Taxi Delivery (5 page)

            “How can you tell?” he asked.  “She’s asleep.”

            “Exactly,” Sadie said with a smile.  “Listen, I’m really glad you came by.  I wanted to thank you for everything you did for me…for us.”

            Jed couldn’t take his eyes off the baby, but he made a face to tell Sadie that he hadn’t really done that much.

            “No, really,” Sadie said, touching his arm and stroking her daughter’s cheek.  “You were there for us.”

            Jed could smell her hair.  Though she had likely used the hospital shampoo, if anything at all, she smelled clean and fresh and a bit like blueberries.

            “I’m just glad everything turned out okay,” he whispered.  He didn’t want to wake the sleeping Ellison.

            “Me too,” Sadie said, taking her hand back from his arm.  “And I really think that it had a great deal to do with the prayer you said.”

            Jed didn’t even remember having said a prayer.  He was a believer and he prayed on and off all day every day.  Whenever a situation arose that he wanted God’s help with or whenever he saw someone he thought might need a little encouragement, he prayed.  It was just part of his life.

            “You believe in prayer?” he asked, gently swaying back and forth.

            “Without any doubts.  Prayer is one of the most powerful tools we have.”

            Jed nodded in agreement, feeling his body relax with the knowledge that little Ellison had a strong, Christian mother behind her every day of her life.

            “You know, Jed,” Sadie said, taking a seat on the bed.  “I feel like God put you and me together for a reason.”

            Jed’s head shot up.  It had been exactly what he had been feeling since she first climbed into his cab, but he hadn’t wanted to scare her off by telling her.

            “And what reason would that be?” he asked.

            “I’m not really sure,” Sadie said, gazing off into the distance.  “I just feel like there was something to the whole thing, you know?”

            Jed did know and he was about to say so when Ellison began to squirm in his arms.  She turned her face toward his chest and made a little “o” with her mouth.  IT almost looked like she was trying to greet him.

            “I think she’s waking up,” Jed said, holding her out to Sadie so she could have her back before she fully awoke and began crying.

            Sadie chuckled.  “I think she likes you better than me.  All she ever seems to do is cry.”

            It was a nice thing for her to say, but Jed was pretty sure that would never be the case.  Jed completed the hand off.  He didn’t want to overstay his welcome so he decided to make small talk for a little longer and then make his exit.

            “Has your family been visiting?” he asked, inspecting a few of the tags on the flowers that sat in the windowsill.

            “Family?” Sadie questioned, her full attention on her squirming daughter.

            “Your husband, parents, friends, whoever,” Jed supplied, figuring the list would have to be rather long.

            “Oh,” Sadie said as Jed felt the air in the room change.  “No, not really. There’s not really anyone to come.”

            Jed’s hand froze in mid-air between two large bouquets.  Was she saying that the only flowers she was getting were from complete strangers? 

            “Sadie,” he began, turning around and testing the waters.  “Am I the only one that has come to see you?”  He didn’t want to pry, but he didn’t want her to be alone either.  It was becoming apparent that not only was she not married, but she also had no other family to congratulate her.

            “I’m so glad you came,” she said, tears brimming in her eyes as the baby began to cry a little.

            Jed’s heart lurched in his chest.  Sadie had been alone on the sidewalk.  She had given birth to her little girl, basically alone.  And now, here she sat in the hospital room, alone yet again.  There was only him.  And he now knew why he had met her in the first place.  They were both believers and God had put them together.  Not just for her hour of need, but for longer than that.

            “When are you going to be released?” Jed said, fighting to be heard over the now very upset infant.

            “Tomorrow,” Sadie said, bouncing the baby back and forth and patting her back at the same time.  “They said it would likely be around noon before the doctor got around to checking us out and signing all the paperwork.”

            “I’m going to pick you up,” Jed stated, without fully thinking through the idea himself.

            “Oh, no, you really don’t have to,” Sadie said, but something in her eyes told Jed that she had a sliver of hope that he would insist.

            “No arguments,” Jed said.  “I have an afternoon shift with the cab company anyway.  I’ll swing by on my break and make sure you and Ellison get settled in at home.  It’s the least I can do.”

            “You’ve already done so much,” Sadie said, a single tear rolling down her cheek as the baby started to calm.

            “I’ve done nothing but happen to be there.  And I’ll be there again tomorrow.  Thanks for clearing me for a visit.  I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”

            Before Sadie could protest any more or insist that she would be okay on her own, Jed left her and the baby, peaceful yet again in her mother’s arms.

            Sadie knew she had made a few mistakes with Jed already.  She hadn’t been honest with him when she had revealed only Ellison’s first name.  But she didn’t want to scare him away.  She also should have been more insistent that there was no need for him to pick her up and take her home.  But she really had no one else.  And she didn’t really want to have to call a cab and start her daughter’s life with a driver they didn’t even know.  Sadie smiled at the irony.  They didn’t really know Jed either, but she felt comfortable with him.  She knew God had placed him in her path for a reason and she felt as if she and Ellison were okay because of it.

            As the day wore into night and Sadie paced the room with Ellison, trying to keep her calm and happy, she wondered what Jed would make of her living situation.  She didn’t even know how she was going to manage a baby interrupting her own sleep at home, much less that of her roommates. 

            It certainly wasn’t an ideal situation, but she didn’t have a lot of money to waste when she moved to New York.  She had received just enough to make the move and get the small studio apartment she lived in now.  The only catch was the only way she could afford it was with two roommates.

            They were definitely stuffed into the apartment with their three narrow beds sharing one big room.  The kitchen and the bathroom were within arm’s length of each other and being pregnant, Sadie certainly could have used more space.  Seeing as her roommates desperately needed a third person to make rent, they didn’t ask too many questions about Sadie’s condition.  Including what would happen when she had the baby.

            Sadie knew she was going to have to make some changes, but she had not yet figured out how.  She prayed day and night as she awaited release from the hospital.  She needed an answer.  Fast.  She needed God to intervene.

            Her roommates were nice girls, but they weren’t believers and Sadie didn’t know how accepting they would be of a fourth party in their apartment.  Especially one as noisy as little Ellison.

            Right at noon, Jed arrived in her doorway as she folded Ellison into one of the hospital’s blankets after a diaper change.

            “Good morning,” he said, running his hand through his hair.

            “Good afternoon,” she replied, since she had been watching the clock waiting for the doctor’s arrival so that she could be released.

            “Did you get any sleep?” he asked.

            “Not much,” she said, rubbing her eyes and picking Ellison up.  “I suppose I better get used to it.”

            Jed smiled.  He was sure that Sadie was going to be an amazing mom.  There was just something about the look in her eyes that told him she would do anything for her child.  And anyone else she cared about, for that matter.

            A hospital staffer came into the room and Jed took a step back, allowing Sadie privacy to sign the final paperwork.  “Is this how you want everything to look on the birth certificate?” the administrator asked.  Sadie glanced over at Jed to make sure he was not listening.  He already knew more about her in a day or two than most, but she didn’t want any more of his sympathy.

            “Yes, that looks right,” she said, checking the spelling of her daughter’s name as well as her own.

            “And this space,” the woman underlined with her finger.  “You want to leave it blank?”

            Sadie sighed.  The space was for Ellison’s father.  Sadie was supposed to fill in his name and he was to sign underneath it, acknowledging that the child was indeed his.  Sadie had several months to think about what she was going to do and she had come to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone involved was to simply leave the line blank.  She had gone back and forth with her decision a number of times.  If she filled out the form, the media would never back down.  The name would get leaked somewhere along the line, no matter how tight the privacy policies were.  There was no one that Sadie could.  It was an important part of Ellison’s life that would never really be answered.

            Sadie had years to figure out what she was going to tell the girl about her father.  But for now, she knew she couldn’t write his name down.  She couldn’t allow him to be contacted and summoned to sign paperwork on a child he didn’t even know existed.  If he was going to find out about his daughter, he would need to hear it from her.  But if she ever decided to let him know of Ellison’s existence, she needed to be in control of the situation.

            Sadie signed the final paperwork and the administrator gave her the temporary birth certificate while informing her that the real certificate would arrive in her mailbox within the next month.  Sadie just finished with the administrator when the doctor entered the room, allowing her no time to speak with Jed. 

            The doctor, who was unfamiliar with Sadie’s family life and aware of only her medical history, greeted Jed in the doorway.  “You must be Mr. Walker,” he said, shaking Jed’s hand.

            “No, uh,” Jed stumbled over his words, trying to figure out how to address the matter.

            “This is my friend, Jed,” Sadie supplied, beckoning the doctor farther into the room.

            “I see,” the doctor said, not taking any extra time to assess the situation.  “Well, Miss Walker, all of your tests have come back clean and your daughter has gone through the essentials.  I have your sign out sheet and you’re all ready to go.  A nurse will be in shortly to take you and your baby down to the exit.  I presume Jed is here to drive you home?”

            “Yes, that’s correct,” Sadie said, looking past the doctor to Jed who shifted from one foot to the other in the doorway.

            “It’s been a pleasure treating you,” the doctor said as he took his leave, placing the paperwork on the table next to the bed for Sadie to take home with her.

            Sadie folded the paperwork and turned back to her daughter.  “Sadie,” Jed began, taking a few steps into the room.  “Where is Ellison’s father?”

            Sadie could hear that his voice was tentative.  He didn’t want to upset her, but he didn’t want to overstep his bounds either.  If there was a man in Sadie’s life, Jed didn’t want to get in the way and Sadie respected that.

            “He’s not in the picture,” she said simply, hoping that he wouldn’t ask any more questions.

            Jed nodded and looked at his feet.  “So, uh, are you all set, then?  Do you have a car seat you want me to put into the cab for you?”

            Sadie’s face went white.  A car seat.  What kind of mother was she?  She hadn’t even purchased a car seat yet.

            “You don’t have a car seat, do you?” Jed asked with a sympathetic look on his face.  “Look, don’t worry about it.  There’s a store right around the corner that has plenty of options.  I’ll go grab one.”

            “Please,” Sadie said, trying to find a reason that Jed shouldn’t go get the car seat.  “You’ve done too much already.”  She realized that her only option was to allow Jed to get the car seat or take a bus home with the baby.  The hospital wouldn’t let her get into a car without one and she didn’t even have any cash on her to give money to Jed to buy it.  The baby had been a couple of weeks early.  She thought she still had time to prepare.  Ellison hadn’t wanted to wait, however.  Not even long enough to get to the hospital.

            Jed waved his hand at her and turned on his heel.  He was on his way out the door before she could protest again.