Gold Hill (10 page)

“
I love Blane,” Valerie
said. “I was hoping to help him today.”

“
With the blood from the
cord,” Camila said. “Yes, we will save more than one life
today.”

“
More than one
life?”

“
Your baby will die if she
doesn’t enter this world soon,” Camila said. “You think. I’ll be
right back.”

Valerie stared at the
ceiling for a while and closed her eyes. When she opened them,
Celia was leaning over her.

“
I am always here, Val,”
Celia said. “Why would I be anywhere else?”

“
But . . . ”

“
There’s not been a moment
of your life that I haven’t been watching,” Celia said. “It’s much
easier now.”

“
I’m scared,” Valerie
said.

“
Every woman is scared the
first time,” Celia said. “Blane will help. Camila is a
God-send.”

“
I can’t lose you again,”
Valerie wept.

“
You’ve never lost me,”
Celia smiled.

“
Never?”

“
Never.”

“
Val?” Mike peeked his
head in. “Are you ready?”

“
You’re sure?” Valerie
asked her mother.

“
Never.”

“
I’m ready,” Valerie
said.

“
Let’s have a baby,”
Camila said. Tanesha moved into the room to help.
“Blane?”

Like a fresh wind, Blane
followed Mike into the room. Samantha moved to the other side of
Valerie. Blane picked up Valerie’s wrist to take her Chinese
Medicine pulses.

“
Is it okay now?” Delphie
asked.

“
Delphie!” Valerie held
out her hands and Delphie rushed in the room.

“
Where’s Dad?” Valerie
asked.

Sam Lipson stuck his head
into the room.

“
Hi Daddy!” Valerie
waved.

“
Men out,” Camila said.
“Except Blane.”

Mike kissed Valerie’s cheek
and went out of the room.

“
We take everything off.
Delphie?” Camila asked. “Samantha?”

With Dephie and Samantha’s
help, Valerie undressed. Tanesha set a fleece blanket near
Valerie’s head and checked her pillow.

“
Blane?” Camila
asked.

“
I’m ready,” he
said.

“
You want the husband? Or
no?” Camila asked.

“
Yes,” Valerie said. “He’s
my coach.”

Camila shrugged. She went
to the door and called Mike. Very quietly, in Spanish, Camila gave
him instructions. He asked a question and she responded. When he
nodded, she let him into the room. He went to Val’s side. Tanesha
moved behind Camila to assist.

“
Let’s have a
baby.”

Chapter One Hundred and
Ninety-Three
Jump

Wednesday afternoon — 2:15
p.m.

“
And?” Jeraine opened the
sliding door and Tanesha followed him out to the patio of the
Penthouse.

“
And whoosh – Jackie was
born,” Tanesha said. “It was unbelievable.”

He set their iced tea on
the table and pulled a seat out for her at the table. His laptop
was open next to his seat.

“
Why? After all that
madness, actually
having
the baby seems kind of predictable.”

Caught up in her excitement
and story, she didn’t notice the chair until he touched her arm.
She sat down.

“
Because Val had
effectively lost her mind,” Tanesha said. “I mean, she was so crazy
that her Dad was afraid she’d had a stroke or something. But
Camila, the midwife . . . I guess she’s seen it all
before. And Val’s so fit that once she settled down to business,
the rest was pretty straight forward.”

Tanesha gave him a bright
smile.

“
Camila set Jackie on
Val’s chest and Val had this beautiful smile,” Tanesha said. “I
mean, she’s gorgeous, right. But she looked . . .
heavenly. Mike took her picture for her website. You can see her
glowing in the picture.”

“
They’re going to post the
baby’s picture?”

“
You can only see Jackie’s
hand touching Val’s face,” Tanesha said. “Jackie is gorgeous. She
opened her eyes for Mike and he cried. He just broke down and
cried.”

“
Delivering babies makes
you really happy,” Jeraine said.

Tanesha nodded.

“
And Blane?” Jeraine
asked. “Did he get his treatment?”

“
Camila really took over
the place,” Tanesha chuckled. “His doctor came in to take care of
the cord blood. Camila insisted on learning how to do it. She
thinks she can get her ladies – that’s what she calls pregnant
women she works with – to donate their cord blood for
Blane.”

“
How did the doctor
respond?”

“
He didn’t have much of a
choice,” Tanesha smiled at the memory. “Blane gave himself some
acupuncture while the doctor taught Camila how to extract the cord
blood, clean it, spin it, stuff like that. Anyway, Blane had his
first treatment for his liver today.”

“
And how is
he?”

“
He seems fine,” Tanesha
said. “It’s hard to tell. Blane’s a con artist. He spent most of
his early life either on the streets or in foster care. He can look
just fine and be really sick.”

“
I bet he doesn’t fool
Jake,” Jeraine made a gesture to his head. “Jake’s always had this
connection . . . ”

“
He doesn’t fool Heather
either,” Tanesha nodded.

Jeraine smiled.

“
This is really it for
you,” he said.

“
What is?”

“
Delivering babies,” he
said.

“
It’s wonderful,” Tanesha
said. “I feel so alive when I’m there. Camila said I was good too.
She asked if I was a mid-wife and gave me a pitch to become one.
She said I could come with her any time. I may do that just for
experience.”

He smiled.

“
Is that okay?” Tanesha
asked. “It means I’ll always be on call and I’ll have a crazy
schedule.”

“
I’ve had a crazy schedule
all of my life,” Jeraine shrugged.

“
We’ll be crazy together,”
Tanesha said. “What did the doctor say? Was your mom able to make
it?”

“
She went with me. I
recorded it on my phone so that you could listen. We talked with my
doctor then we went to a rehab guy. The rehab doc said he thought
some of the damage was from those concussions I got playing high
school football.”

“
Didn’t you fall off the
stage last year?” Tanesha asked. “They brought it up in rehab. The
counselor thought you fell because you were loaded.”

“
The stage was supposed to
glide out over the crowd. I thought it was done moving but it
jerked at the end,” Jeraine said. “I’d practiced on that stupid
stage four times, used it for the show the night before, but when I
got out there it jerked. I fell forward. The fans tried to catch me
but I hit my head. I had a concussion but no one did these kinds of
brain scan. The doctor asked. Mom was mad that I didn’t get proper
care. She went on a whole rant about the quality of care in the
US.”

“
I thought the brain
damage was due to the drugs?” Tanesha asked.

“
The concussions are only
part of the problem. The drugs did the rest,” Jeraine said. “And,
if I don’t give my brain time to heal, I can easily get worse. I
have to go to brain rehab a couple of times a week and do these
brain exercises at home. No school. No work. No stress. No drugs.
Good nutrition, exercise, sleep a lot, stuff like that. Lucky I
have money.”

Tanesha smiled.

“
Speaking of money,”
Jeraine said. “I’m supposed to talk to Schmidty in a little bit.
He’s had some accountant go over my finances to see what I still
owe the record company and whatever else. When are we due at the
Castle?”

“
An hour or so,” Tanesha
said. “They’re having a big party.”

“
Val’s up for
that?”

“
Oh you know,” Tanesha
smiled.

“
Ever the actress?”
Jeraine asked.

“
Well that,” Tanesha said.
“And in that household, she won’t see the baby until tonight.
Everyone wants to hold her, touch her, take photos. The kids are
out of school so they get to meet her. Rosa is going to be Jackie’s
nanny.”

“
The
housekeeper?”

“
I guess Celia took care
of Rosa’s boys when they were little. Rosa wants to return the
favor while Val’s in town. She’s there with Jackie now. Val’s
sleeping.”

“
Wow.”

“
It’s how they are,”
Tanesha said. “Everyone’s connected to everyone else. It’s
nice.”

“
Sounds horrible to be
that dependent on people,” he said.

“
I think it’s
nice.”

“
Well, I thought I could
talk to Schmidty,” Jeraine said. “Then we could stop by our
not-yet-yellow house to see what progress they’re making and then
go to the party.”

“
I can sit in with
Schmidty if that helps,” Tanesha said.

“
Sure,” Jeraine said.
“You’re going to help me with my finances right?”

Tanesha nodded.

“
And we’re never going to
spend another night apart, right?”

“
What?” Tanesha
laughed.

“
It’s just something I
thought of,” Jeraine said. “You know, Paul McCartney only spent one
night apart from Linda. That was the night he was in jail for
possession of pot in Japan. I think it’s a good idea for
us.”

“
I’ll think about it,”
Tanesha shook her head at his manipulations. “You could have just
asked.”

“
Oh yeah?” Jeraine’s eyes
scanned. “How likely is it that you’d say ‘yes’?”

“
Seventy percent,” she
said.

“
I like those odds,”
Jeraine said. “How do I make it one hundred percent?”

“
I’ll let you
know.”

He leaned over to kiss
her.

“
I’m going to deliver
babies as a doctor!” Tanesha beamed.

Tanesha’s bright smile made
him laugh. She kissed him. His laptop pinged indicating that he was
receiving a video call. He patted his lap for her to sit on it. She
pulled her chair over and he laughed.

“
Hey Schmidty,” Jeraine
said. “How’s LA?”

“
Good,” the young man’s
face was red from too much sun and bright smile.

“
Sun burned?” Tanesha
asked.

“
I’ve been out with Lizzie
every morning,” Schmidty smiled. “Walking on the beach. I forgot
sunscreen this morning.”

“
How is she?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Good,” Schmidty said.
“Regaining herself. I saw on TMZ that Val had her baby
today.”

“
Couple of hours ago,”
Tanesha said. “Jacquote, that’s her name. They’re calling her
Jackie. She’s gorgeous of course.”

“
Of course,” Schmidty
said. “Seth wanted to come back but there’s too much going on here.
He’ll be back this weekend though.”

“
You’re staying?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Lizzie’s getting the help
she needs here,” Schmidty smiled.

“
Therapy?” Jeraine
asked.

“
And peace and quiet. She
hasn’t had much of that. Maybe ever. She sleeps twelve hours a
night and takes naps. When her Dad’s here, they talk for hours at a
time. She’s . . . ” The young man flushed with
feeling. He swallowed hard and nodded.

Tanesha and Jeraine smiled
at him. He cleared his throat.

“
Do you know how Connor is
doing?” Schmidty asked. “Colin and Julie?”

“
Jill said they’re happy,”
Tanesha said. “Connor is doing really well, growing. I saw
them . . . when was
that . . . ”

“
Friday,” Jeraine
said.

“
Right,” Tanesha said. “I
went to pick up Paddie. They seem to be in that baby bliss – happy
and tired. Paddie’s using it as an excuse to spend more time with
Katy, so it’s all good.”

“
I’ll tell Lizzie. She’ll
be happy to hear it,” Schmidty said. “I saw your email about your
brain. No work for a year?”

“
At least,” Jeraine said.
“No school. No stress. A bunch of therapy and stuff. What did you
find out about my finances?”

“
There’s no easy way to
say this but I have some bad news, some worse news, and some sort
of good news depending on how you look at things,” Schmidty smiled
into the webcam. “You look surprised.”

“
I
thought . . . ” Jeraine’s voice raised a pitch.
“This was just a formality.”

“
I thought so too,”
Schmidty said. “Sorry.”

“
I think you should just
tell us,” Tanesha said. “Jer’s not supposed to have too much stress
right now. He gets these headaches
and . . . ”

“
Got it,” Schmidty said.
“What do you want to hear first?”