Chapter 151
A CORPSMAN WAS TAKING LAURA’S blood pressure when I slipped into her exam room. “Did I miss anything?” I asked.
“Blood pressure looks great,” he said.
“What took you so long?” said Laura, and I told her about the protests and running into Francesca.
“We’ll get you in front of Dr. Callaway as soon as we can,” the corpsman said to her after he’d made a few notes in her chart.
“I still think we should go,” Laura said to me after he’d left.
“Nope,” I said firmly. “It’s not even up for discussion.”
Out on the street, the protesters were getting rowdier, their shouts more distinct. “Fuori i sottomarini dalla Maddalena!” they shouted. “Lasciate in pace La Maddalena!”
“What are they saying?” Laura asked.
“Submarines out of La Maddalena. Leave La Maddalena alone.”
I moved to the window and watched a group of protesters move up the Via Principe Amedeo.
If Francesca was among them, I didn’t see her.
The group had apparently marched from the Piazza Comando past the NSO compound, and now it looked as if they were gathering in front of the Human Resource Management Office, at the Piazza Bambino Gesù.
Laura and I got so wrapped up in trying to figure out what was happening that we jumped when Dr. Callaway announced himself: “Sorry to have kept you waiting so long.” He looked a little surprised to see me, but he didn’t say anything.
Just turned his attention to Laura and said, “I hear you’ve got some cramping? ”
Laura blushed, then started to apologize. “I feel really bad. But in the time we’ve been sitting here waiting, it’s kind of gone away.”
“That’s the best-case scenario, right?” he said. “A wasted day and a healthy baby?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said with a nervous laugh.
He examined her, briefly, then declared that her cervix had not yet begun to dilate.
“That’s normal?” Laura asked.
“Very,” said Callaway, removing his gloves. “Now, let’s give the baby’s heart a listen.”
Laura nodded, then looked at me, her eyes as big as saucers. The last time the two of us had sat in an exam room waiting for a doctor to find her baby’s heartbeat, we’d been met with crushing news. I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“I wish I had an ultrasound machine,” Callaway said, “but we’re pretty bare-bones over here.
” He placed the chest piece of his stethoscope on her belly.
Right away, he gave her a big smile. “As bright as a bell,” he said, then removed the ear tips of the stethoscope from his ears, gave them a quick wipe-down, and asked if she wanted to listen.
“May I?” she asked.
He handed them to her, then readjusted the chest piece. “Can you hear it?”
“Yes!” she said with a beaming smile. “Oh my God. It’s loud.”
“And strong. You’ve got a healthy kid in there.”
Laura might have been content to lie on that exam table for the rest of the day, listening to her child’s heartbeat, but Callaway was in a hurry for us to get out of there.
“It’s getting a little crazy outside,” he said as he eyed the window where I’d recently been standing. “We just got a call from the NSO. They don’t like the direction things are heading, so they’re telling dependents to avoid coming downtown.”
“You think we’ll be okay getting home?” Laura asked.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” said Callaway. “But go straight there. No stops.”
Before he left us, he checked with Laura to make sure she had the number for Shore Patrol. “The clinic closes at noon today,” he said. “But if you have any problems today or tomorrow, call Shore Patrol and they’ll find me. If that fails, get your butt over to Paolo Merlo. Capito?”
She gave him a mock salute.
“Next week, let’s talk about getting you to Naples.”
“But I’ve still got five weeks left.”
“Yeah,” he said agreeably. “But with your history, why take the risk?”