1929 (41 page)

“Well, that’s assuming that we all three have
boys first and fast. Who knows? Maybe we’ll all have girls?”

“Here it is,” Arianna said, looking the small
building over.

The midwife operated out of her home,
dedicating a few back rooms to her practice. Arianna knocked on the
front door and a much older woman with hair piled on her head in
Victorian style answered the door.

“Can I help you?” she asked, looking Arianna
and Ava up and down.

“I’m looking for Mrs. Hauge.”

“That’s me. What can I do for you?” the old
woman said and smiled.

“Well, my doctor recommended you. You see,
I’m, well, I’m going to be–”

“You’re with child, and you are looking for
someone to care for you through it,” old Mrs. Hauge
interrupted.

“Yes, please.”

“Come in then. I’m with a woman now, but I
can speak with you shortly.”

They followed her inside a modest but clean
home decorated in much the same era that Mrs. Hauge appeared to
have directly stepped out of. She pointed to chairs in the hallway
and excused herself behind a wooden, sliding door. They could
vaguely hear chattering and occasional laughter from inside the
room.

A few moments later, Mrs. Hauge emerged,
followed by a woman whose stomach was so large she waddled with
considerable effort.

“Now, have your husband come for me the
second you think it’s time. I don’t want you having another one
before I get there,” she teased.

The woman shuffled past, her enormous stomach
causing her to arch her back to keep her balance as she left.

Arianna’s eyes grew wide, and her head
whipped to Mrs. Hauge, who was closing the door.

“Am I going to be that big?” Arianna asked,
horrified.

The midwife laughed. “Most likely not that
big unless you’re having twins, but you’ll be big enough. Come in
and let’s get to know each other, shall we?”

Arianna followed her behind the door to a
parlor-like room. She sat on an old but comfortable settee, and the
midwife took a fresh sheet of stationery and began asking her
questions. She wrote down all of Arianna’s answers and began asking
her questions about her health. She pulled out a chart, looked it
over, and turned to Arianna.

“Well, it appears that you’ll be due in late
June. But being as this is your first one, I wouldn’t expect
anything until July.” She motioned for Arianna to lie back.

“You’re skin and bones, child!” Mrs. Hauge
said, afterward. “You’d better put on some weight. Potatoes are
good for that. You need to be eating lots of potatoes and as much
meat as you can manage.”

“I hate potatoes,” she whispered aloud,
rolling her eyes.

“Well, hate them or not, you’ll need to be
eating them for the baby. Now, I’ll take you on and help you
through the delivery, but you have to do exactly as I say. I’ve
been delivering babies for thirty years, and I can count on one
hand how many babies I’ve lost, and it was mostly due to the mother
not following my instructions.”

Arianna was wide-eyed hearing babies I’ve
lost.

“Your instructions are to start putting on
some weight. I understand circumstances are probably harsh, or
you’d be at a regular doctor. But you must do whatever you can to
see to a healthy baby and that includes plenty of rest and eating
as much as you can with as much variety as you can. I can see to it
that you have more iron supplements, and I trust you’ve ceased all
relations with your husband?”

“Ceased rela – what?” Arianna looked
stunned.

“Yes, dear. I have seen more deaf and dumb
babies born than I ever cared to see because mothers did not stop
having relations.”

“Deaf and dumb?” Arianna squeaked.

“It truly amazes me how many women come
through my door...” She leaned toward Arianna and lowered her
voice. “To put it bluntly, my dear, it has been proven that
intrusive and repetitive motions of that nature put a baby at great
risk of being born retarded. You must bring to a halt your marital
obligations if you are to have a healthy baby.”

“Retarded?”

“Now, if your husband gives you any guff
about it, bring him to me. I’ll set him straight. He may tell you
he will die, but I have yet to come across a husband’s corpse at
the foot of the bed come the time of delivery,” she said with a
smile and a wink.

She handed Arianna a piece of paper listing
the charges for her services. Arianna paid her for the appointment
and asked when she should come back.

“If all is going well, I can see you a few
months from now,” she said casually. Arianna left the room.

“Everything okay?” Ava was instantly
concerned, seeing the expressions of shock and agony.

“Yes and no. Mostly no,” Arianna whispered
back.

She explained everything to Ava on the walk
home.

“Are you sure she’s right?” Ava asked. “I’ve
never heard of that.”

“She seemed very smart. And she’s been doing
this for a long time,” Arianna said cautiously.

“Then forget it,” Ava said. “You guys can get
ahead of us. We’re adopting,” she said, not entirely joking.

Arianna stopped by the grocery on the way
home and bought a ten-pound bag of potatoes, a pound of butter, and
several cans of sardines.

Later that evening, Caleb came home and
stopped abruptly inside the door. He sniffed twice and looked to
see Arianna flitting about the kitchen, which smelled of perfectly
baked bread, a spicy meaty smell and something sweet he couldn’t
put his finger on.

At the kitchen entryway, he stopped again,
squinting and adjusting his eyes to make sure they weren’t playing
tricks on him.

“Hello,” Arianna said, smiled and gave him a
kiss on the cheek before turning back to the stove.

“Arianna. What are you wearing?” he asked in
surprise.

“What do you mean?” She looked herself
over.

“Are you wearing an apron?” he asked,
incredulously.

“Yes, don’t act so shocked, Caleb.” She
looked down and laughed.

“But it’s just–I’ve never seen you, never
thought I’d see you, wearing one.”

“Well, naturally, I detest them,” she said
with a flip of her hair. “But I got to thinking, I wouldn’t want to
splash anything hot on myself and hurt the baby,” she said.

“Oh, well, okay.” He glanced over her
shoulder at the full pot of potatoes on the stove. “Wow, that’s a
lot of potatoes,” he commented. “Did you do all this by
yourself?”

“Yes.”

“How?” he asked, trying to understand the
sudden and drastic improvement in her domestic skills.

“Well, I got to thinking about it and I want
the baby to have good food. I just started paying more attention to
what I was doing. Oh, I met with the midwife today.”

“Oh, how was it? Is she good? Is she
clean?”

“Yes on both. I’ll tell you all about it over
dinner. Now, go wash up,” she ordered, patting him on the
cheek.

“You’re going to eat all those potatoes?”
Caleb asked, watching her heap her plate.

“Yes. Midwife’s orders. She says I’m too
thin.”

“You are too thin.”

“Well, I left with a list of instructions to
follow if we’re going to have a healthy baby.”

“Good. Sounds like this woman knows what
she’s talking about. I want you to follow her instructions to the
letter, Ahna,” he said, pointing his fork at her with
insistence.

“Oh, I will. I’m none too thrilled about it,
but I will.”

“Let’s get a second opinion,” he pleaded
after dinner. “I’ve never heard of such hogwash in all my life.
Retarded babies from–? If that were true, half the world would be
retarded, Ahna! Think about it!”

“I’m not willing to take any chances, Caleb.
What if she’s right? Would you honestly risk the baby being deaf or
dumb or worse?” She hadn’t moved her hands from her stomach. “We
have to think about the baby now, Caleb.”

He sighed long and hard.

February 1st 1930

“Where’s Arianna?” Jon asked as Caleb sat
down next to Aryl, slamming his savings jar on the table next to
the others.

“She’s not coming. She doesn’t want the baby
to be around the noise and cigars.” He turned to Ava and Claire,
who were on the couch. “She wanted to know if you gals wouldn’t
mind having your meeting over there.” He turned back to the table
and snatched the cigar out of Jonathan’s hand.

“What’s wrong, Caleb, a little tense?”
Jonathan said and smiled mockingly. Caleb glared at him.

“You know exactly what’s wrong.” He turned to
glance at Ava and Claire who were gathering up their things and
waited until they left before going on. “I swear, I’m gonna lose my
mind. Everything is the baby this, the baby that. Every time I turn
around I hear think about the baby,” he said in a mocking voice.
“She’s learning to knit. To knit! I swear, I don’t know who this
woman is anymore.”

“Didn’t you always say that you wanted for
Arianna to be more domesticated?” Aryl said and grinned. “Be
careful what you wish for.”

“No kidding! Let’s get the cash count and
checklist over with, so we can play cards. Of all the nights to not
have a drink, I swear.” Caleb shook his head and dumped out his
jar.

They each counted the money they saved from
the previous week, and Jonathan did some quick math.

“Whew. It's gonna be close,” he said, rubbing
his forehead. “We’ve got to do a little better this month.”

“We had to take money out to for pay the
midwife, and we aren’t gonna be able to cut our grocery bill down
as much as you guys,” Caleb said apologetically.

“No, that’s fine,” Jonathan said. “Buy
whatever you need for Arianna. Aryl and I can make up the
difference.”

“I'm also holding some back for a visit to
Dr. Westley, as soon as I can convince her to go. I can’t get
within two feet of her anymore. You wouldn’t believe what this
midwife has Arianna thinking.”

“We heard,” Jonathan said grimly.

“You’ve told us three times,” Aryl reminded
with a chuckle.

“Just deal the damned cards,” Caleb
grumbled.

∞∞∞

“Well, isn’t that the cutest thing!” Claire
said, looking over the lumpy, lopsided sweater Arianna was
attempting to knit.

“Shannon is a wonderful teacher,” Arianna
said. “I’m also learning to sew.” She pulled out a small garment
that looked somewhat like a sleeper made from a flour sack. It was
crooked and one arm longer than the other, but the fact that
Arianna had made it with her own two hands was impressive enough.
“After we move and money isn’t so tight, I’m going to buy some
fabric. She’s going to teach me how to make diapers and
bedding.”

“Wow. What does Caleb think of all this?”
Claire asked, glancing at the perfectly baked oatmeal cookies
Arianna had made for their meeting.

“Oh, he’s just over the moon about this baby!
He’s so happy, sometimes he’s just speechless for hours and stares
off into space, and I just know he’s dreaming about the baby.”

“Well, I think it’s great, Arianna.” Ava
suppressed a smirk and patted her leg.

“Well, the first, and really only, order in
our meeting is saving money,” Claire said, rolling her eyes. “Last
month when we met, we made a list of ways to save, and now we need
to see how that’s working, and where else we can cut corners.”

“Well, we started wearing clothes three or
four times before washing to save hot water and laundry soap,” Ava
said.

“Good idea. I’ll start doing that, too,”
Claire said.

“Well, I can’t do that,” Arianna said. “I
need to keep things as clean as possible for the baby.”

“We've gotten used to keeping the heat as low
as possible, so we saw a dip in this last bill,” Ava said.

“We saved several dollars this month by doing
that as well,” Claire said.

“I have to keep the heat a little higher,
actually. I don’t want to catch a cold with the baby.”

“Aryl and I have started having meat only
twice a week and that’s helped. I also only buy my canned goods
from the factory seconds.”

“The midwife said I need to eat as much meat
as possible for the baby, or I would do that, too. And I’m afraid
the dented cans from the factory might be contaminated, and I can’t
get sick with the baby. The midwife said I need variety for the
baby, so I had to go back to buying everything from the
grocery.”

“Well, why don’t you tell us what you have
done to save money this last month?” Claire asked as they stared at
her.

“Well, honestly, my expenses have gone up
slightly. I mean, with the midwife insisting on a better diet for
the baby, and I had to buy a little yarn to start making things for
the baby. I had to buy some extra scouring powder and bleach this
week because I have been trying to keep things as clean as
possible, you know, for the baby.”

Once outside Arianna’s door, Claire pulled at
Ava’s arm. “If I ever get like that when I’m having my baby, I want
you to slap me. Repeatedly.”

“Me, too. I don’t know how we’re going to
survive until June.”

“I don’t know how Caleb has survived the last
three weeks. I’ve heard a baby changes you, but this is
unbelievable.”

“Well, I kind of like it. She seems a little
more like us now,” Ava said.

“Except with us the ending to every sentence
isn’t for the baby.”

They walked into Ava’s apartment to the usual
bellowing and laughing that went on during card games.

“Who won?” Ava asked.

“Jon. Again,” Aryl said. He gathered the
money they had used for the pretend bets and dumped it back into
the community jar.

“I’ll take that to the safe deposit box on
Monday.” Jonathan said.

Aryl screwed on the metal lid and handed it
to him. “Thirty days and counting, we’re half way there.”