Almost As Much (The Cherished Memories Book 3)

by Linda Ellen

  “Sorry!” Fleet yelled as she fought the large steering wheel.

  Managing to slowly follow the road through the neighborhood, only slowing to look both ways at two stops, Fleet halted the beat up vehicle at the stop sign on Breckinridge Lane and waited for traffic to allow her to move out onto the main thoroughfare. Struggling with the steering and the shimmying, she managed to get it out just enough into the flow of traffic when she killed the motor again. A horn blared behind them.

  “All right, all right! Hold your horses!” she growled over her shoulder, scrambling to restart the engine. More grinding of gears and the truck began inching forward again, but it took all of Fleet’s strength to turn the wheel enough to make the corner. The back tire again ran up over the curb and dropped off, resulting in both women bouncing willy-nilly on the coil-spring bench seat.

  That seemed to trigger another contraction, and Louise let out a screech. “Ahhhh, Fleet, hurry! Hurry!”

  “I’m tryin’, I’m tryin’” Fleet flung back, swallowing down her fear of driving fast in a vehicle she was afraid of, before she added, “For once, I’m glad Alec’s mom and sister insisted on taking Alexa for the day.”

  Louise didn’t answer as she was concentrating on getting through the pain.

  Fleet checked the traffic in the rearview mirror as the truck moved along at a good clip. Everything finally seemed to be going well. She looked over at Louise again, and grinning proudly, she opened her mouth to say she thought she’d gotten the hang of it when she looked forward again and saw the brake lights on the car ahead. She let out a screech as she fought to steer around it, nearly side-swiping the other car in the process.

  Fighting to get the ridiculous old bucket of bolts headed straight once more, Fleet quickly prayed that they could just sail through each traffic light so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the clutch again. Glancing at Louise to gauge her condition, she mumbled, “Eight more miles…you gonna make it?”

  After a few moments, Louise turned her head and tried to grin as she joked, “I hope so…unless we can find a cop or a taxi driver with nothing better to do.”

  Fleet laughed and then mumbled a swear word when the next traffic light turned yellow. She carefully pressed the brake and the clutch as she maneuvered the truck into neutral at the light. When the signal turned green, she moved the gearshift, pressed the gas, and promptly killed the motor again.

  “Ohhhh, this stupid thing!” she yelled, slamming her palms on the steering wheel in frustration before frantically trying to start the ignition again. Horns blared and a driver roared around them, rudely gesturing out his window, and yelling something about “stupid women drivers” as he went by them. Fleet rolled down her window and bellowed after him, “Blow it out your ear, you jerk!”

  “Fleet!” Louise squealed, gripping the dashboard and trying not to screech as the truck lurched, bucked, and shimmied like a bull in a rodeo. Now I know what bull riders and broncobusters go through. The thought crossed her mind that if the situation weren’t so serious, it would be hilariously funny. “If you don’t quit that, I’m gonna have this baby right here!” she yelled after a particularly hard lurch.

  “I can’t help it!” she bellowed in return. “You made me drive this no good piece of junk!” Then glancing over at Louise again, she added, “Sorry honey…just hold on…and try not to push,” she added with a cheeky grin.

  Louise flashed her a pout. “Easy for you to say.”

  A minute later, clamping her lips tightly as the most recent contraction began to abate, Louise fought irrational giggles at the absurdity of it all. “And you thought I was wild that time you taught me how to drive. This is just the kind of shenanigans Lucy and Ethel would experience on I Love Lucy.” She paused a moment, shaking her head. “All we need now is to be pulled over by the cops.”

  Ten seconds later, they heard the unmistakable tinny wail of a siren, and Fleet met Louise’s shocked expression, before looking up into the small, tarnished rearview mirror to see that they were being hailed by a motorcycle cop. Judging from the expression on his face, he was definitely not amused.

  “What else is gonna happen?”

  *

  “Man, you picked the right day to come back home,” Vic laughed across at his oldest brother, Jack.

  “Yeah, fancy meeting you two here, huh?” Jack responded. The three brothers chuckled as they sat together in the waiting room of the old City Hospital.

  “Don’t it beat all – both of us being in crashes today, and both of us here with our wives hurt,” Al added, shaking his head at the coincidence. Jack took a swig of a bottle from a brown paper sack, wiped off the top, and handed it to Al. He took a drink and passed it to Vic.

  Thinking it was sure a funny place for a family reunion, Vic asked Jack, “So, what happened, again?” He took a deep swallow from the covered bottle and coughed at the strong taste. Jack reached over and snatched the item from his hands, then proceeded for the second time to tell the story of how a dump truck veered in front of their car, causing him to steer off the road and hit a guardrail as they were exiting the Second Street Bridge. “I figure the wife’s just got a touch of whiplash, but I thought we’d better have it checked out.”

  “Yeah, same here,” Al agreed. “Goldie seemed all right at first, but by the time the police got there, she said her neck was hurting.” Then, glancing at his brothers, he quipped, “Man, I’m glad I bought that tank. My old Rambler would’ve folded right up like an accordion.” The others nodded in agreement. “But Jack – you should have seen twinkle toes here,” he added with a grin, aiming a thumb at Vic. “I bet he never moved so fast in his life – he made a flying leap like he thought he was Superman or something.”

  Vic laughed along with his brothers. “That’s cause I’m still a young buck, not old and broke down like you two.”

  He dodged as his brothers took playful swipes at him, acting a bit like they did when they were young. They came back with good-natured jokes as they all chuckled and he confessed there were some days he didn’t feel like such a young buck anymore. “Kiddin’ aside, though, I thought my number was up for sure.”

  “I wish I’d been there to see it,” Jack commented, shaking his head at the mental image of Al’s big fancy Oldsmobile perched half in and half out of the building. “What happened after the fire department got there?”

  “Not much. We hooked the wrecker up to the back of the car and dragged it out, they checked everything to make sure there wasn’t any danger of a spark from loose wires or leaking fuel in the car, and we answered questions for the reports,” Vic explained. “The cop had a sense of humor. He asked me if I wanted to press charges for breaking and entering. I thought about it, but I said, ‘Nah’,” he teased with a chuckle.

  “I don’t see how it could be breaking and entering, since you were open,” Al shot back with a wink.

  Jack’s head wagged side to side in amazement. “And that you were on the telephone talking to your wife when it happened, that just beats all.”

  With that, Vic’s eyes widened. “Speakin’ of Louise, I should call her. She’s probably worried sick.”

  Al’s mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe you haven’t called her yet!” Then, as Vic got up to move over to the payphone on the wall, Al called, “If she’s anything like my wife, she’ll have your hide.”

  Vic winked in agreement as he dropped coins into the slot and dialed his number. After a few rings, Lilly answered the phone, sounding a bit out of breath.

  “Lilly? It’s Vic.”

  Without acknowledging his greeting, Lilly started right in on him. “I’ve been gone to Sis and Frank’s and when I got home a few minutes ago, I found a note on the table. All it says is, Louise worried about Vic, went into labor. Taking her to hospital. Fleet. I’ve been calling and calling, but the phone at the station is busy!” she blustered. “What happened? Why was Louise worried?”

  Vic quickly informed his mother-in-law of the particulars and t
hen asked, “How’d they get to the hospital? They call a cab?”

  “I thought they took the car, it’s not in the drive.”

  Vic’s eyes widened. “Is the pickup?”

  “No – don’t you have the truck with you?”

  “No, I took the car to the station after lunch and left the truck at home!” Vic exclaimed.

  “Then, that’s how they went,” Lilly deduced.

  “But the pickup’s standard transmission – I thought Alec said Fleet can’t drive a stick.”

  “Well, apparently she did – unless someone has come along and stolen the old thing. I can’t imagine who’d want it, though,” she added with slight sarcasm.

  Feeling like a heel for not having contacted his wife sooner, Vic ended the call and hung up the phone. I can’t believe I was on the telephone with her, knew she heard the crash, and forgot to call her back! The worry probably caused her to go into early labor.

  Berating himself, he hurried back to his brothers.

  “Louise is havin’ the baby – Lilly says she here at the hospital!” he added before taking off at a dead run for the maternity ward. Having been through two pregnancies with her before, he knew exactly which floor it was on.

  Open-mouthed, his surprised brothers watched him go.

  *

  The first thing Louise recognized when consciousness returned was her husband’s voice speaking softly somewhere nearby. She opened one eye, and then the other, peering through her lashes, trying to make sense of her surroundings. Familiar images registered, such as the ceiling of the maternity ward at City Hospital. Her head was turned slightly and she saw that she was in the last bed in the row, next to the window. The darkness outside told her it was evening.

  Then, slowly, the events began to come back to her…

  The motorcycle cop had, indeed, pulled them over, which was a feat in itself, complete with the passenger-side tires bumping haphazardly up onto the sidewalk. He parked his motorcycle in front of the Chevy, dismounted, yanked his jacket down over his hips, adjusted his cap, and stomped to the driver’s window, obviously prepared to give the woman behind the wheel a dressing down. However, he took one look into the passenger side as Fleet exclaimed, “My friend’s about to have her baby!” and immediately sprang into action.

  Louise couldn’t have dreamed when she had awakened that morning that she would be receiving a police escort to the hospital, and if she hadn’t been doubled over in excruciating pain for most of the trip, she might have found it exhilarating. And yet…

  Fleet had followed the policeman the rest of the way, mumbling that she was grateful that he kept the other drivers out of the way so that she wouldn’t have to do more than slow down at intersections, and not have to come to a complete stop and kill the motor. He had arrived at the hospital first, parked, and ran inside as Fleet lurched Vic’s old service station truck to a stop at the emergency room doors. Out of one eye, she watched Fleet shove the rickety gearshift into first, and mash down on the emergency brake. Then, the longest twenty seconds of Louise’s life passed as they waited in the cab of the truck for the cop, a nurse, and an orderly with a gurney to hurry out to assist.

  They had made short work of wrangling her out of the cab and onto the stretcher. Just before the swinging doors had shut between them and she was rolled away, she had heard the nurse at the admitting desk asking Fleet and the uniformed policeman questions. Then, it was a harrowing ride down endless halls, most of it completed with her eyes shut tight, listening to the nurse’s attempt at humor while trying her best not to yell as she withstood yet another contraction.

  The welcoming party took her straight to the delivery room, and after a quick check and an even quicker preparation, a staff doctor had begun talking her through the delivery. A call was put in to Dr. Denton, but she was told they couldn’t wait for his arrival. The doctor on duty gave her a shot for pain, but there wasn’t enough time for them to administer a saddle block, the painkiller she had received with her previous three deliveries.

  After some fierce pains and heroic pushing, the baby had been born. Louise had fought off the encroaching sleepiness brought on by another shot while she repeatedly asked the nurses and the doctor to tell her if she’d delivered a boy or a girl. Her last conscious memory had been the nurse’s answer…

  Now, she focused on her husband in the soft light of the bedside lamp as he carefully held a small bundle in his arms, wrapped in a hospital baby blanket. He was cooing and speaking sweet baby talk to the infant as others looked on fondly. Louise’s awareness cleared just enough to realize who the people were, and she smiled that her in-laws were there to share the momentous event.

  At that moment, Vic glanced up at her, his face transforming into his most fetching dimpled grin, his teeth shining white against his tanned face in the lamplight as he whispered, “Hey babe. How d’you feel?”

  Goldie, Liz, and Vic’s brothers immediately shifted their attention to Louise as she aimed a sleepy smile of welcome their way.

  Then, her gaze once again met her husband’s and she smiled lovingly at the picture of the two of them – he and their new baby. It was an image she knew she would never forget. Her eyes twinkling impishly, as she murmured with a dry mouth, “See? I told you I was having a girl.”

  He closed his mouth, but his lips still formed the grin as he inclined his head in acknowledgment of her statement. “Yep. You sure did.”

  “Congratulations, Louise!” chorused the others gathered near the bed.

  Louise smiled happily as she met each one’s gaze. Once again, her eyes finding her husband’s, she wanted so much to ask to hold the baby, but extreme lethargy swiftly overtook all else.

  Her eyes drifted shut as she silently celebrated. At last I have my Anita Louise!

  *

  Jack looked around to see if any hospital personnel were near before removing the brown bag-covered item from his inside coat pocket. Unscrewing the cap, he took a deep swig, wiped the top, and surreptitiously offered it to his brothers. “In lieu of smoking a cigar in celebration, since that crotchety nurse put up such a fuss,” he kept his voice low as he leaned near. To this, he added a few derogatory names for the nurse in charge of the maternity ward, who had given the order to extinguish earlier when Al had produced several of the foul smelling items and passed them around. All three brothers had quickly lit up.

  Al chuckled, reached for the bottle, and snuck a swig as their wives glanced at one another and rolled their eyes. Vic passed the baby to Goldie, accepted the disguised bottle and joined his brothers in the covert action, glancing around and feeling much like a schoolboy doing something naughty. He took a large mouthful of the strong brew and gasped a quick breath as his eyes watered.

  “Man, what is this stuff?” he mumbled as he pulled the bottle up enough to see the bright red, broken seal at the top, and read the label. “Five Brothers Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Five Brothers?” he asked, wondering where he’d heard of that brand before then. He took another big gulp, feeling the effects burning all the way down his throat to his belly.

  “Yeah,” Jack responded, reaching for the packaged item, capping it, and slipping it back in his inside pocket. His words were just a bit slurred. “It’s bottled in a li’l brewery in Ow’nsboro. The old man used to drink it. Always said he had friends that worked there.”

  The brothers nodded in unison, remembering back through the years when their father had indulged in an occasional night of over-imbibing. It seemed to happen after a mysterious package would arrive in the post – usually a box stuffed with straw, the bottle hidden deep within.

  Vic wondered for a moment if the old man had been drinking, or was even drunk, the night he had gambled away everything they owned. The thought turned his stomach and he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. His head began to feel a bit fuzzy and he belatedly wondered if he should have taken that last big swig. Sure, he indulged occasionally, on holidays like the Fourth of July and New Year’s E
ve, but normally it was something tamer, like beer. There were a few times when he’d had whiskey, but this stuff would, as they say, “Put hair on your chest.”

  He glanced over at Louise, asleep in her hospital bed and smiled, thinking she’d be fussing up a storm if she were awake. She sure don’t like for me to drink…always says I get silly and act a fool.

  “So, what are you all going to name this newest Matthews?” Goldie asked, she and Liz awww-ing and cooing as the baby in Goldie’s arms stretched and yawned adorably.

  “I think…I think Louise has a name picked out…Annie? Annette?” Vic murmured, reaching up to scratch his head and snicker. “Danged if I didn’t forget. Guess I didn’t pay much attention, ’cause I figured it’d be another boy,” he added sheepishly. “I’m jus’ glad to have you guys here to cel’brate with me this time,” he announced, flashing a silly grin at his companions.

  Just then, noises at the other side of the ward alerted the family that visiting time was about to come to an end. Orderlies were bringing in the little rolling bassinets to begin the transferring of the newborns to the hospital nursery for the night. Moans, babies’ cries, and soft complaints were heard all over the large room.

  Once the floor nurse got to them, Liz, who had taken the baby for a few minutes of holding, carefully placed her in the woman’s arms. The nurse laid the infant in the conveyance and the family watched as an orderly wheeled her away with the others. Then, the woman turned back and produced a piece of paper, handing it to Vic.

  “Mr. Matthews, if you don’t mind, would you go ahead and fill out the birth certificate?” she asked. “I’ll come back and collect it in a few minutes” she added without giving him a chance to answer before moving over to the other side of the room.