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“None,” Maya said. “Stop staring, Caleb.”
Grinning, the nurse jotted a note and proceeded to take Maya’s blood pressure, then her pulse, simultaneously shooting glances at Caleb every once in a while. Curious, pointed glances, but she didn’t ask.
He didn’t know how much to say, so he said nothing at all.
When she finished, she said, “The doctor will be in soon,” and headed out the door.
Maya remained lying down on the exam table, although she did rearrange her blouse. He assumed it was probably too much effort to get up. Caleb paced and looked around the room. Baby scales, baby pictures on the wall. A chart denoting the phases of labor, which he found himself studying intently.
“Sit down,” Maya said. “You’re making me nervous.”
He sent her a sheepish grin and sat down, but the moment his buttocks touched the chair, the door opened, so he shot back up again. The doctor came in. Fortyish, red-headed and female. There were silver frames on her oval glasses and a ready smile on her lips.
“Maya! How are those babies doing this week, hmm?”
“Kicking up a storm, Dr. Sheila,” Maya said.
“That’s the way we like ‘em.” She turned to Caleb, offered a hand. “I’m Sheila Stone, Maya’s ob-gyn,” she said.
“Good to meet you, Doctor. I’m Caleb…er….Cain.” Maya shot him a look he couldn’t read. “I’m…uh…I’m the…”
“Father?” she asked.
He nodded, not waiting for Maya’s permission.
“Well, congratulations. I’m glad to see you’re here for the blessed event.” She pulled her stethoscope to her ears, leaned over and moved it around until she found the spots she wanted.
“Doctor, is it normal for the babies to kick so much? I mean, they’re really…active in there.” He saw Maya’s curious gaze on his when he asked the question. She had eyes that could hold a thousand emotions, he thought, and he wished he could read every one of them. But they tended to bubble up and swirl and sink again in such rapid succession and unlikely combinations that he thought he never would. He would glimpse something, some glimmer, but it would be replaced by another before he could get a handle on it
“It’s perfectly normal, Caleb,” the doctor was saying as he plumbed the depths of Maya Brand’s eyes. “It means they’re strong and healthy.”
Again she leaned over, listening to Maya’s belly, and he dragged his eyes away from the depths of the mother to observe the doctor for signs of dishonesty or worry or anything telling at all.
“But…is it safe for them to be so active? I mean…with two babies…it is possible they could…you know, hurt each other?”
“Oh…they may poke each other a bit now and then,” Dr. Stone said. “But they’re very well protected, Caleb. Completely surrounded and cushioned by amniotic fluid. And while those kicks may seem pretty solid to us out here, the babies aren’t strong enough to seriously harm each other. Really, with the quality of prenatal care we have today, twins are barely any more concern to us than single birth babies.”
She might be lying to him, he thought. Perhaps because Maya was in the room. Oh, he wanted to believe her. But he knew better, didn’t he? He’d been told all his life how the stronger twins in his bloodline managed to survive at the expense of their weaker siblings.
“You look worried, Dad,” Dr. Stone said. “Come here, let me reassure you.” She motioned at Caleb to come closer. When he did, she snagged a second stethoscope from her pocket and handed it to him.
He took it, his hand shaking, and put it on. Then the doctor guided the other end to the right spot. And he heard it. Rapid as the beat of a hummingbird’s wings—a tiny, powerful patter.
“Holy…my God, is that the baby’s heart?”
“It sure is. Here, here’s the other one,” she said, moving the business end of the thing yet again.
Caleb closed his eyes as he heard the second beat, every bit as strong and steady as the first. “Are they supposed to be that fast?” he asked, eyes closed as he listened.
“They’re just right,” Dr. Stone assured him.
When he opened his eyes again, they were slightly blurry, and Maya’s were staring right into them. Probing and seeking and surprised and a dozen other things. “It’s amazing,” he said. “I…I don’t even know what to say.”
“So are you planning to be in the delivery room, Caleb?”
He blinked and felt his eyes widen as they shot to the doctor’s.
Maya smiled. “Don’t panic, Caleb. No one expects you to do that.”
