The Gift (15 page)

“Mr. and Mrs. Robichaud,” they said. “You have a
beautiful baby boy.”

Maggie cried tears of happiness, and Zak shed a few
tears too. They let Maggie hold the baby for a while, but then the doctors took
the baby away again and told Maggie to get some rest. They recommended that Zak
go home for a while and come back later in the afternoon.

Zak kissed Maggie good bye and then went out to the waiting
room where Justin had been waiting for the last four hours. Justin had a
concerned look on his face until Zak told him that everything was o.k. and that
Maggie had delivered a boy. Justin hugged Zak and told him that he was relieved
that Maggie was fine. Justin didn’t congratulate Zak, because he really wasn’t
sure if Zak was the father. It was an awkward situation at the least. Neither
of them had gotten much sleep that night, so they decided to go home and see if
they could sleep and then come back to the hospital later.

When they got back to the house, Zak was incredibly
wound up and knew that he would never be able to sleep, so he decided to call
their families and let them know that Maggie had finally given birth. The
mothers were especially thrilled and wanted to know all the details of the
delivery. Zak told them that Maggie had to have a caesarian section because the
baby had been so big, he had weighed ten pounds. Maggie’s mother told Zak that
all the babies that were born into their family were big. Zak’s mother asked
when she could come to the hospital to see Maggie and the baby and Zak told her
that he would call her and let her know. Zak next called Caleb and Spencer to
tell them the good news. They were both extremely happy for Maggie and Zak and
said they were looking forward to seeing the baby.

Meanwhile, Justin had gone into his room where he was
lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. There was no one that he could call to
tell them that he might be a father. He realized that he was going to find this
difficult for the next six months, being around Maggie and her baby and not
knowing whether the baby was his or Zak’s. He was wondering whether he should
move out.  He didn’t want to get too attached to the baby, only to find out
that he had no right.

A few hours later, Zak and Justin drove back to the
hospital for the evening visiting hours. Maggie was looking wan and exhausted,
and the baby was sleeping in a bassinet next to her bed. Maggie thanked Justin
for coming and then he hugged and kissed her. Maggie kissed Justin back and
stroked his hair for a minute. Then she asked him if he wanted to hold the
baby. His face lit up for a second and he said yes. So she told him to sit down
in the chair next to her bed and Zak reached into the basinet and picked up the
baby and handed it to Justin. Zak sat on the bed next to Maggie and held her
hand and kissed her a couple times. After Justin held the baby for a while,
then Zak sat in the chair with the baby. Although it was a big baby, none of them
could believe how tiny the baby’s hands and feet were. The baby kept gazing up
in their faces with intelligent eyes, as if it was trying to figure out what
was going on and who these people were. Finally the nurse came by to tell them
that visiting hours were over. Zak and Justin both kissed Maggie good bye and
walked out of the hospital together. Although they were best friends, they had
never felt so close before. They were both looking forward to bringing Maggie
and the baby home.

.

Chapter 19

The next day, Zak and Justin went in to see
Maggie during the afternoon visiting hours. Maggie seemed somewhat distraught.
The hospital wanted her to fill out some forms with information about the baby,
like his name and the name of the father. She didn’t know what to do. After a
little discussion, Zak and Justin agreed that she should put Zak down as the
father. If they found out later that Justin was the father, then they could
change the birth certificate. Then they had to decide on a name for the baby. They
had actually been talking about this on the ride over to the hospital. Justin
suggested Jamie as a name. Both Maggie and Zak liked this name, but Maggie
favored the name Gabriel which she thought went well with either Robichaud or
Boudreau. Zak thought that Maggie should decide on the name because she had
done all the work having the baby. Justin agreed with him, so Maggie told the
nurse that the baby’s name was Gabriel Robichaud.

Maggie and the baby had to stay in the hospital for five
days because Maggie had to recover from her caesarian section. But finally, Zak
and Justin were allowed to pick them up and bring them home. Maggie was anxious
about leaving the hospital and being on her own with the baby. She had some
trouble dressing the baby in his sweater and cap and putting him in his Snuggli
for his trip home. Zak carried the baby out to the car in the carrier and
Justin helped Maggie with her bag.

When they got to the car, Maggie sat on the back seat
next to the baby in the car seat while Zak and Justin sat in front. Justin felt
nervous driving the baby for the first time, aware that he was responsible for
this precious cargo. The baby slept during the short trip home and was still
sleeping when they brought him into the house and placed him into the small
crib that was in Maggie and Zak’s bedroom. Chère followed them into the bedroom
and sniffed at the baby as he was being transferred into the crib. This made
the baby startle and cry momentarily, and Chère fled into the safety of the
kitchen. Maggie, Zak and Justin laughed at that because they sort of knew how Chère
felt, they all thought there was nothing scarier than a newborn baby.

The next week went by quickly. The baby slept a lot for
the first few days, but then started waking up and crying during the night.
Maggie would take the baby into the living room and nurse him until he fell
asleep so he wouldn’t disturb Zak and Justin. Sometimes Justin would get up in
the middle of the night to find Maggie and the baby asleep on the couch. He
would take the baby out of her arms and return him to his crib, so that Maggie
could get some undisturbed sleep. Justin and Zak tried to help Maggie as much
as they could, changing diapers and even assisting her with the baby’s bath a
few times.

Zak’s family let them get settled for a few days, and
then came over to see how Maggie and the baby were doing. Zak’s mother decided
that Gabriel looked exactly like Zak did when he was a baby. She said he had
the same long eyelashes that ran in Zak’s father’s family. Maggie and Zak
exchanged quick glances when they heard this, but didn’t say anything. Justin
looked momentarily distressed by the comment, but turned away quickly so that
they couldn’t see his face. A few minutes later, he told them he was going out
to the store and asked Maggie if she needed any more diapers. Maggie thanked
him and said she was fine for now. Justin came back a few hours later, and
Maggie thought she noticed that he smelled like Jack Daniels. She gave him a
quick hug and didn’t say anything though. The uncertainty of their situation
was obviously taking a toll on him.

The Bayou Blasters had decided to take a couple weeks
off from playing after the birth of Gabriel, but eventually they had to go back
to work because they all had bills to pay. Maggie decided to stay home with the
baby for a couple months, so the band reverted to its original configuration as
a power trio. They found in some ways that they enjoyed this return to a more
stripped down blues/rock style. The emphasis in their music was on the
instrumentals now, and not so much on the vocals. Zak especially found that he
had a lot more room to expand his breaks and experiment with different sounds
on his guitar.

In the meantime, Maggie spent a lot of her time when the
baby was sleeping listening to her bluegrass records and trying to learn new
tunes on her mandolin and fiddle. Sometimes Zak and Justin would play with her,
but she missed playing bluegrass music with Spencer.

One evening, Maggie was left alone again because the
Bayou Blasters had a gig at Jay’s Lounge in Canton. Maggie started feeling
depressed so she decided to call Spencer. He answered the phone right away and
sounded happy to hear from her which immediately made her feel better.

“How are you doing Spencer? Did you find a new roommate
yet?”

“Yes, Sandra, the waitress from Jimmie D’s moved in. She
was happy to find an apartment close to work. What’s up with you Maggie?”

“I miss playing with you, Spencer. Maybe you could come
for a visit. You wouldn’t even have to bring any instruments, you could borrow
Zak’s Martin or his Gibson A. Zak’s going to be spending a week in Nashville with the Bayou Blasters playing some gigs. He’d probably be happy if you came and
kept me company while he’s gone.”

“I’d be happy to come hang out with you and Gabe,
Maggie. I’ll make plane reservations in the morning.”

After she finished talking to Spencer, Maggie found she
was feeling a lot more cheerful. When Zak and Justin got home that night, they
noticed that Maggie looked a lot more upbeat. She told them that Spencer would
be coming for a visit while they were in Nashville. She said that would be good
for her because she wouldn’t be lonely while they were gone, and she and
Spencer could play some bluegrass music together. Zak and Justin thought that
was a great idea. They had been worried a little about leaving Maggie by
herself and they knew how much she missed her friend Spencer.

While Maggie waited for Spencer’s visit, she worked even
harder on her bluegrass repertoire. She had pretty much mastered eighty fiddle
tunes and had learned the words and mandolin chords to another fifty bluegrass
songs. Every few days Maggie would call Spencer and they would discuss what
they were going to play once they got together again.

Zak was happy to see Maggie feeling motivated about
playing music. He wasn’t surprised when one day she asked him if he knew any
bass and fiddle players that played bluegrass and would be interested in
jamming with her and Spencer. He told her that he had heard of a bluegrass jam
that took place on Sunday nights in Church Point, and suggested that she go
there and see if she could find some other musicians to play with.

So the following Sunday, Maggie left Gabriel with Zak
and Justin and drove over to the bluegrass jam. There were about a dozen
musicians at the jam and they all seemed to know each other well. She felt a
little shy at first, but once the music got going she lost her inhibitions. She
knew some of the tunes, but not all of them. She also found that they played
some of the tunes slightly differently than she had learned them. She hadn’t
realized before that there were slight regional variations of some of these
fiddle tunes. Maggie was happy that she got to play some of her favorite tunes
like “Forked Deer” and “St. Anne’s Reel”, and she discovered a few new tunes
that she liked as well.  She wrote down the names of these tunes on a piece of
paper so she could try to find them on a record somewhere, she was hoping to
work on them before the next jam.

At the end of the evening, Maggie introduced herself to
some of the musicians and asked them if they might like to come out to her
place to jam with a friend that was going to be visiting from Boston. They told
her they were always up for playing, so they arranged to get together in a
couple weeks when Spencer would be around. Maggie felt happy on the ride back
to the house. She realized how much she had missed getting out to play and
decided that maybe she deserved a break from the baby once in a while.

She discussed this with Zak when she got home, and he
agreed that she needed to get out more. He thought that maybe his mother would
be willing to babysit once in a while so Maggie could go out to play in the
evenings sometimes.  Following Zak’s advice, Maggie called up his mother and
asked her if she would mind babysitting. Zak’s mother said that would be fine
with her, especially since she would love to spend more time with her new
grandson. Maggie asked her if she would mind watching Gabriel the following
weekend when Zak’s band was supposed to be playing at the Purple Peacock in
Eunice. Zak’s mother said that would be o.k. with her, in fact she suggested
that Maggie just leave the baby with her for the night so she could come back
the next morning to get him. Maggie was excited about this, she hadn’t been out
much since she had given birth to Gabriel and she thought it would be good for
her and Zak to go out together without the baby.

So on Saturday, Tom drove over from Lafayette to pick up
Justin and his equipment, and Maggie and Zak drove over to the gig together in
the Lincoln.  Maggie was happy to have the chance to be alone with Zak and she
almost felt like they were going on a date. She glanced over at him while they
were driving and she thought he looked happy too.

When they finally parked in the lot behind the Purple
Peacock, Zak leaned over to kiss her for a few minutes before starting to
unload his equipment. He had missed Maggie over the last three months when she
was staying home with the baby, and hoped that she would start going to their
gigs again on a more regular basis.

They unloaded Zak’s equipment and brought it into the
bar where Zak helped Justin and Tom set up the amplifiers and mics. Zak asked
Maggie if she would like to sing a couple songs with the band. She said yes, so
they placed an extra mic for her in the center of the stage. When they finished
setting up, they all sat down at a table together to have a drink and discuss
what songs they would play. They planned on doing the standard Bayou Blasters set,
but Maggie would come up in the middle and sing some songs with the band. They
asked her what she wanted to sing, and she suggested “Truck Stop Girl” and a
Merle Haggard song that she had been working on called “Tonight the Bottle Let
Me Down”. She thanked them for the chance to sing with them, but she only
wanted to sing a couple songs as she didn’t want to take the focus away from
their music.