Before They Rode Horses (15 page)

“Judy!” she called out down the long hall of the stable.

“Is that you, Carole?” Judy answered from around a corner. “Boy, this place is quiet. I figured that when Max left The Saddle Club in charge, there would be some sort of disaster going on that I’d have to sort out, but if I don’t count the fact that Nickel’s stall really needs a mucking out—”

“Judy, there
is
a problem,” Carole said.

“I know. Patch’s leg. Well, this old boy’s had sore ankles before, and he’ll have them again. I see that you wrapped it—”

“Not Patch,” said Carole. “It’s Deborah.”

“She’s got a sore leg, too?” Judy teased.

“It’s not a joke,” said Carole. “She’s going to have a baby.”

“Of course she is. Everybody knows that. That’s what that enormous belly—”

“No, I mean soon,” said Carole. “Like
now.
Her contractions are less than a minute apart, and every time we’ve talked to her doctor’s office, the nurse says the doctor’s in emergency surgery. We were just about to call an ambulance, but maybe you can help.”

“One minute apart, did you say?” Judy asked.

“Yep,” Carole said. “We’ve been timing them. I know this should be taking longer. Even Deborah doesn’t believe it. That’s why we’ve been calling her doctor for her.”

Judy picked up the medical bag she’d dropped next to Patch’s stall. “Carole, what are we doing standing here and talking? Let’s go to the house. I’ll see Deborah, and then I’ll get that doctor’s attention, one way or another!”

The two of them ran back through the kitchen door and hurried upstairs. They found Lisa and Stevie each holding Deborah’s hands while Deborah puffed away with her breathing exercises.

“You’re about to have a baby, aren’t you?” Judy asked.

Deborah nodded.

“Girls, get me some clean towels and some boiling water to sterilize my instruments.”

“Should we call an ambulance?” Lisa asked.

“Yes,” said Judy. “But I have a feeling this baby isn’t waiting for any ambulance.”

The next few minutes were extremely busy for The Saddle Club. Lisa brought a large pot of boiling water up to Deborah’s room; Stevie gave Judy a stack of clean towels; Carole carried in a pan of lukewarm water and some soap.

“I think you’d better leave us alone now,” said Judy. “But when you go downstairs, you might just call Dr. Husted’s nurse one more time.”

Stevie, Carole, and Lisa all hurried downstairs. Carole made the call this time. The nurse said she’d page Dr. Husted and phone for an ambulance.

It was strange. A few minutes earlier there had been a lot of activity with a lot of things to do. Now Judy was here, Deborah was about to have her baby, and there was nothing to do.

“A whole new life is starting upstairs, right now,” Lisa said. “Isn’t that strange?”

“Newborns are mostly wrinkly and red,” said Stevie. “This one probably will be, too.”

“Not like horses,” Carole remarked. “Newborn foals are totally cute from the very instant they are born—or at least as soon as they start to stand up and walk around.”

“This baby will take a whole year or more before he can walk,” said Stevie.

“But it’s a whole human being,” said Lisa. “Wrinkly, scrinchy, red-faced, and dependent though he may be right now, he will grow up, learn to walk, talk—”

“And ride,” said Carole.

“He’ll have his own life,” said Lisa.

“Maybe even some brothers,” said Stevie. She made a face to let her friends know that she wouldn’t wish that on Deborah and Max’s son. “But just think how much money we can make babysitting!” Stevie said. Money was a constant worry for Stevie. The problem was that she spent it as fast as she earned it, and if she earned extra money baby-sitting, she found extra ways to spend it. “But then, Max barely trusts us with the horses; imagine what we’d have to do to convince him that we could look after his son!”

“Hopes, dreams, everything,” said Lisa. “A complete life. Isn’t it unbearably exciting?”

That was, of course, exactly what it was—unbear
ably exciting. For months they’d known this baby was coming. They had thought about it ever since Max and Deborah got married. And now the time was here and somehow all of their anticipation wasn’t the same as the actual fact.

Stevie glanced at the ceiling. Deborah’s room was right above the kitchen. Carole and Lisa looked up as well. There were no sounds from above, no way of knowing what was going on.

“I hope she’s okay,” said Stevie.

“Millions of babies get born every year,” Lisa said sensibly.

“She’s in good hands,” said Carole.

Carole looked at her own hands. Then she reached out with them, one to each of her best friends. Lisa took one, Stevie the other, then Lisa and Stevie held hands. They made a circle—a circle of friendship, of hope, of support, and they sat there quietly, listening for any sound, any hint of what was happening, and any cry for help. If Judy or Deborah needed them, they’d be there in a second.

Among three girls who loved to talk, it seemed a little strange to sit silently, but they knew that they were each listening for a new voice, a new life.

And, as Judy promised, it didn’t take long.

The silence in the kitchen was pierced by a tiny, insistent wail. It stopped for a second and then resumed.

“It’s a baby!” Stevie said.

T
HE THREE GIRLS
jumped up out of their seats and ran to the stairs.

“We did it!” said Stevie as they fled up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

“Judy did it,” Carole corrected her.

“Deborah did it,” Lisa said sensibly.

Of course, Lisa was right. Now the question remained, what exactly had Deborah done? Could they see her? Could they see the baby?

They stopped at the door to Deborah’s room. Lisa knocked.

“Come on in,” Judy said.

They entered. Judy was washing her hands and
instruments in the hot water Lisa had brought up. Deborah sat on the bed, looking extremely tired but happy. In her arms was a tiny little bundle, wrapped in a clean towel and making the most amazing gurgling sounds.

The girls tiptoed over and peered at the bundle. Deborah lifted the corner of the towel over her baby’s face. The face was round with big blue eyes and tiny thin little eyebrows, a perfect little nose, and a sweet mouth that opened to reveal pink gums. The baby’s eyes blinked in the bright light and then closed in a contented sleep.

“Ooooh,” said Lisa, breathless with excitement.

“Cute!” said Stevie. “And so tiny!”

“It’ll be a couple of years before that one gets into a saddle,” said Carole.

“Someone’s coming,” said Judy, looking out the window. “Why don’t you go see who it is? It’s probably the ambulance. You can show them the way up here. Mother and baby seem to be doing fine, but there’s no harm in having a people doctor’s opinion on the subject!”

The girls hurried downstairs, expecting to see flashing lights. What they saw, instead, was Max and Mrs. Reg hurrying in from their car.

There was a worried look on Max’s face. “Is she okay?” Max asked.

“Did the ambulance come?” asked Mrs. Reg.

“She’s fine and the ambulance hasn’t come yet,” said Lisa. “In fact, it should be here in a minute, but Judy said she’s sure they’re both okay.”

“Did I hear you say ‘
both
okay’?” said Max.

“Yeah, both,” said Stevie.

“You mean both Judy and Deborah?” asked Mrs. Reg.

“Nope, well, Judy’s fine, too,” Carole assured them.

“We mean both Deborah and the baby.”

“The baby came already?” Mrs. Reg said breathlessly. “Did you hear that Max? You’re a father!”

“That’s right!” said Carole. “Max the Fourth is here, safe and sound.”

“And cute,” said Stevie.

“Adorable,” said Lisa. But they each knew it was unlikely that Max the Third heard any of what they’d said. He was running into the house and up the stairs faster than they’d ever seen him do anything. Mrs. Reg was no slouch in the rushing department. She was right behind him. Stevie, Carole, and Lisa weren’t far behind.

“Deborah? Deborah!” he cried loudly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said calmly. “Come meet our baby.”

The three girls and Mrs. Reg watched from the door. It was as if Max couldn’t run anymore, or he didn’t want to run. He didn’t want to upset his newborn baby or his wife.

“Oh, Deborah!” he said when he saw the baby’s sweet, perfect face. He looked at his wife with love and adoration, and everyone in the room understood his joy and his pride at knowing that together they had created this precious life.

Then, with a big, beaming smile on his face, he uttered the words everybody had expected for eight months: “Maximilian Regnery the Fourth!” he declared.

“Um, Max, I’m not so sure about that,” said Deborah.

“But I thought we’d decided,” said Max.

“Well, I know, but—”

“It’s not just about me,” said Max. “It’s the whole line of Regnerys—my dad, my grandfather. I’ve always known I’d have a baby named Maximilian the Fourth. Why do you have a problem with it?”

“Well, I don’t, really,” said Deborah, looking adoringly at the baby in her arms. “But I think some of her classmates may think it’s a little odd.”

“Oh, kids’ll find all kinds of things to make fun of. I got jokes about being named—um—
her
?”

“Meet your
daughter
,” Deborah said. “Max, it’s a filly, not a colt.”

“G-Girl?” Max stammered. “I never expected a girl.”

“Are you disappointed?” Deborah asked, suddenly concerned.

“Oh, no. Not at all!” said Max. “I like girls. Actually, I like some girls a lot—as long as they don’t talk in class and get all their chores done and don’t cause too much trouble at Pony Club meetings. Sure, girls are fine. But they aren’t named Maximilian.”

“Definitely,” Deborah agreed.

“They are named other things, like, uh …”

“Lisa,” Carole suggested.

Stevie offered another possibility. “Carole,” she said.

“Mrs. Reg,” suggested Lisa.

That made everybody laugh.

“Anything but Stephanie,” said Stevie.

There was a moment of quiet.

“How about—” said Lisa.

“I’ve got an idea,” said Carole.

“You know what?” said Stevie.

The girls looked at one another. They knew perfectly well that they had all had exactly the same idea at the same time, so they spoke together, in unison:

“Maxine!”

“I like it,” said Deborah.

“So do I,” said Max.

“It would mean that you’d never have to saddle a son with the name Maximilian,” said Mrs. Reg.

Max looked at his mother in surprise. “You mean you don’t like my name?” he asked.

“I loved your father very, very much,” she said, and that seemed like a complete answer to the question.

Deborah and Max looked at their tiny little daughter. “Maxine Hale Regnery,” Max said. Deborah smiled. “No numbers—just a name. It’s a beautiful name.”

“For a beautiful baby,” said Deborah.

“Is somebody here about to have a baby?”

There at the door to the room stood two emergency medical technicians, one tall, carrying a medical kit, and one short, holding a stretcher.

“Not for a long time,” said Deborah.

Everybody laughed.

“Oh, dear, that’s another one we missed,” said the tall man to his partner.

“Did you manage okay on your own?” the short one asked.

“I was hardly alone,” said Deborah. “I had three fine helpers through most of my labor, and then the doctor arrived just in time to deliver the baby.”

The technician put down his medical bag. “I thought they told us there was no doctor here. We wouldn’t have rushed if we’d known—”

It took a few minutes to straighten out the situation. The men from the ambulance had never heard of a vet delivering a baby, but it was clear from the robust and happy condition of Maxine that Judy had done an excellent job. The technicians checked Maxine over carefully and assured everybody that she was as fit as could be. There was no need to take her or Deborah to the hospital, though it would probably be a good idea to have Dr. Husted stop by within a day or so.

Stevie suspected that Dr. Husted would be as much use now that Maxine was born as he had been while she was
being
born. She was about to say as much when Deborah announced that she was extremely
tired and would appreciate it if everybody, except Max and Maxine, would leave her alone.

Judy said she still had to check on Patch’s leg, and then she’d be glad to drop The Saddle Club off at Stevie’s house, where they were having a sleepover. It wasn’t a long walk to Stevie’s, but they were tired. The girls were glad for the offer. Before they left, they asked if they could come back the next day to visit Maxine.

“Could I stop you?” Max asked.

“No,” they said in chorus.

He hugged all three of them at the same time and thanked them for taking such good care of Deborah.