Well, um er, my name isn’t exactly just Cal,” he told her uncomfortably.

  “Well I know your middle name is John but what do you mean?” she asked. They hadn’t said anything at the small wedding ceremony they had at the courthouse. She hadn’t even looked at the wedding certificate they had both signed.

  “My father and mother liked big names, mouthfuls of name. You know Cass’s name is Cassandra Jane, I was given California John,” he said embarrassed. He looked down and then glanced up at her.

  Stephanie had a grin on her face. “Well, we won’t give him that big of a moniker okay?”

  “What’s a moniker?” he asked quickly.

  “It’s a fancy word for a name, in this case a big name,” she told him. She looked down at her son moving around on the bed but going nowhere. She should burp him after she got thi
s stubborn little girl fed. She was still having difficulty taking the nipple. “Let’s call him Cal John Scheimer Junior and she we can call Daisy Jane Scheimer?”

  He shook his head. “No, we will call her,” he gestured at the tiny little girl who had latched on to her mother’s nipple finally. “Daisy Cassandra Scheimer.”

  Stephanie started to tear up and nodded.

  “Would you like to hold him?” she offered as Cal Jr started crying from the bubbles in his stomach. “He needs to be burped.”

  “You would trust me?” he said in awe. He had seen the Indian squaws and never the men handling the babies and hadn’t thought he would be trusted with his own offspring.

  She smiled and nodded and gestured for him to take the now crying baby. As soon as he picked up the little wrapped bundle the boy stopped crying and tried to open his eyes. His eyes were the milky blue color that newborns eyes were. He seemed to be studying Cal and let out a little burp of gas that looked like a small smile. Cal couldn’t believe this was his son, his! He gently put the boy face down over his shoulder and began patting his back enthusiastically.

  “A little softer perhaps,” Stephanie offered advice quietly.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Cal John Scheimer Junior and Daisy Cassandra Scheimer were baptized in the church that Stephanie had gotten them all to go to so long ago several months later. St. Matthews was a nice church and everyone welcomed them and their new offspring. Cass stood up as Godmother and Cal had somehow gotten Running Beaver, his best friend, and a Indian to come to stand as their Godfather. It had caused a stir in the small community. Indians were not thought of well, too many had lost relatives in the distant past and they were distrusted. Cal and Cass had insisted though and Running Beaver was proud to be godfather to these offspring of his white friend.

  Doctor Mavis had protested outrage over Cass’s and her techniques about this birth. He had tried to sully her reputation in town but not many believed him. Cass checked with those outlying farmers where the doctor had delivered boy babies and checking with each one had found that the boys had been circumcised without the parent’s knowledge or consent.