Whispers (24 page)

Teri retreated to the bedroom phone and called the airline. She made arrangements for the three of them to leave that morning. A frantic scramble ensued, and nearly ten hours later the three Moreno women stood together on Hawaiian soil.

“You did tell Dan what flight we were on, didn’t you?” Mom asked, with the worry lines deepening in her face.

“Yes, of course I did,” Teri assured her. “He wasn’t going to leave the hospital, so he said he would send a friend to pick us up.”

They stood together at the baggage claim, all three of them still in shock over how quickly everything was happening. No one approached them, saying he was Danny’s friend who had come to retrieve them.

As soon as they had all their bags together, Teri said, “Look, you two stay here, and I’ll make a couple of phone calls. I should have told him we would rent a car. We can still do that.”

Teri was surprised the airport was so much more crowded than it had been that summer. Maui appeared to be a favorite vacation spot for Christmas. She couldn’t blame any of these people for wanting to be here.

The minute she had stepped off the plane and the warm island breezes had greeted her, she had remembered how deeply she loved this island and how she had wanted to move here long before anyone had thought up the tamale business and long before she had run into Scott. Once again the desire rose within her, and she wished she were moving here, not just visiting, especially under such panicky circumstances.

She headed for the phone but stopped when she saw a familiar face. Renegade strands of brown hair swept across the face, while laugh lines stretched from the corners of his blue eyes. The fit Australian waved at Teri and jogged toward her.

Look out for that trash can, Gordon!

He maneuvered past it with only a pinch to spare.

“It’s a girl!” he shouted breathlessly. “Only three pounds, but she’s alive.”

Teri felt an impulse to hug him, but with the shot of adrenaline his words brought, she turned and hustled back to her mom and grandmother, shouting as soon as she saw them. Gordon followed on her heels.

“How do you know this?” Grandma asked, looking confused.

Teri introduced Gordon and let him relay the whole story to the three of them. The baby was born a little more than an hour ago, and Annie was doing fine. They wouldn’t know much more until the doctors had completed their exam.

Gordon took the luggage from the hands of the older women and showed them to his car in the parking lot. They drove straight to the hospital.

Only two people could go in to see Anita at a time, the nurse insisted. Mom and Grandma scooted right in while Danny took a break and went to find something to eat. Teri, who had located a couch in a corner room down the hall, collapsed on it.

Not until her spinning mind started to slow down did it sink in to Teri that Gordon was sitting beside her. He must have been there a full five minutes, quietly leafing through a magazine, not speaking, not pushing in any way, just being there with her.

“Thanks for picking us up, Gordon.” Teri smiled at him. He returned the smile, and Teri felt as if something inside her had started to come back to life, like dying embers in a fire that had been fanned back to a red glow. She realized she hadn’t seen Gordon or talked to him since that night at Kimos last summer. Yet she felt comfortable sitting there with him. It seemed natural for him to be involved in a family crisis. Perhaps it was his pastoral position.

“Teri,” Gordon began to say something and then stopped. He looked at her intently, as if his serious blue eyes were peering through a window into her soul.

What do you see?
she thought.
How can you connect yourself to me like that, so instantly and uninvited?
It occurred to Teri that she felt she had nothing to hide from this man. They were
somehow united. Whether it was over this emergency or a result of their long and honest talks in the crater, she wasn’t sure. But at this moment, Teri felt as if the real her had somehow become intimately connected to this man, and she had done nothing to initiate such a connection.

“Teri,” he said again, tilting his good ear toward her, “I …”

Before Gordon could get out his words, Teri’s grandma stepped into the room and said, “Teresa, it’s your turn.”

It took Teri a moment to break away from her eye contact with Gordon. “All right,” she said, slowly looking up at her grandmother. “How’s she doing?”

Grandma Maria didn’t answer. She looked at Teri with an expression of delightful surprise and then at Gordon as if she had noticed him for the first time. Grandma mumbled an exclamation of amazement to herself in Spanish. As Teri rose, Grandma sat down next to Gordon and, patting his hand, said, “So, now, tell me all about yourself.”

H
i,” Teri said, gently sitting on the edge of Annie’s bed. “We were right, weren’t we? It’s a girl.”

Mom stood at the head of the bed, tenderly brushing Annie’s hair off her forehead.

“Oh, Teri, she’s so tiny,” Anita said. “So tiny. I don’t see how—”

“Shh,” Mom interrupted. “Don’t speak,
mi hija
. It’s in God’s hands. Shh.”

After a few moments of awkward silence, Teri asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Okay. I’m glad you’re all here. You didn’t have to do this, you know.”

“Oh, yes we did. The Moreno women stick together when it really matters. And you really matter to all of us, Annie,” Teri said.

“I told Mom I’ve been waiting for years to have her come visit me. If this is what I have to do to get her here, I’m not sure
I want to guarantee many more visits.”

Teri smiled. Anita didn’t look right. Perhaps it was the exhaustion of childbirth or the nervous fatigue over not knowing what was going to happen to the baby.

“Have you decided on a name for her?”

Anita shook her head. “We weren’t ready for her yet. I don’t even have a crib or anything. I planned to use the money we received yesterday for Christmas gifts from everyone.” She wrinkled her forehead. “Was Christmas yesterday or the day before?”

“It was yesterday,” Mom said. “You need some rest, Annie. Then I’m sure you’ll feel better.”

“I want to wait until the doctor comes back. I won’t be able to sleep until I hear what he has to say.”

“Why don’t you try just to rest,” Teri suggested. “We’ll be right here, and I promise we’ll wake you up the second he walks in that door.”

Then, as if Teri’s words had been the doctor’s cue, the door opened, and an older man with white hair and a matching white coat stepped in. “Well!” he said, seeming surprised to see Teri and her mom. “Visitors already?” He extended a handshake to both of them. “Dr. Vaughan,” he said as a simple introduction.

“This is my mom and sister.” Anita’s voice pitched a little higher than usual. “They just arrived from the mainland.”

“West Coast, I take it,” he said, looking at them over the top of his half-glasses. He seemed easygoing and friendly. Teri couldn’t tell if the chart in his hand bore good news or devastation for Anita.

“Southern California,” Mom answered. “Would you like us to go find Danny?”

“No, I just spoke with him in the hallway. He said he would join us in a minute.”

Teri moved so Dr. Vaughan could be by Anita’s side.

“They don’t have to leave, do they?” Anita asked.

“It’s up to you,” he said.

“I’d like them to stay.” Anita reached up and took hold of her mother’s hand, waiting for the report on her baby girl.

“Okay, well then,” Dr. Vaughan took Teri’s flattened space on the edge of the bed and opened his chart. “Let me go through everything with you. First, your daughter weighed in at three pounds and fifteen ounces.”

Teri cringed. She saw Mom and Annie squeeze hands.

“Her heart is quite strong, her lungs not fully developed. But we didn’t find any obvious problems with them. She’s not yet able to breathe on her own, so she’ll be on oxygen for some time.”

“How long?” Anita asked.

“It’s hard to say at this point. We’ll know better in about a week. Our main concern now is keeping her weight stable and protecting her from any infections. She’s in isolation, but of course you and Dan can be with her whenever you want. Did I leave anything out?” He scanned the chart.

“Are her chances very good?” Anita wanted to know. “I mean, do you think she’ll live?”

“Well, of course, we can never make any kind of guarantees in these matters,” Dr. Vaughan said calmly. “But I’d say her chances are strong. Six months ago we had one here who weighed two pounds five ounces at birth and had a hole in his heart. We flew him to Honolulu, and he was actually home within three or four weeks. I saw him yesterday. Strong and healthy as can be. Your little girl is almost four pounds. That’s a lot by today’s medical standards.”

Anita looked only slightly comforted. Teri felt for her. At least the baby was alive. At least she didn’t have any major complications. There was a lot to be thankful for.

“Can we see her?” Teri’s mom asked.

“Through the nursery window, yes. We’re obviously trying to keep her away from as much contact with germs as possible.” The doctor rose and gave Anita a warm smile. “She’s really a beauty, you know. I think she has your looks.”

Teri saw tears glistening in her sister’s eyes.

“Now, I want to keep you here at least two more days, Anita. I’d like to see your blood pressure stabilized before we send you home.”

“I don’t mind being closer to my baby,” Annie said.

Teri slipped out into the hallway and found Danny in the waiting room with Gordon and Grandma, finishing a sandwich.

“Is the doctor in the room now?” Dan asked, swallowing a bite.

“Yes. He gave us the update already. I guess you and Anita can see her whenever you’re ready. Annie’s looking awfully tired. I’m not sure it’s helping that we’re here.”

“It’s helping,” Dan said, tossing the sandwich wrapper into the trash and chugging down a swig of his soft drink. “We’re both glad you came.”

They discussed their next step and decided it would be best if Teri, Mom, and Grandma left with Gordon and went to Dan and Annie’s house. The hospital was nearly an hour’s drive from their home, and it was already growing dark out. They couldn’t do anything else at the hospital, and a good night’s sleep would prepare them for the next few days of long hospital vigils ahead.

The trip seemed to be the hardest on Grandma Maria. It had all hit her so fast. She was confused for the first two days, but then her body seemed to fall into rhythm, and she forged ahead like a trooper. The women took turns at the hospital and
spent many hours sitting with Dan and Anita.

Even though they looked through the glass window dozens of times at the little one in the clear plastic bassinet, they couldn’t see her clearly.

Gordon came with them every day. Sometimes he would drive them over to the hospital and drop them off for the day. He would always call in or come by in the evening and drive them home. It seemed he was giving Grandma Maria rides more than anyone else. Teri and her mom preferred to stay as long as they could and ride home with Dan. They all fell into a pattern, their emotions rising or falling with each new bit of progress or regression.

The first two days the baby lost five ounces, which seemed a huge amount when she had been so little to start with. Anita was able to nurse the baby, which was good, and when her milk came in, the tiny little one gained one whole ounce that day. She gained two more ounces the next day, but on the fifth day she began to run a fever and wasn’t even back to her birth weight yet.

Anita came home on the afternoon of the third day but only to sleep a few hours each night. Dan needed to get back to work, and although he swapped a few hours with some of the other guys, he still needed to work at least twenty hours.

A week went by, a week of blurred emotional ups and downs. They all slept at the house, at least from about midnight to six every day. Then they would rouse themselves and take the hour drive back to the hospital where Teri, her mom, and grandmother spent the day in front of the nursery window and in the waiting room.

It seemed there was nothing they could do. The baby appeared to be stabilizing, but who could tell? Anita was an emotional wreck, which is what prompted Teri to decide she
would stay a little longer. Her mom and grandma had return tickets for January third, and it made sense for them to go on home.

The decision was hard, especially for Teri because she had already used up her sick leave. It meant she would have to request a leave of absence from her job.

She talked to Jessica about it at length one evening on the phone in the waiting room. Jessica encouraged her, saying she was doing the right thing.

“Even if you came back now,” Jessica said, “I think your heart would be so attached to what’s going on there that you wouldn’t be at your best in the classroom. Besides, I think in a strange way it would be a blessing for Marita. She really needs the hours.”

Marita was the substitute they called in for Teri in December when she was out with laryngitis. Marita lived in a little town about twenty miles from Glenbrooke and often substituted at Glenbrooke High School. Her area of specialty was Spanish, and since Teri was the only high school Spanish teacher within a fifty-mile radius, Marita didn’t often get to do what she loved best.