“Beautiful, Jenna, beautiful. Keep going,” Mom says, her voice raised so she can be heard.
“Fuck, it hurts,” Jenna gasps, inhales a big mouthful of air and then she doubles down and closes her eyes again to push some more.
“You’re doing so well,” I say, feeling more than a little redundant standing in the corner of the bathroom holding a towel.
“Oh, sweet Jesus, it’s still coming.” Marty shifts and brings another hand between Jenna’s legs.
“Okay, Marty, time to catch your baby,” Mom says. “Get closer, Lawrence!”
I step in so I’m standing behind Marty and I see a squishy ball of flesh in his hands. A baby. Their baby. Maeve’s niece.
In the next few seconds, everything seems to happen at once. There’s a muted popping sound and a big gush as liquid pours out of Jenna and into the toilet. Somehow, she stands up a littleand that let’s Marty move his hands, bringing them closer to his body. We all gasp as we see the baby he’s holding, a perfect little pink thing. I move in with my towel and clumsily, so painfully clumsily, Marty and I wrap it around the little one just as she starts to kick her legs, fist her fingers and squawk out a rough cry. I am speechless as I watch Marty gently hand the bundle over to Jenna who sits back on the toilet, and I’m only noticing the twisted purple cord that is still attaching her to her baby as I hear Maeve’s voice call out and the thud of people rushing up the stairs.
“Jenna! Marty! The paramedics are here!”
It’s then that I can hear my mom. “Beautiful, so beautiful.”
But it’s like Jenna and Marty can’t hear anything. Not Maeve, not my mom. It’s like their world has stopped, or maybe it’s just rearranged itself and started all over again because they are both looking at their baby with surprised smiles and glistening eyes and watching them, I see and feel nothing but love.
Chapter Forty-Six
Maeve
“No news is good news,” Loncey says to me yet again as I chew on my lip and keep my eyes fixed on the double doors I am told they hurried Jenna, Marty and their baby through. We arrived less than a half hour after the ambulance, a good two hours ago, but still we haven’t received an update.
It all happened so quickly. Not just the birth but the chaos afterwards as the paramedics managed to help Jenna down the stairs and into the ambulance wearing just her dressing gown. Marty followed barely two steps behind her, carrying his daughter all wrapped up in towels. My dad threw their bags into the ambulance after them and then they were off, leaving the four of us standing and staring at each other in shock. But somehow we gathered ourselves and got in the car and made it here.
With his head tipped back against the wall, Dad is dozing in a chair to my right and next to him Ma has her head buried in a magazine but she’s had the same pages open for many long minutes. Loncey is sitting on my left and they’ve generously given me their arm to hold and rest my head on. I’m not tired, as such, at least not to sleep. I feel physically exhausted from what I witnessed and I’m mentally drained from swinging between thinking the worst to hoping and fuck it, even praying for the very best. And I know I’m not the only one because my mother has been tellingly quiet for the last hour or so, and while my dad may look like he’s sleeping, his knuckles are still pale with how fiercely he’s gripping his phone in his hand.
And Loncey. Loncey has stayed with us through it all. Distracting us with stories about Jessica, with questions about Dublin and what they should see and do, with enquiries about my father’s former business and far more knowledge about yoga than I thought they had once my Mam shared how that’s her favourite pastime.
But now, even Loncey is quiet, other than whispering a few reassuring words to me. They must be bored to tears.
“I’m sorry this isn’t the fun first day in Dublin you were hoping for,” I say to them as I sit up straight in my chair.
“Are you kidding me? I just witnessed new life being born!”
My phone buzzes in my hand. I’ve barely looked at it other than messaging Jake and Arabella to keep them updated. I hold it up and see Jake’s name displayed.
“Stand by,” I say more to myself than anyone, and then I answer it.
“What’s happening!? I need to know!”
“Jake I texted you twenty minutes ago with an update,” I explain.
“Exactly. That was twenty minutes ago! A lot can happen in twenty minutes!”
“Well, nothing has happened in the last twenty minutes here,” I say.
Jake groans. “I can’t believe I’m not there.”
“You will be soon. She’ll still be all tiny and cute as a button then.”
Jake’s voice drops. “I’m sure she will but actually, Maeve, I wish I was there for Jenna.”
My heart warms. “I know. She wishes you were here too. Actually, whereareyou right now?”
“Cape Town. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. I’m currently watching Rami do his meditation on our hotel room balcony, topless I hasten to add. And yet I’m fucking miserable. I don’t want to be here. I want to be there!”
