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“Now you need to push, or now you’re having a contraction?” Lauren asked, hearing the sudden panic in her own voice. She remembered the sense of urgency that came when Henry was ready to be born. It was overwhelming. Like your body had been taken over by a freight train trying to split you in half.
“Both!” Kitty panted through the contraction. “Does this mean I’m not getting an epidural? Oh, God, what have I done?” She closed her eyes and moaned. “I should have told you this afternoon that I was having contractions.”
“This afternoon!” Steve bellowed.
“Please don’t be mad,” Kitty whimpered. “I just didn’t want to miss couples Bunco.”
“Babe, I’m not mad, I’m…” Steve shook his head at an obvious loss for words. His hands gripped the steering wheel and he rammed his foot down on the accelerator.
“Oh, no, here it comes again!” Kitty began to blow through the contraction. “Slow down, Steve! You’re going to get us killed!”
“What’s coming now? Another contraction? That’s impossible!” Steve looked nearly as frantic as Kitty .
Nate turned and motioned to Lauren. She leaned forward in her seat so they could whisper. “I think we need to take over here.”
“Good idea,” Lauren said.
“Steve, why don’t you let me drive?” Nate said. “That way you can get in the back seat with your wife.”
Steve nodded furiously. “Yeah. I don’t think I can drive anymore.” He braked too fast causing the SUV to jostle and jump its way to the side of the road. The car stopped on an isolated strip of grass next to a clump of trees. Steve got out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door to slide in next to Kitty,
Five other cars, crammed with the rest of the Bunco group, slowly came to a stop as well, parking their cars haphazardly behind the Tahoe.
Pilar jumped out of her car. “What’s going on? Why did we stop?”
“Nate’s going to take over the wheel,” Lauren explained.
In a move that seemed to surprise them all, Kitty braced her feet up against the driver’s side back seat. “I need to push!” she screamed.
“Oh God.” In the dim moonlight, Steve’s face looked incredibly pale.
Nate pulled out his cell phone and made a fast call. “I just called 911 to get an ambulance here,” he told the group. “Do you have a first aid kit in the car?” he asked Steve.
“Glove compartment,” Steve said in a daze. “911? What—”
His words were drowned out by the sound of Kitty’s sing song holler. “Something’s happening!” she cried. She clutched Steve’s hand while still keeping a death grip on Lauren.
Somehow, Nate managed to wedge himself into the back seat. Lauren noticed that he’d put on a pair of gloves. “Kitty, listen to me. You shouldn’t push if your cervix isn’t fully dilated. If you’d like, I can examine you. You can lie down on the back seat. I called an ambulance and they should be here any minute. Everything is going to be fine. Understand?”
She no
dded wildly. “Okay, yes, yes! Please examine me.”
Lauren gently pulled her hand from Kitty’s grip and helped her to discreetly take off her underwear, then Lauren climbed out of the car and out of the way while Nate went into action. He instructed Steve to help Kitty lie down on the seat with her knees bent. Nate positioned himself outside the car, facing Kitty’s legs. “This will be just a second,” he told her. He examined her, then turned to Lauren, who had been standing nearby in case she was needed. “The baby’s head is right there,” he quietly told her. “See if you can find a flashlight.”
Lauren nodded, stunned. Kitty was going to have her baby on the side of the road! She informed the rest of the group what was happening. Moose Masterson pulled a large industrial flashlight from the trunk of his car and handed it to her. She ran back to the Tahoe, to find Nate instructing Kitty on how to push.
“Aim the flashlight right there,” Nate said, pointing between Kitty’s legs. Lauren did as he instructed. “Now, Kitty, when you get a contraction, go ahead and push,” Nate said.
“Okay,” Kitty said, panting. “Now!”
Nate instructed her to pull her knees back while Steve helped support her shoulders from behind. Lauren watched in fascination. She’d had her own baby, but she’d never seen a baby born. Not from this angle. Not even on T.V.
After pushing through a few contractions, Lauren could see the top of the baby’s head.
Kitty began to panic. “I can’t do this! I need some drugs!”
“You’re doing fine,” Nate said soothingly. He caught Steve’s gaze and nodded to him.
