AFTER TITANIC
Chapter Eight
A lusty wail from a baby woke
Rose from her peaceful sleep. Rose sat up and smiled, walking over to her
three-day-old infant. She picked it up, carefully supporting its head, and
kissed it on the face. To quiet her child, in her beautiful, melodic voice, she
quietly sang it a song, a lullaby.
Come Josephine, in my flying
machine
Going up, she goes! Up she goes!
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes; there she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher.
Oh, my! The moon is on fire.
Come, Josephine in my flying machine
Going up, all on, good-bye.
The baby quieted down a little
and Rose kissed it again, happily recalling three days ago, right after her
water broke.
*****
Rose looked at the puddle under
her feet. "Oh, my," she said. "Get help!" Mary ran from the
room and returned moments later with a few teachers. They gasped when they saw
Rose standing there over her broken water. "Help me!" she snapped.
The teachers composed themselves and helped Rose to the infirmary. "What
are we doing here? I need to get to a hospital…oh…contraction…ah!"
"There’s no time," said
Mrs. Blake, the math teacher. "We don’t want you giving birth on a street
corner."
"Well, I’m not too fond of the
idea of delivering my baby in a school!" Rose yelled. She felt another
contraction coming and gripped Mary’s hand, causing the poor girl to scream.
"The headmistress is
coming!" one of the nurses in the infirmary said. Rose could hear the
girls emerging from their rooms upstairs, curious about the yelling.
The headmistress walked past them
and said, "Dinner is being delayed. You will all stay in your rooms and
study until further notice." The girls scrambled back into their rooms and
Miss Crawford swept into the infirmary.
Rose began to cry. "I’ve got
a shoe full of amniotic fluid, I’m in a girl’s size bed, and I’m in labor! I
need a doctor!"
"Call a doctor!"
snapped Miss Crawford. Rose stayed there in terrible pain, waiting for Dr.
Johnson to arrive. It only took about fifteen minutes for him to do so, but it
was an eternity to poor Rose.
"Her contractions aren’t
very far apart," the school’s nurse told the doctor. "She’s almost
there." The doctor nodded. "Mrs. Dawson, I need you take a deep
breath and push. Can you do that?" Rose nodded weakly and inhaled. She
began to push and screamed in pain. She stopped and caught her breath, still
holding Mary’s hand, who was silenced by shock. I want Jack, Rose
thought. I need him here.
As if Mary knew what her teacher
was thinking, she said, "Don’t worry. He’s looking down on you right
now." Rose smiled and nodded, and pushed again. It was the most painful
experience of her life, with the exception of nearly freezing to death eight
and a half months ago. And as she pushed, even in this terrible pain, she
couldn’t help but think, This is great. I would do this again any day.
Moments later, Rose heard the newborn’s strong cries. Rose collapsed her head
on her pillow.
"Is it healthy?" she
asked, exhausted.
"Perhaps the healthiest
newborn I have ever seen," the doctor replied.
"Mary, tell me what it
is," Rose said. Mary looked at the baby Rose had yet to see.
"It’s a girl," she
said. Rose’s face lit up.
"Really? I…have a baby
girl?" Mary nodded. Rose watched the nurse swaddle her baby and carry it
over to her. They placed the little girl in her mother’s arms. Rose began to
cry a little. She was so happy. She had never been this happy in her entire
life. Rose looked to Mary. "How can you love someone so much if you just met
them?"
Mary smiled through her tears.
"That’s how it was with Mr. Dawson, right?" Mary asked. Rose smiled
and looked at her beautiful daughter. She had the lightest red-gold hair and
blue eyes. Rose knew all babies had blue eyes, but these eyes were very blue.
Just like her dad’s. And the baby was big and strong, about six or seven
pounds, and looked so healthy. Mary sat by Rose’s side and asked, "So, do
you know what you are going to name her?" Rose nodded.
"I was going to name her
Jackie, after her father, but I changed my mind. I think I’m going to call her
Abigail," Rose said.
Mary gasped. "That’s my
mother’s name."
"I know," Rose said.
"And she must have been very brave to go through that. So I will call my
baby Abby. That’s my daughter’s name. Abby. Abby Pearl Dawson. Would you like
to hold her?" Mary nodded and took the baby from Rose.
"She’s beautiful," Mary
said.
*****
Rose was brought back to reality
by a light knock at the door. Still holding Abby, Rose walked over and answered
the door. It was Meg. "How’s the baby doing?" Meg asked.
"See for yourself,"
Rose said. The new family had only been home one day. They had spent the last
two days in the infirmary at the school until they had finally sent her home in
a cab. Rose rocked the baby and smiled.
"Rose," Meg said
tenderly, "you did it. You’re a mother."
"Yes," Rose said.
"I’m a mother. Thank you, Jack."