“And being calm means not thinking about things like floods or driving in this storm. Right?”
“You’re right. Sorry.”
Ellen smiled reassuringly, then called Dr. Patel. He didn’t answer, but she didn’t expect him to. She left a message.
“Hi, Ron, it’s Ellen McKenna. I’m with Margery Sutton right now—she’s a couple days shy of thirty-three weeks. You last saw her two weeks ago in your office. She’s having some intermittentcramping, low back pain, and fatigue. Her BP is 140 over 90, pulse normal, her last urine test showed no proteinuria, fetal heart rate strong, no signs of labor at this point. I’ll be monitoring her vitals every fifteen minutes for the next hour. Neither of us want her to be out in the storm, unless you say we absolutely need to get her in. Let me know what you want to do.”
She hit end, then turned back toward the living room. The rain still whispered against the windows, steady but not dangerous yet. She wanted to go home, check on her family, make sure that Avery and Bobby made it back safe. Make sure Jake didn’t do something dangerous like climb onto the barn roof. Make sure Penny wasn’t overdoing it in the kitchen, and that Lyla had eaten lunch.
But for the next hour, she could be here for Margery.
She sat back down, asked about what she had been eating. Susie had kept a good log. “She doesn’t eat a lot at one time, but she eats often!” Susie said with a laugh.
“That’s very normal, and actually good for her and the baby. Her stomach has shrunk as the baby has grown.”
“I’m craving pickles. Isn’t that so cliché?” Margery said.
“Probably salt. Too much salt is bad, but too little salt is bad, too. Have a pickle whenever you want. What might be good is a bean salad, tossed in olive oil and a good red wine vinegar. Garlic salt and pepper maybe.”
“I can do that!” Susie said. She went back to the kitchen, relieved, it seemed, that she had something productive to do.
Ellen asked, “How’s Doug? Have you talked to him lately?”
Margery shook her head. “He was supposed to call me yesterday afternoon. He didn’t know when he’d be able to, he usually has a window he can call, and his night is my day. But he didn’t call, and I didn’t get a message. So of course I had to look up where his aircraft carrier is now, and it’s still in the Mediterranean and everything seems fine, but…” She shrugged.
“You’re worried.”
She nodded. “He’s really good about calling me, and he emails almost every day. But I haven’t heard from him at all in two days…”
Which, Ellen thought, was why her blood pressure was elevated.
“Listen to me, Margery,” she said firmly. “You are worried about Doug, and that is normal, but your stress is not good for the baby or you. If your blood pressure spikes, there’s no choice but to go to the hospital. So for now, we are going to think only positive thoughts. We are not going to think anything bad; we’re not going to read anything sad. No news, no social media, nothing but focusing on growing this beautiful baby.”
“You’re right, I know you’re right.”
“Good.” Thunder rolled through the sky and Margery jumped. “Hey, it’s just a little storm,” Ellen said.
“Little?” Margery raised an eyebrow.
“Honestly, you’re in the best place in the valley. You are on one of the highest hills, you have a generator if the power goes out, and you have a wood-burning fireplace.”
“Doug really thought of everything,” she said, smiling.
“You found a good one,” Ellen said, then thought about John.
She had found a good one, too. And now he was gone. She remembered being young, pregnant, full of trepidation and deep joy. John worked hard, but he was with her every night, giving her back rubs, going downstairs to get her a dish of ice cream in the middle of the night, telling her he loved her every single day.
Dear Lord, she missed him.
But she didn’t want Margery to see that she was melancholy, so she forced herself to smile and wrapped the cuff around her arm again.
“Let’s see if we can get those numbers to come down, okay?”
Susie brought them all sandwiches and Margery a large glass of milk, which she’d asked for. “I don’t even like milk, but it’s all I seem to want,” Margery said.
“Other than pickles,” Susie said, and they both laughed.
Her blood pressure was exactly the same, which was actually good. It wasn’t going up or being erratic.
