Family Affair (44 page)

Gitana squeezed her hand.

"We completely understand," Stella said. She glanced at the nurse. They all knew that if something went wrong nobody would be allowed in the delivery room except the professionals.

The medical team pushed Gitana through the metal doors into the delivery room. Chase stood watching as her mother and Jacinda followed her in. She felt shut out but pulled her resolve together and met the others in the waiting room.

She started pacing. Lacey had finished her supper in the car but had brought the pumpkin pie with her. Jasmine looked uncertain as Lacey pushed a forkful at her, smiling coyly.

Chase watched them absently. She paced from one end of the waiting room to the other. She thought she should be praying or chanting. She decided on "Please let them both be okay." She timed her words to her paces. So far she had managed to stave off the thoughts of something going wrong—but now they burst forth like a flock of bats exiting a cave.

"Dude, you're going to wear out the floor," Graciela said. She was playing rummy five-hundred with Delia. Addison, who seemed to have every conceivable thing in her backpack, had given them the cards. Everyone, it seemed, had found a way to wait except her. She stared at them, puzzled, and tlien resumed her pacing.

Addison nudged her mother. Peggy was reading her private detective manual that she kept within reach at all times. "Mom, can I have the car keys? I left something in the car."

Peggy didn't remove her gaze from the manual. "Sure, honey." She fished them out of her purse. Addison took them and got up.

Chase glanced at her. "You shouldn't be wandering around the hospital by yourself."

Addison pursed her lips.

"What I mean is no one should go about by themselves."

"Dude's right. Crackheads are in the ER. I could use a walk. Come on Delia, let's go with her." Graciela set her cards down.

Delia frowned. "We resume the same game when we get back."

Addison smiled. "I guess we know who's winning."

"I'm down five," Graciela said, pulling money from her pocket and handing it over.

"Does it normally take this long?" Chase said.

Lacey got up and touched Chase's hand. "It's fine. Come sit down." She guided her to the chair next to Jasmine and by Peggy. "Peggy can tell you."

Peggy looked up. "Oh God, I'm sorry. I'm so wrapped up in passing the PI licensing test, I can't seem to concentrate on anything else."

"When is it?" Chase asked.

"Next Thursday." Peggy closed the book.

"You really want to be a private investigator?" Chase inquired.

"Yes."

"You're sick of real estate?" Jasmine said.

Jasmine had an uncanny interest in why people discarded things. She wanted to know why a person quit this or that like it gave some clue to their personality. Chase wondered about that. She always concerned herself with the new or future plans of the person. One day, when her partner wasn't screaming bloody murder and trying to pop out a baby, she'd inquire about the why of this from Jasmine. She got back up again and resumed her pacing.

"Chase, she's fine. The doctor will let you know if there's a complication and so would Stella. Stop worrying. Come sit down," Peggy ordered.

"Maybe you could ask Peggy test questions," Lacey said.

Both Peggy and Chase scowled at her.

"Or maybe not," Lacey said.

Addison, Delia and Graciela returned. They were smiling. The kind of smile that belies innocence, Chase thought. "You haven't been telling her bad stories," she said, eyeing them suspiciously.

Graciela held up her hand. "I swear."

Chase glared at Delia.

"She did ask, but we didn't indulge. Isn't that right, Addison?"

Addison was fiddling with something in the pocket of her red fluffy down jacket. Then she blurted, "Now."

Delia and Graciela grabbed Chase by each arm and sat her in one of the square wooden chairs with a thin mauve colored seat cushion. Addison made ready and in one quick movement took a bungee cord and tied fast Chase's struggling legs to the chair. Graciela held Chase's arms to the side of the chair while Addison did the same with her arms.

"There, now you'll have to sit still. You're working yourself into a fervor and you've chewed three cuticles already," Addison said.

Graciela and Delia looked pleased with themselves.

"Good plan, Addison," Graciela said.

Delia looked smug. "I should've brought one of my crappy stories so we could edit it while you're still."

Chase glowered at them.

Lacey and Jasmine regarded her.

"Help me," Chase said, looking at them imploringly.

Lacey appeared to contemplate the plea and then shook her head. "This is better."

Peggy was mortified. "I don't think it's legal."

Addison piped in. "According to English law, upon which our legal system is based, something is not considered illegal unless forbidden by law—in contrast to the European standard that all behaviors are sanctioned by law. Bungee-cording a lunatic to a chair in the waiting room of a maternity ward is not on the books."

"Damn, that kid is smart," Graciela said to Delia in a low voice.

"I am not a lunatic!"

"At present you are behaving like one," Addison said.

Chase calmed herself. Leave it to a child, she thought. "All right, this is probably better albeit unorthodox."

Everyone seemed to sigh with relief. Cards were resumed and Lacey and Jasmine went back to their pumpkin pie.

Peggy seemed mollified. "I suppose it is better than wearing out the floor and your nerves." She went back to her studies.

Chase knew she'd lost her only ally. She sat quietly. Then, she looked over at Addison. "The least you can do is read to me."

"Great. You'll like the play I'm reading, Two Gentlemen of Verona."

Chase groaned. "How close are you to the dog part?"

"Pretty close."

"All right then." Chase respected the playwright but dreaded the mental calisthenics his work demanded.

Addison dug out the Riverside Shakespeare from her backpack.

"That thing is huge. You're going to need a chiropractor," Lacey said.

"I'm working on my biceps. There's this girl at school..."

She was interrupted by the arrival of Stella who strode through the double doors as if she were Moses parting the Red Sea. She stopped. "Why is she tied up?"

"She became a public nuisance," Addison said.

Stella nodded. "Good work."

"Good work. It borders on treason not to mention laborious." Chase cocked her head toward Addison's mammoth edition of Shakespeare.

"Which play?" Stella asked.

"Two Gentlemen of Verona."

"The one with the dog?" Stella said.

"Yes. We're almost to that part," Addison replied.

Peggy intervened. "Do you have news?"

They all sat upright, eyes set on Stella.

"Yes, of course. Gitana is doing as well as can be expected. Did you teach her to swear like that?" Stella said, frowning at Chase.

"I claim the Fifth Amendment."

"She's nearly shocked Jacinda into heart failure. The doctor insisted she desist in her spraying of holy water. They got into a screaming match over the salubriousness of holy water."

"Ha! Miss Goody-Two-Shoes is getting hers now." Graciela leapt to her feet and did a little jig. She looked at Addison to whom she now obviously assigned the title child genius, "What does salubriousness mean?"

"Healthy."

Chase jumped up and down in her chair, making it rock precipitously. "But she's okay, right? She's not going to—well, you know."

"Oh, for goodness sakes, Chase, this isn't the Middle Ages. Mortality rates are hardly worth mentioning," Stella said.

"Stella!" Peggy was again mortified.

"That's what she was asking."

Lacey got up and held Chase's shoulders. "Sit still, before you hurt yourself."

A very nervous group of six Hispanic men, one wide-eyed, obviously the father-to-be, took seats at the opposite end of the waiting room. They stared at Chase.

Jasmine offered, "Did you know that it was the advent of hospitals that raised mortality rates in Medieval times because the doctors didn't wash their hands between patients? When midwives were used in the home the infection rates were low and thus there were fewer complications."

"How do you know that?" Lacey asked.

"I took a Medieval lit class in college."

Chase glared at her mother. "Did he wash his hands?"

"Who?"

"The fucking doctor!" Chase screamed.

The nervous men in the corner of waiting room gaped at her.

Stella leaned toward her. "Any more obscenities out of you and I'll personally duct-tape your mouth as well. The entire room, including the doctor's hands, is sterile. Do you think I'd let anything happen to Gitana?"

"No, I'm sorry. It's nerves."

Stella put her hands on Chase's shoulders and said, "Everything is fine." She leaned over and kissed her forehead.

Everyone stared at this mother-daughter moment. Lacey dabbed the corner of her eye with a leftover napkin.

Stella strode back to the maternity room, calling out over her shoulder, "Don't let her go."

Addison stared at Chase.

"What?" Chase said.