Friends Forever (12 page)

Andy was the valedictorian and made a moving speech. It was eloquently written, and his classmates cheered for him when it was over, and all through the audience parents were starting to cry with the emotions of the moment. This was a long-awaited day, and the beginning of their lives as adults. As Andy had just said in his speech, life would never be the same for any of them again.

Izzie made a speech as class president then, and reminded them all to remember how important they were to each other, and how much they had shared as they grew up. She wished them all a safe journey, and encouraged them to come home often. She promised each of them she would never forget them, and she looked at her four very special friends as she said it. “I’ve loved you since kindergarten,” she said, “and I don’t intend to stop now. So go out there, make something of yourself, be important, and Billy Norton, you’d better be the best damn quarterback in college football!” Everybody laughed when she said it, and then she addressed the class again. “But no matter how important any of you get, or how far you go, or how big a deal you become or think you are, always remember how much we love you,” she said in conclusion, and then went back to her seat next to Andy, since they were Wallace and Weston, the last two names on the alphabetical list of their class. And then the diplomas were distributed, and it was over. Their hats flew in the air after they removed the tassels to save them. They all ran around hugging each other and crying. It was happy chaos in the park, and Izzie couldn’t believe it was over. Thirteen years at Atwood were finished.

They all had plans with their families for lunch and had promised to get together that night. There was a rumor that someone was giving a party, and they all waved at each other as they drove away. Brian and Billy were going with their mother and stepfather to Jack’s restaurant. And they had invited Larry and his date to join them, just to be nice. He ordered scotch on the rocks the minute they got to the restaurant, and a bottle of expensive wine for lunch. His date said she was twenty-one years old, had never gone to college herself, and drank her way through a whole bottle of champagne. They both left the table early and said they had to be somewhere, but at least Larry remembered to tell Billy how proud of him he was. He said he could hardly wait to see him in his first college game, and Billy was just as excited to play it. He had wanted Gabby to come to lunch, but she had to be with her own family that day, and Billy had promised to meet her after lunch.

After Larry left, the cook brought out a graduation cake for Billy, with a football player on it in the Trojans uniform in scarlet and gold, and after that they went home. Billy drove over to see Gabby, Brian went next door to play with a friend, and Marilyn walked up the stairs to their bedroom, and felt as though she couldn’t walk another step as she collapsed on the bed and looked at her husband.

“Thank God we didn’t have triplets. I can hardly carry these two around anymore.” Helen had told her they were a good size, and they didn’t seem to be in any hurry to be born. Jack sat on the bed and smiled at her and rubbed her ankles.

“Why don’t you stay in bed the rest of today?” he suggested. She had been up since early that morning, helping all of them get ready and celebrating Billy. She had taken a thousand pictures of him during graduation. She was so proud of him, and she had cried when they handed him his diploma. She closed her eyes to take a nap then, and it was nearly dinnertime when she woke up, and felt like there was a war inside her. The twins were hopping all over the place. It took a major effort to go downstairs and see where Jack was. He was making himself a bowl of soup in the kitchen, and he said the boys were still out. Brian was having dinner at his friend’s next door and then going to a movie, and Billy was at Gabby’s, and had called to say he was staying there for dinner. There was nothing much happening at their house these days, since Marilyn could hardly move now, and it was nice for her and Jack being there together, with everything so quiet.

“So, are we going to meet our girls tonight?” Jack asked her with a hopeful expression, and she laughed and shook her head.

“I think they’re having some kind of dancing party, but I don’t think they’re going anywhere. I’m hardly having any contractions. Maybe I should run around the block or something.”

“Maybe not,” Jack said, and offered to make her something to eat, but she wasn’t hungry. There was no room to fit even food into her body. She was always full now after two mouthfuls and had heartburn even looking at food. It really was time for it to be over. She kept saying she was ready, but apparently the twins weren’t.

She kept Jack company while he ate his soup, and then she lumbered back upstairs, feeling like an elephant, and Jack put a movie on the TV in their bedroom. She got up to go to the bathroom before it started, and was saying something to him about the movie as she walked into the bathroom, and the instant she did, she felt as though there had been an explosion, and she was being hit by a tidal wave of water. It felt like it was everywhere and for a minute, she didn’t know what happened, and then she remembered.

“Jack …,” she said in a small voice and at first he didn’t hear her. “Jack … um … my water just broke …” She was looking dazed as he walked into the room to hear what she was saying.

“What?… Oh my God—” Everything she had on was soaked from the waist down, and she looked like she’d been standing in the shower. “What happened?” And then he knew too, but wasn’t sure what to do next. Marilyn started laughing.

“I look like I’ve been swimming.”

“Lie down or something,” Jack said nervously, and handed her a stack of towels. She took her wet clothes off, put on a terrycloth robe, went back to the bedroom, and lay on the towels. She could still feel the fluid leaking, but it seemed like most of it was gone. Jack was cleaning up the bathroom and came to check on her. “Are you having contractions?”

“Not one. But the girls have gotten very quiet. No one’s moving,” whereas half an hour before they had felt like they were dancing. Maybe they knew what was coming and were resting.

“I think we should call Helen.”

“She’s probably having dinner, and I’m not having contractions. Why don’t we wait awhile and call her later? She won’t want me to come in if I’m not having contractions.”

“I think twins are different,” he said cautiously, looking nervous.

“Yeah, they take longer,” Marilyn reminded him. “Let’s watch the movie.” Jack had lost interest in the movie, but he turned it on to relax her and lay down next to her, watching her closely.

“Stop looking at me, I’m fine.” She leaned over and kissed him as she said it, and at that moment, she felt like she had been hit by a bomb. The worst contraction she could ever remember having ripped through her, as she grabbed Jack’s shoulder and couldn’t speak for a full five minutes. The minute it was over, Jack jumped out of bed and grabbed his BlackBerry.

“That’s it, we’re going. I’m calling Helen.” As he said it, she had another one, and she reached for him again. She squeezed his hand tightly while he called, and the minute Helen saw his name come up on her own BlackBerry, she answered.

“Hi there, what’s happening? Any action?” Helen sounded calm and cheerful.

“Yeah, a lot of it, all of a sudden. Her water broke about ten minutes ago, and she just started having huge contractions, about two minutes apart, long ones. They lasted about five minutes.” Helen was frowning as she listened to him.

“It sounds to me like your two little ladies are in a hurry.” She thought for about two seconds and made a decision. “Just let Marilyn lie there. Don’t do anything. I’m going to send you an ambulance. They can take her downstairs on a gurney. I’m sure nothing will happen, but I’ll feel better getting you to the hospital in an ambulance, just in case they’re in a bigger hurry than we think. I’ll meet you there.” She cut the connection, called an ambulance, and this time as the contraction hit, Marilyn screamed, and he wouldn’t have admitted it to her, but Jack was scared. Everything was happening much faster than they’d expected.

The ambulance was there in five minutes. Jack let them know it was twins as he followed them upstairs, but Helen had already told them. They got Marilyn on a gurney and were out the front door, with Marilyn and Jack in the ambulance, less than three minutes after they arrived.

Marilyn was clutching Jack’s arm and screaming now with every pain, and they never seemed to stop. The siren was on, and they were whizzing through the streets toward California Pacific Medical Center, where Helen had promised to meet them.

“I can’t do this,” Marilyn said, panting between contractions.

“Yes, you can,” Jack said quietly. “I’m right here. You’re going to have them really soon, baby.… It’ll all be over soon.”

“No, I can’t—” she insisted. “Too much.” And as she said it, she screamed again, and when she laid her head back on the gurney, her eyes rolled back in her head. Jack was panicked, and the paramedic gave her oxygen and her eyes opened again. Her blood pressure was low, but she wasn’t in any danger.

“You’re doing fine,” he said to reassure them both, and then they were at the hospital, and Helen was waiting for them. She took in the scene with a practiced eye, and smiled at both of them.

“Well, I can see you didn’t waste any time,” she said to Marilyn. She could tell from looking at her that she was probably already dilated to ten, or close to it. She would have had the babies at home, if Helen hadn’t sent the ambulance for them. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get you to the delivery room, so no pushing,” she said to Marilyn in a firm voice, as Marilyn’s face contorted, and she screamed again. “Fast!” Marilyn said to the men who took the gurney out of the ambulance. Helen led the way at a dead run, they followed her, and Jack was running next to them, holding Marilyn’s hand. She never stopped screaming from the ambulance to the delivery room, and Helen had a team waiting for them. They barely got Marilyn’s terrycloth robe off, slipped a gown on her, and lifted her onto the delivery table, when she screamed such a fiercely piercing wail that Jack thought she was dying.

And what he heard instead seconds later was a long cry replacing hers, and a little face with a mane of red hair had appeared between her legs. Their first daughter had been born. Marilyn was smiling at him through tears, and Jack cried as he held her hand, and Helen cut the cord and handed the baby to a nurse. They still had work to do, and within seconds it all began again, the hideous contractions, the agonizing pain, Marilyn screaming as Helen helped her this time with forceps, and then another wail. Both babies had been born in less than ten minutes, forty-five minutes after it had all started. Helen said it was the fastest delivery of twins she had ever seen, but she also knew how hard it was when it went that quickly.

Marilyn was shaking violently, alternately crying and smiling and clinging to her husband, who kept looking from her to their beautiful babies. One of them had red hair like Marilyn’s, and the other one had dark hair like his. They were fraternal twins, not identical, and they decided immediately which was Dana and which was Daphne. Jack still looked stunned. He had never seen anyone in so much pain, but it was all over so quickly.

“Thank God you sent the ambulance,” he said gratefully to Helen. “She would have had them at home.”

“I think so,” Helen said, smiling at them. “You certainly made things easy for me. You did all the work here,” she said to her patient. Marilyn still looked shaken, but she looked instantly better when they handed her the babies, and Jack looked at them proudly.

They kept Marilyn in the delivery room for another two hours, and put the babies in an incubator just to warm them. They each weighed just under eight pounds, and were strapping babies. Jack called all their children then and told them that their sisters had arrived. Billy thanked him somewhat tersely after asking if his mom was all right, and Brian wanted to know how soon he could see them. They were going to keep her in the hospital for two or three days.

It was ten o’clock that night when they rolled Marilyn into a room with her babies in little plastic bassinets on wheels. A nurse pushed one of them, and Jack was pushing the other, and he looked at Marilyn with open adoration. It had been a moment in his life he knew he would never forget, and the look of love that passed between them touched Helen’s heart. It always did. She had stayed after Marilyn delivered to make sure she was all right, and there were no complications after the birth, but everything was fine.

She left them a little while later, after giving Marilyn medication for the pain. She had been through a lot. Brian was going to stay at the neighbors’. Billy had said he’d stay at Gabby’s, and Jack was going to spend the night at the hospital with Marilyn.

He watched her as she slept after that, and looked at their sleeping babies. They were exquisite and pink and so beautiful. It was one of the most perfect nights of his life.

Chapter 8

E
veryone came to visit Marilyn and the babies while they were in the hospital. Brian was the first, early the next morning, driven by their neighbor, who said she had never seen anything as beautiful as their daughters, and that they looked so different from each other.

Brian took turns holding them, while Jack took pictures. And Billy arrived at lunchtime with Gabby, who couldn’t stop looking at them and touching their little toes and fingers. Marilyn asked Billy if he wanted to hold them, but he said he didn’t. He said they were too little. Connie and Mike dropped by and brought sweaters and booties that she had been knitting for them for months, and Sean was with them. They said Kevin was away for the weekend with friends, and as Connie said it, Marilyn saw a cloud pass across her eyes, and she looked at her with concern.

“Is he okay?” she said softly. Kevin had seemed distant and distracted the night of the graduation barbecue, but he had left quickly and she hadn’t gotten a good look. She knew Connie had been worried for a while.

“I think so,” Connie said quietly, and then went back to admiring the babies. Izzie walked in while they were there, and Andy came just as they left. And then Judy appeared at dinnertime with a stack of gifts, with Michelle and Gabby. Everyone said they’d never seen anything cuter than the twins. They had constant visitors for two days. Jack’s boys were away with their mother, so they hadn’t seen the babies, but Jack sent them dozens of pictures with his phone.