Page 93 of One Last Summer
“How is she?” I said, refocusing.
“She got the epidural when we got here, so she’s been resting, but the doctor thinks she’ll be pushing very soon. I’m about to head back in there.”
Eloise clenched her teeth together nervously. “I thought labor was supposed to be, like, days long, but this baby is coming fast.”
“Her mom must be freaking out,” I said.
“Oh, Marla and I have both been on the phone with her all morning,” she said. “She’s probably getting pulled over for speeding right now.”
“And everyone else is—”
“Back at Pine Lake. Mack tried to load everyone into his car, but Sam screamed at them to stay back, and I drove her.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly nervous that maybe I’d misread the intention of Sam’s texts. “Should I go there, then?”
“Clara,” she said, leveling a hard look at me as she licked the chocolate off her thumb. “She literally asked me no less than five times for your ETA.”
“Okay, phew,” I said, my heart swelling with relief that Sam hadn’t just wanted me here, she’d expected me, trusted I’d come. “So should we just wait out here then?”
Eloise let out a laugh as she crumpled up the wrapper, tossing it underhand in the trash can next to us.
“Oh no, my friend. You’re about to go help have a baby.”
“Me?” I was still in my work clothes, teetering in my uncomfortable heels, and decked out in the light blue suit set that I’d worn this morning, to match the color of our proposed branding palette for Alewife.
“Yes, you,” said Eloise finally. “I’m handling music and taking photos.”
“Wait. I don’t know what to do,” I said, my voice pitched with panic. I didn’t know the first thing about childbirth, other than every terrible portrayal I’d seen on TV. I was utterly lost, with no plan at all. “I told her I wanted to be here to help, but I didn’t mean like, doing labor!”
“Clara,” Eloise said, her voice firm. “She just wants you in there. You’ll figure the rest out.”
I nodded, remembering what Sam had said a few days earlier.
You’ll know when I really need your help.
I didn’t need to know what I was doing. I just needed to be there. To show up.
This, I finally knew how to do.
I lasted all of five minutes in the delivery room in my heels. Soon they were shoved next to the tiny plastic couch where Eloise sat, poised and elegant as if there wasn’t a person giving birth a mere two feet away across from her, as she tapped out mood music selections on Sam’s phone.
“I had everything planned.” It had been the first thing Sam had moaned at me when I walked into the room. She was naked except for a soft, wireless bra, her brow covered in the faintest sheen of sweat, ringlets swept off her face with a headband.
“I know you did,” I said, reaching down to stroke her forehead. I knew that feeling all too well.
“Please don’t touch me,” she grumbled, her eyes glazed over. “I can’t handle being touched right now.”
“You got it,” I said with a firm nod. “I’m here to help however you need me, okay?”
I reached up to tuck my hair behind my ears only to find I barely had anything there anymore. I kept forgetting today’s frantic chop in my kitchen, as Lydia hacked my hair off over the trash can. Had it really only been a few hours since I stood by the swan boats, watching a loon flail in the water next to a stranger? It seemed like decades ago, another lifetime, even.
Today had been chaotic and terrifying, reckless and racked with stress. Scary, for sure. But also joyful, and meaningful; and here, right now, full of love.
I didn’t need to follow any list to right the course of my life.
It was all here, waiting for me to just live it.
Suddenly, the Spice Girls burst forth from Eloise’s phone, and Sam waved a thumbs-up in her direction as she exhaled a low, guttural moan.
