The moment of truth had arrived. He felt he was in a world apart and alone behind the mask he wore.
As they rushed the gurney in along side the birthing table they assisted the patient in moving off the gurney onto the table. The doctor helped her get positioned and to place her feet into the stirrups. He adjusted them so she could push against them when she would bear down.
Writer, moved over so his vision wasn't impaired as the doctor raised her gown revealing her distended stomach and her swollen exposed glory.
The doctor said “Everything looks good; you are fully dilated, your cervix is nigh unto 10 centimeters.”
Writer didn't understand what that meant and was completely lost for he was a journalist grad not a med student. As he viewed the scene before him there was a feeling of guilt that swept over him. He felt he had no business is viewing what was going on. There was this rush of wanting to leave but instead he was paralyzed and just stared straight ahead.
During the next half hour he was transfixed, seeing but detached from what he saw. He could only remember segments of what happened such as the doctor’s voice saying, “Just work with your body and with each contraction, push!”
Then it was. “I see the head! Just a couple of more times now. Take a breath and Push.”
It was only a few minutes but it seemed like hours. The groans were like thunder in his ears, and then the doctor held up a new born child and said, "It’s a boy!"
The nurse took the child and quickly sucked the mucus from his mouth with a syringe and moments later he took his first breath and let out a scream which must have meant “I'm alive and well.”
The doctor tied off the cord and cut it, freeing the child from his mother's support system.
After the baby was cleaned up he was given to the mother who held him for the first time.
The writer came to his senses and got out his brownie camera and took the mother and son picture for the paper. Then he grabbed his clothes and hurriedly left.
It was some time before he calmed down enough to think rationally. Little by little he settled down and then began to laugh out loud as he thought about all he had just gone through.
All he could think of was, "I must get this down on paper"
Writer thanked everyone and as he left, they all, even the head nurse were laughing at him and his pretense of being an experienced reporter.
Chapter 5 Perseverance and Persistence Pays Off
As the writer prepared to write his column for the paper, he was certain that he had a blockbuster story.
His mind flashed back to the moment when the nurse gave the baby to the mother and she said; “Hello Willie.” They had already chosen the name William Holden. After the movie actor, the last name was omitted for the sake of privacy. So little Willie had arrived and was in good hands.
The writer opened his note book to refresh his memory, and began to write or rather type on his old Royal typewriter. He had just cleaned the key letters and installed a new ribbon so it was ready to go.
It was almost morning when he finished. Now his eyes were closing and he laid his head on the table and went to sleep.
Later he awoke with a start and jumped up as he remembered that he had promised to do a birth announcement for the parents. He recalled that they had been waiting for nine years due to health, military and financial reasons, but finally everything was in place and Willie had arrived. So he wrote it up and included the picture he took of Willie and his mother.
Proud isn't a big enough word to describe how he felt as he walked into the editor’s office for he was ecstatic. He put his masterpiece on the desk before the editor and waited.
The editor sat there shuffling papers as if he was looking for something and finally acknowledged the writers presence. “What's this he said?”
He then proceeded to glance over the many pages the writer had written. The writer's heart leaped when the editor said; give it to rewrite and we'll see if it’s worth a column. He quickly took his report to one of the rewriters and then went back to his duties as a copy boy.
Each day he scanned the paper for his article and finally on Sunday it was published. His many pages had been reduced to a column and a half and when he asked the rewriter why? The answer came back, “All the particulars are in there.”
The rewriter told him. “People don't want to read a book. They just want the meat of the story in a newspaper that they can read quickly.
As he left the rewriter he felt like a flat tire that was totally deflated. His dream of becoming a writer had been smashed.
It was over, because it had been printed with the byline, “Staff”.
His desire to be a writer didn't seem important anymore for his emotions had risen to the heights and then came tumbling down.
He thought about his experience in the hospital and realized that was where the realty of life was played out, and the best that writing could ever do was to talk about it.
As he thought about all that had happened that night, he realized, “I am only nineteen years old and my grades are good enough to get into Med school.
That is where I need to be. I will Persevere, Pray and be Persistent in my pursuit of a meaningful life,”
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