The first notes of the
postlude thundered around her.
She stood
still, her heart thumping against her ribs.
Parents came forward, complimenting her and the children, collecting
their offspring.
She passed Jenny to her
father's arms, accepted hugs from the other children.
One of the mothers put a wrapped gift in her
hands, but she was only vaguely aware of the activity that surrounded her.
Pastor Mike was coming toward her, a smile on
his face, his hand extended.
And then he was beside her,
his arm gently encircling her waist.
Somehow, she found her voice.
“Pastor Mike, this is my very good friend, Stani Moss.”
When she had finally said all
the required Merry Christmases and good nights, after she’d introduced him to
at least a dozen people whose names she struggled to recall, they dashed out
into the rainy night.
Pulling him by the
hand, she led him to her car; and once inside, they met in a crushing embrace,
laughing, talking and kissing all at once.
“I don't know how you're here
and it doesn't matter right now.
Just
tell me you can stay!”
She stroked his
face, straining to see his eyes in the darkness.
“Five days!
Oh, Emily, what a miraculous night!
“It always is, but tonight
especially so.
Where did Jack run off
to?”
“A call.
He said he'd see us at about twelve
thirty.
I'm staying at his place.”
He kissed her, a long exploratory kiss, and
she forgot her next question completely.
Eventually, she realized there
was no one else left in the parking lot, and started the engine, easing the car
out of the lot.
“A BMW, Emily?
I had no idea.
And with a gear box.
You can drive a thing like this?
Is there no end to your talents?”
Stani slid near her, watching her face in the
light of passing streetlamps.
“How did you like my little
choir?”
“Heavenly.
The whole service was. . .I don't think I
know the words.
Moving, beautiful and
powerful.
Transforming.
I've never experienced anything like
that.”
His voice was soft, quivering
with emotion.
“I saw it in your face.”
Suddenly the rear view mirror
reflected the revolving lights of a police car.
The siren gave one low burst, and she quickly steered the car to the
side of the street.
Within seconds, Jack
was yanking open the driver's door.
“Em, come with me,
quick!”
Grabbing her hand, he pulled her
out of the car and started down the street toward the cruiser, yelling over his
shoulder.
“There's a baby coming, any
minute!
Thank God I spotted your
car.”
As they raced through the rain, he
went on, panting, “It's Bobby Dixon's wife.
He got her as far as my office.
But
I don’t care how fast I drive. . . she'll never make it to the hospital.
I called for an ambulance, but they're tied up.
Just do what you can!”
In the back seat of the car a woman
sat hunched over, obviously in great distress.
Emily crawled in beside her, touching her gently on the shoulder.
“I'm Emily.
I'm a nurse.
How can I help you?”
Dark eyes turned to her, filled with
gratitude and relief.
The woman, along with Jack and
the man in the front seat, apparently her husband, all started to talk at
once.
Emily was informed that labor had
started an hour before, pains were very close together, and this was the
woman's fourth delivery.
Emily backed out of the car,
removing her coat.
Stani was standing
nearby and she passed it to him.
One
look at his face, and she said softly, “Hold this over me and don't watch!
I don't want to have to pick you up out of
the street!”
Rolling up her sleeves, she
crawled back into the car.
Somewhere in
the babble of information, she had learned the woman's name was Ruthie.
Now she spoke to her calmly.
“Ruthie, I'm just going to have a look.
You've had lots of experience with this.
Are you ready to push yet?”
But even in the dim light of the car's
interior, she knew the answer.
She
smiled reassuringly.
“That's fine.
I'll be right back.”
She turned to find Jack standing next to the
car.
“I need some water, towels, rubbing
alcohol and a pair of scissors, and there's no time to waste.”
Behind him, the lights of a
house were coming on.
She tried to
orient herself.
“Jack, that's Myrtice
Green's house.
She was in church, she's
just getting home.
Go!
She'll have what I need.”
Next, she turned to the man in
the front seat.
Her first glimpse of him
had not been encouraging.
He was clearly
terrified, his eyes glazed and his mouth gaping.
Now she asked his name and Ruthie answered
for him.
“Bobby.”
“Hi, Bobby.
I need you to get back here with your
wife.
Get behind her and support her
shoulders, please.”
Seeming to respond
to the firmness in her voice he obeyed, crawling in the rear door to kneel on
the seat.
“That's it.
Now Ruthie, by the time Sheriff Deem gets
back, I think you're going to be ready to have this baby, aren't you?”
She kept her voice low and smiled into the
woman's eyes, implying they shared some special secret.
“Yes, ma'am, I sure am.
The last one came fast like this too.
But this one doesn't seem to want to wait for
anything!”
Ruthie hunched forward in the
grips of another contraction at the same moment Jack thrust a bundle over
Emily's shoulder.
It all happened within a
matter of seconds, it seemed.
Emily
poured alcohol over her hands, and spread towels on the seat.
Ruthie's voice was rising slowly to a scream,
Bobby was yelling encouragement, and in the next instant, she was cradling a
newborn to her own heaving chest.
The
baby's welcome wail harmonized with that of the approaching ambulance.
Emily wiped the tiny face, and passed the
infant to Ruthie's waiting arms.
“You
have a beautiful daughter.
Congratulations!”
She caught sight of Jack's
face over the front seat, his eyes shining with pride.
As she backed out of the car, the ambulance
team was racing toward them.
“She's all
yours.
She's done all the work for
you.”
She stepped aside, waving them on.
Soaking wet, Emily started to
shiver uncontrollably.
Stani gently laid
her coat over her shoulders, and for a moment, she wanted nothing so much as to
sag into his arms.
But the ambulance attendant,
one she recognized from her time in the ER, was congratulating her on a job
well done.
How unprofessional to fall into
a man's arms just now, she thought.
She
stood by watching as they finished the job, cutting the umbilical cord, and
transferring mother and child to the ambulance.
Finally, with a wave from the now proudly grinning Bobby, they pulled
away in a flash of lights.
They stood in the rain, Emily
and Stani holding on to each other, and Jack leaning on the open car door,
until the lights turned the corner toward the highway.
Jack was the first to speak.
“Well, I guess that'll be the talk of the
town this Christmas.
And I thought this
fellow showing up in church would be the big news.”
He grinned at the two somber faces,
glistening with raindrops.
“You two
better get somewhere warm.
I'll see you
after the eleven o'clock service.”
Emily came to life, her eyes
flashing.
“Oh, no!
He's staying with me tonight!
Locked doors, barricades, I don't care if I
have to sleep in the barn.
He's not
leaving me alone tonight!”
She clung to
Stani's arm, staring defiantly up into Jack's face.
As Stani began to protest, Jack held up a
restraining hand.
“If I were you, I'd just do
whatever she says.
I'm sure not going to
argue with her.
If you haven't already
figured it out, Emily, when she makes up her mind, is a force of nature.
No mere man is any kind of match for
her.
I'll see you at lunchtime, then.”
He leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“You did just fine, Em.
Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Jack, I love
you.”
Emily drove home slowly, her
knees trembling.
Stani, once the initial
shock had passed, was excitedly praising her skill, her calm, her bravery, and even
her beauty.
“To think you delivered a
baby in the back seat of a car, in the pouring rain, on Christmas Eve!
And you never seemed the least bit
afraid.
I was scared to death, and that
poor man, Bobby, I thought he was going to faint.”
He reached out to touch her hair, still
dripping with rain.
“Emily, do you
realize what an angel you are?
First you
pull me out of a blizzard, and now you've delivered a baby under the most
primitive conditions.
Who knows what
you've done in between?
You are, as Jack
said, a force of nature.”
She parked the car near the
house, turning off the engine.
“I'm just
so glad to finally be home.”
Falling
into his arms, she sobbed into his shoulder, “Oh, Stani, please hold me!”
Chapter Forty-four
By the time Stani could
persuade her to go into the house, Emily had cried herself out.
Once inside, she waited listlessly as he
removed his dripping overcoat.
He'd never
seen her like this, her tear-streaked face pale, her eyes vacant.
The sight of her drenched hair and bloodied
clothes aroused an unfamiliar feeling of protectiveness in him.
Relieving her of her coat, he took her by the
shoulders and steered her toward the couch.
The fire was low.
As he had seen her do, he stirred the embers
with the poker and carefully laid a log across the grate.
Kneeling in front of her, he removed her
sodden shoes and began to gently rub her feet.
She was shivering, the thin fabric of her blouse plastered to her skin.
He spotted a quilt, draped over one of the
armchairs, and got up to spread it over her, tucking it around her against the
chill of the room.
Again, he knelt on the
rug, stroking her icy feet, moving up her ankles, watching for a response.
Tears still welled in her eyes, but she
blinked them back, holding her trembling lower lip between her teeth.
“Emily, darling girl, what can
I do to help?” he asked gently.
To his
dismay, the tears began to flow and she brought the quilt up to cover her
eyes.
Taking a seat beside her, he
gathered her into his arms, rocking her gently.
“Dear, brave Emily, it's over now.
Mother and baby are both fine, all thanks to you.
Why are you so upset?”
She raised her head from his
shoulder, lowering her eyes.
“Because
you're here, and this is not the way I wanted this night to be.”
Sobs rising again, she buried her face on his
chest.
Stani laughed softly in
relief.
“I'm here and this night is
perfect.
If you'll only let me get you
warm and dry, you'll see.”
He held her a
little away, cupping her chin in his hand and forcing her to meet his
gaze.
“Where are your nightclothes?
You need to get out of these wet things.
Now.”