Chapter 4
October
No sooner than we arrived at the hospital, everything seemed to happen at lightning speed. Someone announced that her water had broken as she was sitting there getting checked in. Another contraction hit, and she screamed that it was time to push.
Just as I was preparing to back away and head for the exit, she gripped my hand again and squeezed. It felt like she was crushing every bone in my body, but I stood and took it. She looked up at me with a plea in her eyes. “Don’t leave me, October. I’m scared. I don’t want to be alone.”
I didn’t mind. When my sister was in labor, I was devastated to find out that she’d gone through that shit alone. My father was away on a business trip, my brother was somewhere lying up getting high as a kite, her baby daddy was nowhere to be found, and I was in prison.
That was the reason that I couldn’t stand by and ignore what Autumn was going through. I needed to be here for her, although it wouldn’t take away from what my sister had gone through. It was important that if I could spare another woman from going through that, I would.
“We’ve got to get her to Labor and Delivery,” a nurse behind me calmly stated.
I tried pulling my hand from her grip, but she held on tighter and said, “October—”
Another pain assailed her, and she looked up at me with those doe-shaped eyes with a plea that her mouth could not utter.
As much as I wanted to be there for her, I also didn’t want to get in the way.
I had no place or right to be here any longer.
But then I thought back to my sister, and I couldn’t leave her.
I was certain that perhaps her boyfriend or someone would show up soon, so I would stay by her side until then.
I hadn’t seen a man around her place, and I recalled she had broken up with him months ago, but then again, they could have made up by now.
It wasn’t like she was obligated to tell me that, although we did kick it while sitting on our patios from time to time.
I was always on the go, not returning home until the wee hours of the night, if I was in town.
I nodded and replied, “I’m here.”
They rushed us onto an elevator and took us to the fifth floor.
I stood idly by as the doctors and nurses rushed around getting her hooked up to monitors and preparing the room for the baby.
She answered their questions as they were asked, and a very bossy, older black nurse looked at me and demanded, “Dad, get up there with mom and hold her hand.”
“But I—”
“Child, if you don’t get over there now.”
I looked at Autumn, whose eyes were squeezed tight, and I moved into position to hold her hand once more. By the time she was finished with me, my career might be done. I needed these hands to do the work that I did.
On the other hand, if I valued my life, I would not continue to argue with that nurse.
“Dr. Callaway is on her way in. When she gets here, sweetie, it’ll be time to push, okay?” Nurse Meanie declared.
Her nametag read Melanie, but I was determined to call her meanie. She didn’t give a shit about me or what I had to say.
“Okay,” Autumn murmured.
“But we’re going to do some practice pushes now,” Nurse Meanie stated.
I stood back and watched as they told her what to expect and what would happen.
Time seemed to fly by. After a little more than two and a half hours, the doctor came in, washed up, introduced herself to me, and immediately began to start the process of delivering the baby.
I had never seen a live birth before, and my heart broke for Autumn. The girl was in so much pain.
“Aye, can someone get her an episiotomy or something?”
Everyone looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Boy, what?” Nurse Meanie asked.
“You know. That shit, . . . uhm, what they give her for the pain.”
“An epidural,” Dr. Callaway stated, focusing her gaze between Autumn’s legs. “That would be relevant in the event the baby wasn’t already on the way. The anesthesiologist won’t make it in time.”
“Well, can y’all give her something?” I asked.
“No, we cannot. But you can stand by her side and be her quiet support system,” Nurse Meanie instructed.
The other nurses in the room didn’t dare speak up. The doctor maintained a calm demeanor and didn’t even react to my ass getting checked.
Not long after she checked me, the next declaration was, “She’s crowning,” and then “She’s here. We have us a beautiful baby girl.”
I smiled at Autumn, but there was a look of sorrow and despair on her face. It wasn’t anything that I expected to see from a new mother. I wondered, not for the first time, where the baby’s father was. Even if they hadn’t reconciled, he should’ve been here to see his baby’s birth.
“Dad, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” Nurse Meanie asked.
“I’m uh . . . I’m not the—”
“It’s okay. Everyone isn’t comfortable with the task. You want to come and see her or stay up there and hold mom’s hand?” Dr. Callaway asked.
I looked at Autumn, whose eyes were still closed. “I’ll stay here for the moment. I can see her a bit from here.”
I didn’t want to invade too much more on her privacy than I already had, and I wasn’t certain what the hell I would see if I walked to the other end of the bed.
But when Autumn gave my hand a comforting squeeze and nodded, I looked down, and her eyes were on me.
The sadness hadn’t disappeared, but I could see gratitude in them.
“Go ahead,” she whispered. She released my hand, and I headed to the end of the bed and saw the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on.
She was light like her mother with round, chubby cheeks and a headful of reddish-brown hair that was plastered to her head. Scrunched up, like babies generally are, she had a set of lungs on her that rivaled the engine in my car.
“She’s beautiful, Autumn,” I announced as they rushed the baby to a little incubator. They wiped her off and hovered around her, doing things that made no sense to me. But when they finished, the nurses looked at me.
“Here, you can take her to mom,” Nurse Meanie announced.
I took the baby carefully, not sure how to hold her, until one of the other nurses moved behind me and positioned my arms. The baby stopped crying, opened her little eyes, and looked at me.
They were gray. I wondered if they would remain that color.
She had a little upturned button nose like her mother.
“Hi, sweetheart. You were giving your mother a time back there,” I stated as I walked back to Autumn’s side.
She lifted onto her elbows and peered down.
“Relax,” Nurse Meanie stated and lifted her bed slightly so that she could be in the perfect position to hold her baby.
I placed the baby in her arms, and I saw the world change before me. The look of sorrow and despair that had been there before immediately disappeared. She stared at her baby girl in wonder as she smiled and cooed to her. A tear fell from her eyes as she caressed the baby’s cheek with a finger.
“You’re so beautiful and so perfect,” she cooed.
“She is,” I chimed in.
“Can you help me unwrap her so that I can see all of her?” she asked, looking up at me.
I did as she asked and watched as she counted her fingers and toes. I couldn’t help it, but I did the same.
I couldn't help but think that if I ever had a little shorty or a princess, I would be right there when my jits were born. That shit made no sense to me, how niggas could be out here recklessly gifting these chicks with kids and pop on to the next broad like it was no thing. If you didn’t want kids, you knew what to do to prevent that shit.
It wasn’t hard to wrap it up. Hell, they still gave rubbers down at the free clinic.
I knew because I had just taken my teen cousin, Rod, to pick up some last week. There was no excuse for being a deadbeat ass daddy.
Autumn pulled the baby closer to her and kissed the top of her head.
“What’s her name?” I asked.
She looked at her baby, kissed her head again, and then back at me.
“I wasn’t sure until this moment. Looking at the color of her hair and the heat of the day, I can’t help but name her . . . Auburn Summer.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” Nurse Meanie declared.
The doors pushed open, and four people rushed inside. I had seen them around her place before and assumed they were her family.
“Mesha. Oh my goodness, I’m sorry it took so long to get here. When we arrived, they wouldn’t let us come back right away. Are you okay?” the light-skinned, middle-aged woman with flawless skin asked.
“Yes, Mama. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Lawd hammercy. Ain’t she just the most beautiful thing?” the older, light-skinned woman stated.
“She is, isn’t she?” Autumn’s mother asked.
“I’m a granddaddy,” the older gentleman declared.
Her family gathered around her bed, oohing and aahing over Auburn.
I backed toward the door again as the younger, brown-skinned woman stated, “I’m so sorry you were alone.
I told Mama and Daddy, and you know Daddy acted like he was on the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
We rushed here to get here in time for her birth, boo.
I hate that Frost was out of town, too, because he would have been here for you. ”
I guessed Frost was the baby’s daddy. I wasn’t sure.
“I wasn’t alone, Ann. He was with me.”
Everyone turned their attention to me. It seemed my presence had been missed up to that point.
“Who you, baby?” the older woman asked, walking in my direction.
“GiGi, that’s my neighbor, October.”
“Well, ain’t he a fine specimen,” the older woman declared, eyeing me up and down like she was famished.
“GiGi!” the younger woman exclaimed.
“October, I’m sorry. This is my family. This is my mother, Denise; my father, Kenneth; my grandma, Vonda, but we call her GiGi; and that’s my sister Ann, or Wynter. Y’all, this is my neighbor, October.”
“Well, how did you end up here?” GiGi asked.
“I saw Autumn in pain and came to help her. She was trying to drive herself, but I didn’t see the point when I was here and perfectly capable,” I explained.
“Mm-hmm, definitely perfect,” GiGi declared, chewing on her fingernail.
“Mama, stop that,” Mrs. Denise reprimanded.
“What? Girl, as long as these old eyes can see, I can breathe, and a fine young stud is there, I’m gonna have something to say. I’m looking. I ain’t touching . . . yet.”
Aww shit. I knew I’d better run out of here soon.
“Mama,” Ms. Denise stated in a quiet but serious voice.
I smirked. “Well, Autumn, congratulations on your beautiful blessing, baby girl. I’m gonna let your family enjoy their time with you. I’ll be back with that carriage ride for the princess,” I stated with a wink.
The smile that lifted her eyes and cheeks did wonders for my heart.
Someone had hurt that woman deeply, and I was glad if I could do a little something to bring rainbows and sunshine into her life, if only for a moment.
Although I suspected that had something to do with that beautiful bundle of joy she’d just been blessed with.
She smiled and replied, “Thank you so much, October. I could never repay you for your kindness.”
“It was an honor,” I replied before I stepped out of the room.
Ms. Denise was eyeing me warily as I disappeared into the hallway. But such was the way with mothers when it came to me. I hadn’t always had the greatest reputation as a young’n, but I’d grown up quite a bit over the years.