Whitethorn (46 page)

The church planned a big send-off at seven o'clock for Gawie that was to take place at the railway station an hour before the train left. Gawie was to be taken to the station by Meneer Prinsloo in his Plymouth, and I'd be taken in the back of the lorry with some of The Boys Farm boys who sang in the church choir. I was leaving on the same train, but I wasn't included in the big farewell. I didn't mind because Marie and Sergeant Van Niekerk, and Doctor Van Heerden was going to try if he didn't have an emergency at the hospital, and Mevrou Van Heerden were coming along to see me off. Unfortunately Meneer Van Niekerk the headmaster couldn't make it because he was attending a regional headmasters' conference in Pietersburg with his wife, Mevrou Van Niekerk.

So when the '39 Chevvie stopped at the gate, Marie's mum, who was driving, stopped and then called out, ‘Take a look in the dicky-seat, Tom.' I looked and there was the most beautiful quilt you have ever seen. Colours like the rainbow and rolled up and tied with two cloth straps that's joined with a cloth handle so it could be carried.

Then Marie called out, ‘Do you like it, Tom?'

‘
Ja
, it's truly beautiful, Marie.' I walked round to her door and climbed on the running board. ‘Thank you, thank you, Marie! Miss Phillips will love it more than anything!'

‘It's amazing what can come from a few rooster tail feathers,' she laughed.

‘What's this about rooster tail feathers?' Mevrou Van Heerden asked.

‘It's nothing,' Marie said hastily, ‘just an old joke.' Then she turned back to me. ‘Tom, take the quilt and put it with your suitcase, we'll wait for you here. But
maak gou,
because we in a bit of a hurry, hey, I've been getting contractions since midnight last night, but don't worry they not hurting yet and they still half an hour apart.'

It was nice to know that Marie hadn't told her mum about Piet Retief's tail feathers because it means perhaps women can sometimes keep a secret. Even though it's only goose feathers and bits of cloth a quilt can be quite heavy, but still it was the best thing I could imagine to buy with my ten shillings and now I had a proper thank you for Miss Phillips. ‘What's contractions?' I asked.

‘The baby's beginning to come, but it could be not until tomorrow, first pregnancy is always a long time.' I can tell you, I grabbed that quilt and took it to the dormitory, then I ran back to the gate and Tinker and I got into the dicky-seat quick smart.

I was really worried about Tinker adapting to her new home, even though it was a much nicer place to live than behind the dairy. I'd told her this a hundred times and, if she was a bit homesick, she still had her sack to smell. I didn't want her going back to The Boys Farm looking for me and then not knowing what to do when she couldn't find me.

When we got to the doctor's house there was a big surprise waiting for Tinker. Not only did she have a new home, but also her own house and a backyard. Doctor Van Heerden had painted Helmut's kennel with new green paint, and above the door was stencilled in white, ‘Tinker'. Helmut was a big old labrador and Tinker was a tiny fox terrier so it was more like a mansion than a house for a dog like her. I put her sack inside the kennel and she went in and turned around three or four times, then lay down. This was taken by all of us as a very good sign. You never do know just what dogs understand when you talk to them. Tinker was, of course, a super-smart dog and must have understood right off that this was her new home. I only hoped she understood the next part, where I told her I was going away for a little while, but would be back for the school holidays. Around the kennel Doctor Van Heerden had built a fence of chicken wire so that Tinker had a yard of her own. He'd explained that this was so Tinker could grow accustomed to her new home for a few days after I left. ‘After that I'll take it down, Tom, because, like Helmut, she'll be one of the family.'

We had a nice lunch, but early about eleven o'clock, some cold meat called polony and salad with a cold potato. This was because the maid had her afternoon off so couldn't cook. Marie said to Mevrou Van Heerden that she wasn't hungry and didn't want any lunch but she better have a bit of a lie down because of all the excitement coming later with me catching the train. Marie's mum said she had to go and fetch the midwife in Tzaneen as the lady who did it in Duiwelskrans was sick. Then, on the way back she'd see if the doctor was finished at the hospital where he was operating, taking out an appendix, tonsils and something that sounded very complicated with a name you couldn't remember. She said she'd be back around four o'clock when the midwife would be with Marie so she could drive me back to The Boys Farm.

So Tinker and me went exploring the doctor's backyard, and looking at the chickens. Tinker found a hole beside the garden-shed wall, and started sniffing like mad and whimpering, and I knew that the rats that lived in there better say their prayers. Then I heard Marie shouting my name from the house and to come quick.

What I saw you'd never believe. Marie was sitting on the kitchen floor with her back against a cupboard and her legs wide open. She was sweating like mad and groaning.

‘Tom, get on the telephone in the surgery, my baby is coming,' she gasped. ‘Tell the doctor the contractions are coming very close together.'

‘What's a contraction?'

‘For Chrissake, Tom, just do it!' she screamed. ‘Ooh!

Ahhhh!'

I ran to the surgery that was at the back of the house and on the opposite side to the kitchen. I'd never used a telephone in my life, but, of course, I'd seen it done lots of times. Doctor Van Heerden's phone wasn't on the branch-line and I was halfway to the surgery when I remembered I didn't know the hospital number. I rushed back.

‘What's the hospital phone number?' I called from the kitchen door.

‘Fifteen . . . Ahhhh!'

My hand was shaking as I pushed my forefinger into the little round holes and dialled. What seemed like ages passed before a female voice on the other end said ‘Duiwelskrans Hospital.'

‘Marie's having her baby, can you fetch the doctor quick!' I shouted down the phone, forgetting to say please.

‘Can you bring the patient in?' the voice asked calmly.

‘No, no. It's happening on the kitchen floor!' I yelled.

‘The name of the patient, please?' the voice asked, still all calm and unconcerned.

‘Marie Booysens, I mean Van Niekerk,' I shouted.

‘Marie! Our nurse Marie?'

‘Yes, quick, it's happening, her baby, it's happening!' I called in a panicked voice.

‘Wait there!' the voice instructed, no longer sounding calm or disinterested.

Ages passed and you could hear Marie screaming from the kitchen. ‘Ahhhhhh!' Sounds like that and also, when I ran back from the surgery after the phone call, you could hear the ‘Ooh! Oohs!' as well.

Then the voice came back, but this time it was Doctor Van Heerden.

‘Tom, I can't leave here for two-and-a-half hours at least, I'm in the middle of a tricky operation. Isn't my wife back from Tzaneen with the midwife?'

‘No, Doctor.'

‘Is Katrina the maid there?'

‘No, it's her afternoon off.'

‘So you're alone with Marie?'

‘Yes, Doctor.'

‘Don't worry, son, I'm sure the midwife will be there any time now,' he reassured me. ‘Now tell me, Tom, how far apart are the contractions?'

I still didn't know precisely what a contraction was, only that they came. ‘What's a contraction look like?' I asked.

‘What's the time between every time Marie screams out?' he answered calmly.

‘Very close, every minute, maybe less,' I said, trying to estimate the time between the ‘Ahhhhhhs'.

‘Damn!' I heard him say. ‘The ambulance has been called out on another maternity call at an outlying farm. Now listen, Tom, you'll have to be the doctor until my wife arrives with the midwife. Labour for a first child can take anything up to twenty-four hours, sometimes more, I don't expect the baby will come until later tonight. Stay calm, babies are born every minute of the day. Next to the bathroom is a cupboard with lots of towels, take them all out and put them in the bedroom ready for Marie's birth.'

‘She's on the kitchen floor!' I was still shouting down the receiver, not knowing how to use the phone properly.

‘Damn!' I heard him say again, then, ‘
Ja
, okay, that's a hard surface, that's even better because she's going to get a bad backache if she hasn't got it already. Put some towels under her bottom and the base of her spine, Tom. I'll get someone to call Sergeant Van Niekerk. If my wife and the midwife don't get there in time I want you to hold Marie's legs as wide apart as possible. She'll kick and scream but take no notice, just hang on. But don't worry, Tom, just comfort her, the first baby is unlikely to come so soon.'

Back in the kitchen Marie had jammed her back into the corner where the two kitchen cupboards meet. She was completely wet with perspiration, and her dress was soaked, and her huge pumpkin stomach was rising and falling, her dress was clinging to her skin so you could see her bellybutton through the thin cotton. She was gasping for breath, and then screaming out, ‘Ahhhhhh!' and the screams were longer than before but coming more often. I put the big black cast-iron kettle filled with water on the stove, which was cream enamel and very posh and electric. I had to turn the stove to high, but I didn't know which switch was which plate and there was no time to work it out so I turned them all on to high. Then I fetched the towels and managed to get three of them under Marie's bottom, which was quite a business, I can tell you.

A person gets accustomed to everything and Marie's oohing, ahhhhhhing, and screaming out has been going on so long, and I've been wiping her sweating face with a wet towel so that it's got like there's only her and me in the world and we just have to put up with everything until something happens. It was now four hours since she called out to me the first time.

‘Tom, take off, aaaahhh, my bloomers,' Marie gasps. She is pulling at her dress, making it come up above her waist. ‘Pull them down!' she sobs.

I get down on my knees and grab her bloomers but she can't get her legs together and they won't come off.

‘Cut, cut them!' she cries. ‘Ahhhhhhhh!' Another big pain comes.

I managed to find a large pair of scissors in a kitchen drawer and cut the elastic around her legs and waist, then cut through one leg and then the other and pulled the bloomers away. Suddenly there's sort of water coming out from between her legs that soaks the towels, running across the floor. I pulled the wet towels away and put some new ones down. I was trying to mop up the water, and at the same time trying not to look because what I've seen is all red and pulsing and I think maybe Marie is going to die because there's lots of blood.

Now she really starts panting and crying out and she grabbed the handles of the kitchen cupboards with each hand, jamming her back further into the corner. Tinker is at the kitchen door barking, and knowing something is terribly wrong but she's not allowed in. I take a quick look over at Marie and I could see something coming out between Marie's legs, and she's still screaming blue murder. Then I remember I'm supposed to hold her legs apart. So I grab them and stand up and then hang on. But she's miles too strong for me. She's knocking me this way and that and ahhhhhhing and sobbing, and I'm hanging on trying to keep her legs apart and her bottom's bouncing on the towels and her back is arching and she's screaming her head off and still holding onto the cupboard door handles. Then she yells the biggest scream of all, ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!' Suddenly, plop, and there's something that's covered in blood and slime that's definitely a baby lying between her legs. It's got this sort of meat rope that looks like
boerewors
going from its bellybutton back inside Marie, and I start to cry because there must be something terribly wrong with all the blood and the rope thing. Then Sergeant Van Niekerk bursts into the kitchen and kneels down beside Marie, putting her head on his lap while she sobs and sobs.

Mevrou Van Heerden arrives, and takes one look and kneels down and picks up the baby by the feet and holds it upside down and spanks its bottom, and all of a sudden there's this crying coming out of its mouth. Sergeant Van Niekerk starts to cry and laugh, and so does Mevrou Van Heerden. There's a whole first-class crying match going on with some laughing thrown in. Mevrou puts the baby on Marie's stomach and that's when Doctor Van Heerden arrives.

When it's all settled down and the baby, a girl, so now she can't be Benny Osler when she grows up, is cleaned up and turns out to be a sort of deep rosy pink colour with lots of wrinkles, like an old person. Everyone says how pretty she is, just like her mother, but she isn't. Maybe when the wrinkles go she'll look a bit better. Doctor Van Heerden cut the
boerewors
rope, which is called an umbilical cord, and he told me it was always supposed to be there. Mevrou Van Heerden explains that the Tzaneen midwife had another pregnancy to attend to and was still busy and was going to get her husband to drive her when it was over. Now, of course, it's too late.