PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Sixty-Five
The three roommates followed the obstetrician
to Helga’s room on the fifth floor. After checking to see that her patient was well,
the doctor left, leaving mother and child alone with their visitors.
Helga was sitting up in bed, tired but happy.
The infant lay cradled in her arms, almost hidden beneath the baby blanket she
had made for him.
Tommy swiped a chair from the hallway and sat
down next to his cousin, while Jack and Rose stood beside her, looking down at
the newborn. Helga winced, sitting up straighter, and pulled the blanket back
from the sleeping baby’s face.
The infant’s tiny head was covered with a
thatch of thick black hair, much like his father’s. His skin tone, while darker
than his mother’s, was not yet fully discernible under the normal redness of a
newborn. One tiny thumb worked its way free of the blanket and found its way
into the baby’s mouth.
"What’s his name?" Tommy asked,
awestruck at the sight of his newborn cousin.
Helga cuddled the baby closer. "His name
is Daniel Fabrizio de Rosa."
"It suits him," Rose murmured,
looking at the baby. "Can I hold him?"
"Sure." Helga handed the baby to
Rose, carefully supporting his head with one hand. "Hold his head like
this, carefully. His head has lots of soft spots."
"Soft spots?"
"It lets the baby’s head be squeezed
enough to be born," Helga explained. "That’s why a newborn’s head
looks so funny."
Rose cradled the baby just as Helga had shown
her, rocking him gently. Daniel took his thumb from his mouth and waved his
hand around, his eyes opening and staring in blank fascination at his Aunt
Rose. The waving hand found a loose red curl and wrapped around it, tugging.
Rose gently removed her hair from the baby’s
grip. "He’s darling, Helga," she told her roommate. "He looks so
much like Fabrizio, except I think he’s got your face."
"It’s a little soon too tell who he
looks like, but I think you’re right." Helga nodded as Tommy held out his
arms to hold his new cousin.
Tommy looked a little worried about holding
the baby, handling him gingerly as though he might break. Helga smiled.
"You don’t have to be afraid of
him," she told her cousin. "Babies don’t break easily, and he won’t
bite. He hasn’t got any teeth yet."
Tommy smiled a little sheepishly, holding his
baby cousin more securely before passing him to Jack.
By this time, the newborn baby had grown
tired of being passed around and began to whimper, progressing to a full-fledged
wail as Jack took him from Tommy.
The moment Jack cradled Daniel in his arms,
he stopped crying, opening his eyes and staring at the man holding him.
Calming, he waved his hand around, his thumb finding its way back into his
mouth.
"He likes you," Helga commented,
watching Jack holding her son. "Rose is right. You are good with
kids."
Jack didn’t answer. He stroked the tiny cheek
of his best friend’s newborn son, wishing that Fabrizio had lived to see him.
Jack knew he would have been proud.
*****
About fifteen minutes later, the three
roommates left the hospital, allowing Helga and Daniel to get some much-needed
rest. Jack had ridden to the hospital with Tommy, but elected to go home with
Rose.
As they drove in the direction of the
freeway, he was quiet, lost in thought. Seeing the newborn baby, the son of
Fabrizio and Helga, had given him a lot to think about.
As they turned onto the freeway, Rose glanced
at him briefly. "What’s on your mind?"
Jack leaned back against the seat, propping
himself up as he slid down a little on the plastic garbage bag Rose had covered
the seat with. "A lot of things."
"Such as?"
"Fabrizio. Helga. Daniel." He
paused. "The fact that Fabrizio and Daniel will never know each other. It’s
sad for a son not to have a father."
Rose drove carefully along the dark freeway,
avoiding flooded areas. The rain had stopped, but this section of freeway was
low-lying and flooded easily. When she had reached higher ground, she spoke to
him again.
"You’re talking about yourself, too,
aren’t you? You still miss your father."
Jack was silent for a moment. "Yes. I
still miss him. That’s one thing that Daniel will never do—miss his father. He
never knew him."
"But you knew your father. And you lost
him when you were fifteen."
"Yes. It was rough, especially since Mom
died at the same time." He sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if Dad would
approve of where I’ve wound up in life."
"Why wouldn’t he?"
"I’ve done some less than wonderful
things, you know."
"Yes, but in spite of everything, you’ve
become a well-respected advertising artist, you’re in college, and you have a
good marriage. If your father was anything like you’ve described him, he’d be
proud of you for what you’ve accomplished. From what you’ve said, he was a
tolerant, forgiving man, who probably would have forgiven you for doing some
stupid things when you were a teenager. Kids who are unhappy and not well
supervised get into trouble a lot. You, at least, overcame that and got out of
trouble."
"You think so?" Jack sounded like
he was about to say more, but changed his mind.
"I think so. He must have been a good
man, to have raised a son like you. And someday, I’m sure, you’ll be a good
father yourself."