It was October 31st, and in America that day is celebrated as Halloween. This also meant that it was exactly 9 weeks until Kelly’s due date. At the last check-up, the due date for the twins’ arrival was set to be tentatively January 2nd.
“How do you feel?” Nick asked, bringing Kelly a cup of hot cocoa, as she struggled to sit down in a chair.
“Thanks honey. It’s getting really hard for me to move around!!” Kelly laughed. “I feel okay, I guess. My back hurts, but nothing major.”
Nick walked into the kitchen to get his wife a Tylenol for her backache. He glanced into the living room and saw Kelly reading a book by some expert doctor who supposedly knew everything about raising children. He just smiled and laughed to himself, thinking how cute she looked sitting there with her hair tied back in a ribbon, wearing the maternity clothes that had obviously been AJ’s choice. The leopard print velvet pants, and v-neck black shirt gave it away.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Nick yelled to his wife, looking outside into the dark bluish black storm clouds—perfect weather for Halloween night.
“Like what?” Kelly looked up from her book, and swallowed her Tylenol.
“How about a scary movie?” Nick raised his eyebrows, the excitement in his voice rising.
“Nick, I don’t know….” Kelly trailed off.
“Oh, come on, it’s Halloween!” Nick pleaded.
Kelly thought for a moment and reluctantly closed her book. “Okay, Carter,” she sighed. “What movie?”
“Thanks baby! How about mmm…Halloween?” he grinned devilishly.
“Alright, fine with me. Ya know what?” Kelly asked, as a thought came to her head. “We didn’t even carve a pumpkin!”
Nick frowned and nodded his head in agreement. “I could go buy one and we’ll carve one together,” he smiled at his suggestion.
“That would be nice, but be careful, okay? It might start raining soon,” Kelly said as Nick grabbed his keys to leave.
They kissed goodbye and said their I love yous.
Kelly became engrossed in her book after Nick left, but was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.
Kelly assumed it was Nick coming back to get money, or something he had forgotten so she yelled out, “Just a minute!” Kelly struggled to raise herself from the chair, and finally accomplished her feat. She opened the door, expecting to see Nick but instead was greeted by the crisp, cool October air.
“Nick?” Kelly ventured, stepping halfway outside the door. She glanced around and didn’t see anyone or anything. There was a deafening silence that was quickly broken by the hooting of a night owl.
“Nick??” Kelly called again a bit louder, thinking this was probably one of his Halloween pranks. “Ok, this isn’t funny! I’m going inside!”
Kelly glanced around again, but this time noted that Nick’s car wasn’t in the driveway, meaning he couldn’t have been the one to ring the doorbell. A twinge of fear ignited in Kelly’s chest and then she heard something or someone rustling along the side of their house, or maybe she imagined it. Either way, Kelly had become terrified and quickly ran into the house and locked the door.
Kelly took a deep breath to calm herself because she felt a sharp pain shoot through her stomach. Kelly stood behind the door for a moment recollecting her composure, but the pain only increased and become more frequent.
Kelly quickly walked back into the living room and picked up the telephone to call Nick to let him know that something was going on.
Kelly let the phone ring and ring, but nobody answered. Kelly let out an aggravated sigh and decided to call AJ, who had become one of her best friends lately.
Again, nobody answered the telephone, so Kelly hung up the phone. Just as she did so, the doorbell rang once more. The familiar lump of fear rose in Kelly’s throat, as she slowly crept closer to the door. She took a deep breath and swung the door open to find AJ standing there.
“AJ!” Kelly yelled out, both glad and relieved.
“Kelly!” he mocked her. “I rang the doorbell earlier, but I had forgotten something, so I went back to my car and…”
Kelly made a face and quickly moved her hand to cover her tummy.
“Are you okay? You don’t look so well,” AJ commented, walking inside the door and helping Kelly to lie down on the couch.
“I don’t know. There’s this really,” Kelly paused for the pain, “bad pain in my stomach. AJ, it hurts really,” Kelly paused again, “really badly.”
“Just relax, baby. Take deep breaths and stay calm, ok?” AJ whisked fallen strands of her blonde hair out of her face and went into the kitchen to get a cold, damp rag and a glass of water.
“It’s not time for you to be in labor is it?” AJ questioned walking back into the living room and placing the wet rag on her forehead.
Kelly shook her head vigorously. “Not for another 9 weeks!”
Kelly started to breathe heavily and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut to try to ignore the pain. Beads of sweat collected along her mouth and forehead, slowly soaking the front part of her hair.
“AJ,” Kelly gasped for air, “you’ve got…to…call the…hospital.”
“I already did. I called them when I went into the kitchen. Just relax and try to take deep breaths, ok? You’ll be fine, sweetie. Just squeeze my hand when it hurts, ok?” AJ comforted his friend, interlocking his hand with hers.
“Leave…,” Kelly paused and swallowed the lump in her throat, “Nick a note…and tell him…what happened.”
“I will and I’ll call him. Just don’t worry about it,” AJ stroked her damp, feverish forehead, and gently kissed the top of her hair.
The pain had increased and was so severe that Kelly was crying and screaming out in anguish. AJ had decided to give her a pillow, rather than his hand after about a minute of her squeezing his hand.
“Listen, I’m going to carry you to my car, ok? You can lie down in the backseat and I’m going to drive you to the hospital. I can probably get you to the hospital quicker than the ambulance can get here,” AJ suggested, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around Kelly to keep her warm in the night air.
As AJ was carrying Kelly down the sidewalk to his car, the ambulance arrived and the parmedics jumped out and put Kelly in the ambulance.
“Do you want to go sir?” the paramedic quickly asked AJ.
“Uh, yeah!” AJ quickly decided and slipped into the back of the ambulance.
Nick heard the high-pitched squeal of the sirens as he approached his house. As he was about to pull into his driveway he saw the speeding ambulance coming out and immediately knew that something had happened to Kelly. Instead of turning, he quickly sped behind the ambulance all the way to Tampa General Hospital.
