A Bachelor and a Baby. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ around her, imprisoning her.

      There was no escape.

      Panting again, Joanna tried to recall what she’d learned in her Lamaze classes. Nothing came to her. All she could remember was that the four of them, she, Chris Jones, Sherry Campbell and the instructor, Lori O’Neill, referred to themselves as the Mom Squad, four single women who’d bonded because they were facing life’s most precious miracle alone.

      None of that helped now.

      She froze, hardly hearing what Rick was saying to her, her body enveloped in one huge contraction.

      What was it that Lori’d told the class the last session? Relax, that was it. Relax.

      Right, easy for Lori to say. Of the four of them, she was the one who had the longest to go. Lori didn’t know what it felt like to be a can of tuna with a jagged can opener circling her perimeter.

      But she did.

      Joanna let loose with a blood-curling scream as another contraction, the hardest one yet, ripped into her on the tail of the last one. There was no end in sight. She was going to keep on having these contractions until she died.

      Rick jerked back, covering his ear. She had risen up and screamed right against it. He could still feel the sound reverberating in his head.

      “Good thing I’ve got two ears. I’m not going to be using my left one for a while.”

      He shouldn’t be the one here, helping her give birth to another man’s baby, he thought. This should have been their child fighting its way into the world.

      A sadness gripped his heart. He looked at her. “This is all wrong.”

      With what little strength she had, Joanna dragged her elbows into her sides and struggled to raise herself up again.

      “What…? What’s…wrong? Something wrong…with…my baby?”

      “No, no,” he assured her, pushing her gently back down. “Just that your husband should be here, not me.” Or at least the paramedics, he added silently.

      “Don’t…have…one,” she gasped. She felt lightheaded and fought to keep focused and conscious. Here came another! “Now, Rick, now!”

      Rick saw her face turn three shades redder as she screwed her eyes shut.

      This was all happening too fast.

      He didn’t have to tell her to push. He didn’t have to tell her anything at all. Suddenly, whether he was ready or not, it was happening. The baby was coming.

      Rick barely had enough time to slip his hands into position. The baby’s head was emerging. He could feel the blood, feel the slide of flesh against flesh.

      Wasn’t giving birth supposed to take longer than the amount of time it took to peel a banana skin back?

      And why hadn’t the fire trucks arrived yet? Were they the last two people on the earth?

      It felt that way. The very last two people on earth. Engaged in a life-affirming struggle.

      “Pull…it…out!” Joanna screamed. The baby was one-third out, two-thirds in. Why had everything stopped?

      She fell back, exhausted, unable to drag in enough air to sustain herself. Beams of light began dancing through her head, motioning her toward them.

      Toward oblivion.

      In mounting panic, Rick realized that she was going to pass out on him. One hand supporting the baby’s head, he leaned over and shook Joanna’s shoulder, trying to get her to focus.

      “I can’t pull it out,” he shouted at her. “You can’t play tug of war with a head, Joanna. You have to push the baby out the rest of the way.”

      “You…push it out…the…rest of…the way. It’s…your…turn.”

      And then she felt it again. That horrible pain that she couldn’t escape. It bore down on her, tying her up in a knot even as it threatened to crack her apart. It didn’t matter that she had no strength, that she couldn’t draw a half-decent breath into her lungs. Her body had taken over where her mind had failed.

      “Oh…God…it’s not…over.” How was she going to do this with no strength left? How was it possible?

      Panting, gasping for air, she looked at Rick. He was right. This was wrong, all wrong. She should never have decided to have this baby, never agreed to leave Rick without explaining why.

      Too late now for regrets.

      The refrain echoed in her brain over and over again as heat surrounded her, searing a path clear for more pain.

      The tablecloth below her was soaked with blood. “Push,” Rick ordered gruffly, hiding the mounting fear taking hold of him. What if something went wrong? Should there be this much blood? She couldn’t die on him, she couldn’t. “C’mon, Joanna, you can do this!”

      No, she thought, she couldn’t.

      But she had to try. She couldn’t just die like this. Her baby needed her.

      From somewhere, a last ounce of strength materialized. She bore down as hard as she could, knowing that this was the last effort she was capable of making. If the baby wasn’t going to emerge now, they were just going to bury her this way.

      Fragments of absurd thoughts kept dancing in and out of her head.

      She thought she heard sirens, or screams, in the background. Maybe it was the fire gaining on them. She didn’t know, didn’t care, she just wanted this all to be over with—one way or another.

      She felt as if she was being turned inside out and still she pushed, pushed until her chest felt as if it was caving in, as if her very body was disintegrating from the effort.

      And then she heard a tiny cry, softer than all the other noise. Sweeter.

      Her head spinning from lack of oxygen, Joanna fell back against the tablecloth, the grass brushing against her soaked neck. She was too exhausted even to breathe.

      Rick stared at the miracle in his hands. The miracle was staring back, eyes as wide and huge as her mother’s. He felt something twist within him. He was too numb to identify the sensation.

      “You’ve got a girl,” he whispered to Joanna, awe stealing his voice away.

      He dripped with perspiration, but he knew it was chilly. There was nothing to wrap the baby in. He stripped off his shirt and tucked it around the tiny soul. The infant still watched him with the largest eyes he’d ever seen.

      Several feet away from him, a fire truck came to a screeching halt. He hardly acknowledged its arrival. All he could do was look at the baby he’d helped to bring into the world.

      Joanna’s baby.

      The scene around them was almost surreal. People were shouting, firefighters were scrambling down from the truck, running toward them. Running toward the fire.

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