by Joanne Fluke
“There’s one other thing you can do. If she’s too excited to take charge of Tracey, will you do it?”
“Of course I will!” Michelle reached out to give Andrea a little hug. “This is so exciting. I get to be an aunt again!”
Hannah turned to Lonnie. “Will you help us get Andrea out to Mike’s Hummer? It rides pretty high off the ground, and she might need a boost up. Michelle can guard the door until you get back.”
With Lonnie helping, it didn’t take long to load Andrea in the backseat of the Hummer. The moment he’d run back inside, Hannah turned to Norman and held out the keys. “Do you want to drive?”
“You do it. I’ll ride in the back with Andrea.”
“But don’t you want to drive a Hummer?”
“Sure, but not as much as I want to see the expression on Mike’s face when you tell him you drove.”
Hannah could hear Andrea panting as she started the engine and pulled away from the curb into the swirling blanket of white snow that awaited them. “What are you doing back there?”
“Panting. It slows down labor. I’m just glad Norman’s here with me.”
“Why?”
“I know dentists take some of the same classes doctors do. And so I was hoping that…do you know how to deliver a baby, Norman?”
There was a long silence from the backseat and then Norman chuckled. “I think I can handle it. It can’t be all that different from a root canal.”
Once she’d navigated the first few blocks, Hannah concluded that Mike’s Hummer was a perfect vehicle for such horrible weather. It plowed through dense drifts that would have stopped other trucks cold, and the traction was nothing short of miraculous on the icy patches of road. Under other circumstances Hannah might have enjoyed driving Mike’s prized vehicle, but not with the stakes this high.
Driving through town wasn’t bad, and Hannah was just starting to feel confident when she turned onto Old Lake Road. Then things changed for the worse. The land was flat here, and there were no buildings to act as windbreaks. Visibility was only a foot or two, and it was almost impossible to distinguish the ice-packed shoulder of the road from the pavement itself. Hannah forced herself to hold the wheel steady and prayed that she was on the right track. The snow swirling and whipping in front of the headlights didn’t help. It caused her to lose all sense of direction, until it was virtually impossible to tell left from right, or even up from down.
Somehow, Hannah knew she’d never be sure exactly how they’d made it, they arrived at the turnoff for Lake Eden Memorial Hospital and successfully navigated the circular driveway. Hannah stopped only inches from the emergency room door and leaned on the horn with a vengeance.
“We’re here!” a burly orderly shouted out, opening up the rear door. “Lonnie Murphy called us to say you were coming.”
“Hannah?”
“Yes, Andrea.” Hannah turned back to watch the orderly help her sister out onto a gurney.
“I don’t bake the cake.”
“What cake?”
“The Jell-O Cake. I buy a pound cake at the Red Owl. I just wanted you to know that. I don’t think you’re supposed to go into the delivery room with a lie on your conscience.”
Once Andrea had been whisked inside, Norman and Hannah spent a full minute in silence, she in the front seat and he in the back. Finally Norman broke the silence. “You want coffee?”
“Yes.”
“Inside?”
“Yes. Were you nervous?”
“Of course I was. I’m a dentist, not an obstetrician.”
Without another word they opened their respective doors and headed straight through the emergency room to the coffee machine in the lobby.
“Here, Hannah.” Norman handed her a small fortune in change. “You get the coffee and I’ll find out where they took Andrea.”
Before the coffee had time to cool and turn into the tar that Hannah was sure it would, Norman was back. “Andrea’s in the maternity ward. That’s down at the end of the south wing. The nurse said we can go down there and wait in the expectant fathers’ room.”
“Okay,” Hannah said, handing Norman his paper cup of coffee and following him down the hall. “I should probably find a phone and call Bill.”
“I did that already. There’s nothing for us to do now but wait.”
“Waiting is the thing I hate to do the most,” Hannah said, gazing around as they entered the waiting room. There was a small Christmas tree on the table in the corner, and someone had strung red and green paper chains across the expanse of the ceiling. “This is nice. They decorated for Christmas. I wonder how long it takes to have a baby.”
Norman shrugged. “I asked the nurse that and she said, ‘It depends.’ She also told me that Doc Knight would come to tell us when the baby was born.”
Ten minutes passed as they paged through outdated magazines and pretended interest. Another five minutes passed as they stared at the small Christmas tree. The chairs were comfortable enough, and there was a television set that was programmed to play shorts entitled, “Baby’s First Bath,” and “Burping Your Baby,” but neither Hannah nor Norman felt like watching it.
“Restless?” Norman asked, catching her mood.
“Yes. Let’s walk.”
The hallway was wide and long, and Hannah wondered whether it had been designed for expectant fathers who wanted to stretch their legs. It felt good to walk off the tension, and Hannah linked arms with Norman and let him set the pace. The hallway was also decorated for Christmas with cutouts of Santas, reindeer, holly, wreaths, snowmen, and Christmas trees. Hannah counted the number of times they passed the snowman with the red muffler, and she was nearing one hundred when Mike came rushing down the corridor.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“We don’t know,” Hannah told him. “Norman asked the nurse and she said Doc Knight would come out and tell us once the baby’s born. Is Bill here?”
“Not yet. He’s still interviewing Babs, but he’ll come as soon as he can. Good thing I left you the Hummer.” Mike turned to Norman. “She handles great, doesn’t she?”
“Like a champ. Hannah didn’t have a bit of trouble.”
Hannah felt like applauding as Mike’s mouth dropped open. Norman certainly knew how to deliver a zinger. She gave him a little wink behind Mike’s back and then she reached out to take Mike’s arm. “Come walk with us. There’s nothing to do here except pace the floor.”
Time seemed to go a little faster with three of them pacing, or perhaps it was the conversation. Mike was just telling them about how Bill had come close to getting stuck only a few feet from the turnoff for the sheriff’s station, when Earl Flensburg came running down the hall.
“Boy, am I glad to see you here!” Earl said, reaching out to pump Hannah’s hand. “I went back to the community center and your little sister told me where you went. I just grabbed a cup of coffee and then I got back on the road and followed in your tracks. I figured that if you went off in the ditch, I could pull you out.”
“I came close a couple of times,” Hannah said, sneaking a quick glance at Mike’s face. He didn’t look happy, but he was wise enough not to ask if there was any damage to his Hummer. Of course, he probably knew there wasn’t, because he’d sneaked a look before he came inside.
“Edna sent this,” Earl told her, pulling a giant metal thermos from the deep back pouch in his county issue parka. She said you shouldn’t be tortured with hospital coffee.”
“I’ll get the cups,” Norman said, dashing inside the expectant fathers’ waiting room and coming back with four Styrofoam cups.
When everyone had a good cup of coffee, Hannah raised hers high. “To Edna. She’s a lifesaver!”
“How’s your sister doing?” Earl asked once the cups were empty.
“Fine I guess, or we would have heard something. The nurse said Doc Knight will come out and tell us right after the baby’s born.”
Just talking about it made Hannah nervous, and
she started to pace again. Mike quickly took one of her arms, and Norman took the other. Earl watched them for a moment, and then he took up a position by Mike’s side and started to pace with them.
It was a good thing it was a wide hallway, because Lisa appeared next. She rushed up to Hannah and asked, “Did she have the baby yet?”
“Not yet. How did you get here?”
“Herb borrowed the biggest truck in the lot and drove us. He’ll be here in a minute.”
“How’s Andrea doing?” Herb asked Hannah, rushing up to take Lisa’s arm.
“We don’t know,” Hannah said, wondering if she should borrow some crayons from the children’s waiting room and make a sign. “Everything must be okay, or we would have heard something. Doc Knight’s going to come out and tell us right after the baby’s born.”
Lisa and Herb watched them pace for a moment, and then they joined in. Herb took his place next to Norman and Lisa paced next to Herb.
Hannah had just passed the snowman in the red muffler for the three hundred-and-fourteenth time when she saw Bill rushing toward them from the end of the hallway. “Here comes Bill!”
“How’s Andrea?” Bill asked, panting a bit as he sprinted the last few yards.
Hannah smiled to set the expectant father at ease and chastised herself mentally for not making that sign. “She must be okay, or we would have heard something. Doc Knight’s going to come out and tell us right after the baby’s born.”
“Great. What are you doing?”
“Pacing. We couldn’t think of anything else to do.”
“Sounds reasonable to me,” Bill said, linking arms with Lisa and taking up the outside position on the left. Let’s pick up the pace a little. I’m getting nervous.”
All they needed was music and the ability to kick in unison, and they could have tried out for a cabaret. The Todd party horizontal conga line was just rounding the corner for the forty-third time since Bill had joined them, when Doc Knight appeared at the end of the hallway.
“You can stop wearing out my linoleum,” he said, smiling widely. “It’s a girl, and mother and baby are just fine!”
“A girl!” Bill exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. “That’s wonderful!”
“A girl?” Hannah asked, wondering if Doc Knight was so worn out from working long hours that he’d gotten Andrea’s son mixed up with another female baby he’d delivered tonight.
As everyone crowded around Bill to offer congratulations and slap him on the back, Hannah rushed up to Doc before he could go off to do whatever doctors do after they deliver a baby.
Doc Knight turned as she grabbed his arm. “What is it, Hannah?”
“You said Andrea had a girl. Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. You can’t be in this business for as long as I have if you can’t tell a girl baby from a boy baby.”
“Right. I just thought maybe…well…she had the test, and she told me it was ninety-nine percent accurate.”
“That’s true, but she just happened to hit that one percent. Your sister had a baby girl, seven pounds, three ounces. I’m sorry if that disappoints you, but those are the facts.”
“I’m not disappointed,” Hannah did her best to explain. “It’s just that Andrea promised to name a girl after Mother and Regina Todd. And the only reason she did that was because she was sure she was having a boy. Now it turns out to be a girl, and…”
“She’s in hot water,” Doc Knight finished the sentence for her. “No wonder she cried when I told her the baby was a girl.”
“She cried?” Hannah asked, feeling a bit like crying herself.
“Not for long. One look at her daughter and she was happy again. But just as soon as the new daddy goes off to celebrate with his friends, I think you sisters had better put your heads together and see if you can come up with a name that’ll please both families.”
“Are you okay?” Hannah asked, entering Andrea’s room the second that Bill had vacated it.
“I’m fine, but Mother and Regina won’t be. There’s no way I’m naming my darling little daughter Delores Regina or Regina Delores!”
“I can understand that,” Hannah said.
“So what am I going to do? You’ve got to help me!”
Tears threatened to roll down Andrea’s cheeks and Hannah reached out to give her a hug. “I’ll think of something. Just give me a minute. Did you promise specifically to use their first names?”
“No.”
“That’s good. That means we have at least two more names to work with. Mother’s middle name is Elizabeth. Do you know what Regina’s is?”
“Anatolia,” Andrea said promptly. “Since they had such a common last name, Regina’s mother decided to give her children distinctive names. Regina Anatolia is the Italian baby. Bill’s aunt, Martinique Renée, is the French. And then there’s the youngest sister, Dona Esmeralda, and she’s the…”
“That’s enough family history for now,” Hannah said, holding up her hand in a gesture that meant halt in any language. “I think I might have come up with something that’ll please everybody, you included.”
“What?” Andrea asked, looking hopeful.
“Bethany.”
“That’s one of my favorite names! But…how do you get Bethany out of Regina Anatolia and Delores Elizabeth?”
Hannah grinned, feeling rather proud of herself. This had taken some fast brainwork. “Beth is a nickname for Elizabeth. And Annie could be a nickname for Anatolia. Combine the two and you get Beth-Annie or Bethany.”
“Perfect,” Andrea said, reaching out to give her older sister a hug. “You did it, Hannah. Mother’s going to be pleased, and so is Bill’s mother. You’re a miracle worker, especially if you can find me some chocolate somewhere in this hospital.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Due to a stroke of good fortune, Hannah just happened to have her emergency stash of three Chocolate Chip Crunch cookies in plastic wrap in her coat pocket, and she turned them over to Andrea without a whimper. Then she hurried off to the nursery to have a peek at Bethany. She was about to leave in search of Mike so that she could return the keys to his Hummer, when Mike found her at the nursery window.
“Is that her?”
There was something close to reverence in Mike’s tone and Hannah smiled. “That’s Bethany. Andrea just named her.”
“I like it. It was one of the names on our list when…”
Mike stopped in mid-sentence and Hannah reached out to squeeze his arm. She knew his wife had been killed by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting when she was pregnant with their first baby. “So, do you think she’s pretty?”
“She’s the most beautiful baby in the nursery,” Mike said with a smile. “Of course she’s also the only baby in the nursery, but that doesn’t count.”
Mike’s arm tightened around her, and Hannah did her best to switch gears. They had unfinished business. Since Shawna Lee had already landed in Georgia, they were no longer engaged in the brownie wars. She needed Mike to return the pan of Hot Brownies before he tasted them.
“You know those brownies I brought out to the sheriff’s station this morning?” Hannah dived right in. “I hope you haven’t tasted them yet, because I think I might have made a mistake and left out an ingredient. If you’ll give them back, I’ll dump them and bake you another batch.”
“No way!” Mike said, staring at her with a frown.
“Why not?”
“Because I tasted them, and they’re terrific. They’ve got jalapeños, right?”
“Uh…right,” Hannah said, and she swallowed hard. Mike didn’t look all that angry, but you could never tell about a guy who was used to hiding his emotions in an interrogation room.
“That was a stroke of genius. You’re the only one I know who’d think to put diced jalapeños in brownies. Sure, they’ve got a little burn, but if you eat them with milk on the side, they’re great. I’m going to get some vanilla ice cream tomorrow and try them à la mode.”
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br /> Hannah stood there with a gaping mouth, not even noticing that little Bethany Todd wore the same puzzled expression as her aunt. “You…uh…you liked them?”
“The chilies really bring out the taste of the chocolate. You don’t have to take out an ad or anything, but Shawna Lee’s brownies can’t hold a candle to yours!”
Hannah stared up into Mike’s face. He was serious. He liked her jalapeño brownies. Should she confess that she’d baked them out of meanness, and spite, and jealousy?
Oh, sure. When pigs fly. Hannah smiled demurely, no easy task for her, and gave Mike a little hug.
“Thank you for the compliment,” she said, following her mother’s golden rule. “I’m so glad you liked them.”
Appetizers
Baked Brie
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position
This is Lisa Herman’s recipe, and she says to tell you that it’s the easiest appetizer she ever made in her life.
6-inch round just ripened baby Brie (5-inch will also work)
one round, unsliced loaf of bread, 10 to 12 inches in diameter
¼ cup chopped green onion (clean and peel them first—then you can use up to two inches of the stem)
¼ cup chopped shallots
¼ teaspoon white pepper
2 Tablespoons white wine (or 1 Tablespoon water, 1 Tablespoon vinegar)
½ teaspoon Season Salt (See Priscilla Knudson’s recipe on backmatter)
Slice the top from the bread. Keep the top—you’ll need it later. Hollow out the inside of the bread, leaving at least ¾ inch of bread in place on the sides and 1 inch on the bottom.
Slice off the top rind of the baby Brie. (If you dip your knife in water frequently, it won’t stick as much.) Leave the rest of the rind in place. Place the Brie in the bread.
In a small bowl, mix together the green onion, shallots, white pepper, white wine, and Season Salt.
