"Let me explain to you then, we don't know exactly why pre-eclampsia occurs, just that it does. Protein in the urine and high blood pressure are the first give aways, but the illness can progress fast and hard. We usually recommend bed rest to arrest the symptoms and to give the baby inside a chance at developing. For many women bed rest is enough to make it to full term but your wife is carrying twins and we usually expect them to come early. We like a baby to come at 38 to 40 weeks, but these children have a good chance to survive. Unfortunately, sir, we are on board a cruise ship and I can only imagine you have a very grave reason for being here because no doctor in his right mind would authorize your wife for travel. Let's not get into that subject but focus on helping your wife. Like I was saying, we usually can stop pre-eclampsia from getting worse, but not always. Stress, and perhaps you two have been under a lot of it recently, I do detect a thick German accent in your English, can exacerbate the problem. Now, if the illness progresses we see liver and kidney problems, fluid in the lungs, and red cell breakdown. If things develop into full blown eclampsia, your wife could go into seizures. This disorder is common both in first pregnancies and for women carrying twins. Now, your wife already seems to be in extreme distress, and we need to help her get through. Symptoms will subside once the children are delivered, but we can't let her go into seizure or respiratory failure until that happens. I need you to be strong and to help your wife through this."
Edward nodded and saddled up beside Bernidette on the bed. Her previously pale face was now bright red and she was screaming and breathing erratically. The doctor was yelling at her to steady her breathing but Bernidette was not responding and her eyes looked confused from the pain and fear. Edward held her hand tightly and whispered in her ear in German, speaking the doctor's instructions to her in a calm, slow tone. He seemed to be getting through to her somehow. He felt Bernidette squeeze his hand lightly and she made a better effort to engage in rhythmic breathing.
"Tell her I am going to check her for her dilation," the doctor said.
"The sooner she is ready to push, the better." Edward whispered this in his wife's ear, but she shook her head no, looking scared.
"Honey, you must let him help you, please. I don't want to lose you or the children. Be brave."
After some time she nodded. The doctor checked and looking displeased he reported that she was only six centimeters dilated.
"She is too early to push, but she is in active labor. I am going to return to the medical room and bring back some painkillers that may ease her a bit and help her relax. I need you to calm her down. Find out what she needs to be comfortable, we can get her naked if she is willing, put her in a lukewarm tub. Or she can stay in the bed. I recommend you give her some ice cubes to suck on, she looks quite hot right now. She needs some nourishment for the pushing but I am worried about her ability to tolerate food. Toast, a dinner roll, something light. No meats or seafoods," the doctor said, looking at the lavish plate that Edward had brought back and left on the cabin dresser.
"And for Pete's sake get all these dang onlookers OUT OF HERE," the doctor screamed, waving his arms around in the air so the crowd dispersed.
"I will be back in thirty minutes," he told Edward, "keep her comfortable."
Thirty minutes seemed like a long time, and Edward hoped that the doctor knew what he was doing. He gave Bernidette a nibble of the roll he had brought and instructed her to suck on some ice. Her breathing had calmed down some but it was still erratic and sounded hoarse. He asked her how she wanted to be comfortable and she said she would like to soak in the tub. So Edward drew a lukewarm bath as the doctor had instructed and helped his wife in. Just getting her up off the bed and a few feet across the cabin into the tub proved to be a challenging task in her condition, but they managed to do it together. Edward stayed by her side, singing her sweet lullabies, old German songs that had been a part of their youth, and trying to keep her calm. Before he knew it the doctor was back with some medicine and to check her dilation.
Bernidette drank the medicine greedily, and the doctor waited another twenty minutes until she seemed more sedated and then he checked her cervix. "She is ten centimeters, she is ready to push whenever she feels she has the strength."
Edward took his wife's hand and asked her if she was ready. She shook her head violently no, and then stopped, feeling dizzy and seeing spots.
"I don't feel good, Edward," she whispered.
She sounded hoarse.
Edward replied, "I know my darling, but we have to get the babies born. You will feel better once they are out. Your body will be able to settle down. Do you understand? Here. Drink some water and then let's get to pushing."
Bernidette took a sip of the cold water, and then the ship's doctor helped her to get her legs into the proper position for pushing.
"If you feel like you would rather squat or stand up, you can give birth in that position as well, but with your high blood pressure I would rather see you lying down. Those painkillers I gave you can make you woozy as well. We wouldn't want you to slip and fall down."
Burnidette nodded.
"Now, whenever you feel a contraction, I want you to push as hard as you can. I am going to count to ten while you push, push, push and be your coach. Your husband and I will hold your legs back. These babies are premature and twins are always smaller, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. The end is almost here."
Of course, the doctor meant the end to her labor and her suffering from pre-eclampsia, but Edward would never forget his words and whenever he looked back on the situation they seemed to have an eerie, foreboding tone to them. Edward knew that it wasn't the doctor's fault, but he would always blame him for what happened anyway.
Burnidette pushed, weakly, making little progress for several minutes. Although Edward could see the head of one of the babies, Bernidette seemed either too weak or unwilling to push it out.
"Come now," the doctor told her, "three big pushes and the first one will be out. Number two should slide out easily after that."
He coached her, and Burnidette gave three big pushes, grunting and moaning. The first baby was born, a little girl. Edward held her up out of the water, and showed her to Burnidette, but he saw her eyes fluttering and before she could even give him a smile she was out.
"Oh no," the doctor muttered to himself. "This isn't good at all."
It was not clear what was wrong. There was not much blood lost, but Bernidette had fainted or had some sort of stroke or something. The doctor left the bathroom briefly to get the birthing kit he had left on the cabin bed. "All we can do is take care of this one and hope she wakes up. I am going to tie off the umbilical cord and cut it. I am hoping with the baby detached, your wife will get a second wind and be able to deliver the second one. This is dangerous territory I am afraid, and once I get this first child cleaned up, I am going to have to ask you to leave the bathroom and care for her. She is going to want milk, but I am afraid your wife is too weak right now. You are going to have to try to keep her soothed with a finger. She should fall asleep soon and sleep for some time."
When the baby was cut free from her mother and wiped down, Edward went to the cabin and wrapped her in one of the flannel blankets that had been provided by the cruise ship so she would be nice and snuggly warm.
"We don't even have baby clothes," he said sadly to himself, shaking his head.
He felt distraught and alarmed, not the sort of emotions he thought he would be feeling on the birth of his first and only children. But then he looked down into his newborn daughter's sweet face, her desperate, scared eyes, hungry for milk, and hungry for her mother's touch and scent, and he wept tears of joy. She was so fragile and beautiful. Her skin was pale and delicate, and Edward held her tight to him. "I will name you Jennifer," he said.
They were in an English vessel after all, and he wanted to give her a name that would suit her in America. Jennifer was the Cornish form of Guinevere, meaning 'white enchantress.' It seemed ap
propriate.
As he was losing himself in Jennifer's eyes, he heard the doctor calling, "she's awake! She's awake!"
He had run the water in the tub ice cold hoping to revive Bernidette, and it had worked. Edward rushed into the doorway, holding Jennifer tight. Bernidette turned her head toward him and he nearly dropped Jennifer as he saw how pale and dead his wife looked. Her lips were almost blue and her eyes were vacant. She looked like a ghost. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out even though her lips were moving slightly. But she seemed to see Jennifer and smiled.
"The second baby is in the birth canal quite low, she is ready to come out," the doctor informed after performing a quick pelvic exam. "Miss Bernidette, you are going to need to push. Not much and not hard, but you are going to need to push one last time. Even if it kills you."
Edward shuddered at these last words and began to cry. But Bernidette's face was void of emotion. She pushed, giving off no sounds, no more grunting, no more screaming. The smile she had given Jennifer was frozen on her face.
"Keep going, Bernidette, you are doing great. The baby is crowning," the doctor was saying, his eyes focused on the emerging newborn.
But Edward was watching his wife, and he saw she was dying. Before she could give the last push, he watched her take her last breath and then her eyes closed softly, never to open again.
"Noooo," Edward screamed, clinging tight to Jennifer.
"Shit," the doctor cursed, looking up. "I'm going to have to manually extract the baby. Its far enough along, and your wife is so dilated from the first, I should be able to pull her out gently. You see the top of her head there in the birth canal. She will die unless I do this now."
Edward nodded and the doctor went in, slid his hands around the sides of the second babies head, and pulled gently. Once the largest part of the forehead was out the rest of the babies body slid out. The baby was a dark red, almost like she was turning blue. She was smaller than Jennifer. The doctor spanked the baby hard on the bottom and suddenly she let out a loud scream and her color resolved.
"We got you out just in time," the doctor said, smiling at the baby.
When he had cut the cord and stabilized the second baby he handed her over to Edward, then he did a cursory examination of Burnidette, taking her pulse and what not, but they both knew she had died.
"Sir, I am so sorry. I did all I could, but your wife should never have travelled. I can only imagine the evil you two must have been running from, but onboard a ship like this, we just don't have the sort of services that a modern hospital can provide. You must understand. But you have two beautiful daughters, and they will need you, sir. They will need you very, very much."
Hours later Edward was alone in the cabin. He had been upgraded to a first class room close to the ship's doctor's quarters. Two small basinets had been brought in and the doctor had brought in bottles and showed him how to mix formula.
"It will be tough going sir. Not only are the babies at sea, packed onboard a ship with all sorts of people who could be harboring colds and illness, but they have not had the benefit of mother's milk and so they don't have the antibodies a regular baby would have. I suggest tomorrow morning that we try to find a mother onboard who has not weaned and let the babies have a suckle. A wet nurse, if you will. It will be much healthier for them in the long run, and sir, you are going to have your hands full without your wife. A sick baby is the last thing you need. For the duration of the trip, I recommend that you stay closed up in your cabin. Rest whenever you can, although it will be hard because these two will want to drink every two hours or so. But things will get better. New life is a miracle, I do believe that. Now sir," the doctor paused, taking a breath, "have you settled on names for these little beauties?"
"I have," Edward nodded, "this one is Jennifer," he said, raising up the larger daughter who had been born first, "and this is Harriet."
Chapter 2, California Girls
Sixteen years later and Jennifer and Harriet were healthy, thriving young women enjoying life in San Francisco. Although they had been born in international waters on a British vessel, they were technically German citizens. They took the citizenship of their mother. But after ten years of living in San Francisco and deciding that they would never return to their home country, Edward applied for them to all be United States' citizens.
His jewelry business had done very well and he was able to provide exceptionally privileged lives for his two daughters. Levi's family had helped out tremendously when he had first arrived in the Bay Area. The older women of the family took care of the two baby girls as nannies, much to the relief of Edward, who could focus on grieving for his wife and starting his new business. And what a business it became. What started out as a very small fine jewelry shop was now a large store and manufacturing facility with just under a hundred employees. The store was located on Market Street and it was known for having the highest quality jewelry and the most brilliant gem stones at fair prices with honest sales people. Edward kept his little empire growing by buying out failing, trashy jewelry manufacturers that produced low quality goods. These bad manufacturers were typically run by nasty owners who treated their employees like scum. When Edward took over he revamped the entire system, producing high quality goods and treating his employees better than decently.
He changed their lives by giving them a voice in how the company was run and having them work for a successful enterprise. He was always understanding whenever there were family problems, ill health, or addiction, and he changed a great many lives with his compassion and his good head for business.
He taught his daughter Harriet many important things about interpersonal interactions. He told her to always treat people with respect and do the right thing no matter what color or type of person you are dealing with. He also showed her that with money you could transform people's lives for the better.
"Always work for the better," he told Harriet.
He would often tell her stories about her mother and what a wonderful, compassionate woman she had been. He would also tell her stories about the follies of Germany in World War II. But most of all, he always reminded her to be brave. He told her never to take shit from anybody, for any reason, and to always be proud of herself and walk tall.
"Your mother gave her life for you. She spent her last energy making sure you were born and could enjoy a life of freedom. For that you should always be proud and always be kind. Live a good life to make your mother in heaven proud."
Harriet was determined to do just that. She was an excellent student. She excelled in her studies at Lowell High School, one of the oldest high schools in San Francisco, and was an honor's student, a peer tutor, and a member of the debate team. She was also highly involved in politics, and she frequently protested against the Vietnam War. She was a strong believer in civil rights, and she lent her time to promoting various causes. Her mother surely was proud, and she followed in the woman's footsteps.
Her sister Jennifer, on the other hand, was not interested in much beyond herself. Growing up without a mother had hardened her, but in a unique way. She felt especially entitled, she needed special treatment and extra attention because she had grown up without something important to her. All that deprivation required reparations, as if it had been her father's fault, and she always had her hands out asking for more money from him. She was obsessed with fashion, with her hair, which she wore long and bleach blond, and with her nails. She had over a hundred pairs of shoes and she marked her outfits on her calendar so she would be sure never to wear the same thing twice in one month.
Although she was selfish, stuck up, and snobbish, Jennifer was not unpopular. Quite the contrary. She was a real celebrity at her high school and in the local area. She attracted a lot of attention wherever she went with her good looks and her entitled attitude, and she had a lot of older male admirers who provided her with all sorts of baubles and niceties for the chance of some sort of sexual encounter. All she wanted in life
was a rich man so she could have lots of money and never work at all. Until then, she was going to suck her father dry as much as she could and string on a lot of guys for things she wanted.
Harriet, on the other hand, put in time at her dad's store in addition to working as a library assistant at the local library. She was more of a hippy type. She was beautiful, but she kept her hair its natural brown and cropped into a neat bob. She didn't wear much makeup, and she definitely didn't have time to wear long, fake nails or platform shoes. She was a hippy type in the sense that she was very down to earth and not in the free love, drug using sense. She was a good egg, and she stood up for what was right, cared for the earth and the people around her, and generally exuded a down to earth, mellow positivity and respect for all of her fellow creatures.
Of course, that didn't mean that Harriet never got into trouble. In fact, she got up to quite a bit of rabble rousing herself. And she also dabbled in drugs and alcohol, like most of the other kids growing up in the early sixties. You couldn't blame it all on Harriet, though. A lot of the pot that was smoked was provided by her good friend, a really good looking hippie chick named Nancy.
Nancy went to the same school as Harriet and she was sort of like a hybrid between Harriet and her twin. Nancy had long, natural blond hair that she wore straight and flowing down to her butt. She was frequently found in bell bottom overalls with a skimpy tube top and no bra. For a high school girl she had already blossomed into her own, and she had full, pert C cups that bounced around floppily whenever she moved. She was always attracting attention everywhere she went, a lot of it male.
Nancy and Harriet were best of friends. Nancy was not deep into politics like Harriet, but she was a good outlet for talking about all of the frustrations of a modern adolescent: from curfew to annoying twin sisters to periods. When Harriet wasn't working a part time job or hanging out with her dad in his jewelry shop she could be found with her best pal Nancy, chilling out stoned on the grass soaking in sea air and sunshine, or frequenting the bars in Haight-Ashbury courtesy of their fake IDs and having mystical conversations with older hippy guys and gals. You could bet that their conversations were peppered with lots of 'radical,' 'right on' and 'groovy.'
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