Jodie stirred at the sensation of someone else on the bed.
“Something’s wrong,” Penni whispered.
Jodie’s eyes slowly focused on her sister’s silhouette seated on the side of the bed, etched against the pale gray wall beyond. Just beyond that silhouette the clock on the nightstand read 5:23 in pale silver-blue numerals. “With Mom?”
“With the baby.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Penni said, her whispers rising in tone toward fear or panic.
Jodie sat up in the bed. She considered turning on the light but wondered if that might make the situation feel more frightening. Sudden bright light in the middle of the night had always been equated with bad news—someone sick or injured or missing. She could see Penni well enough in the dark, the pale skin of her face seeming almost luminous above the darker shadow of her torso. She left the light off for now and put her arm over her shoulders. “Are you sick?”
“I’ve had cramps the last three hours, no regular interval but really bad.”
“Have you thrown up?”
“I feel sick but I haven’t thrown up.”
“Any discharge?” Where had she learned this clinical focus?
“Nothing out of the ordinary.” Suddenly Penni’s whole body tensed in a massive contraction. A stifled moan rose from deep in her chest, pushing its way out through her sealed lips, rattling through her throat and mouth and nose. Her hand thrashed around the bed’s covers until it found Jodie’s free hand. It seized that warmth and squeezed until it seemed it might break all the bones in both appendages.
Jodie squeezed back, but not so hard as to hurt her sister. She tried to ease Penni’s body down onto the mattress, toward the spare pillow at the headboard. It was like moving a frozen statue. But Penni didn’t fight her effort, in fact seemed to want to lie down. So Jodie persisted until her sister was lying on her side atop the covers, their hands still locked but now under her body. The low moan gradually subsided.
Penni pushed their joined hands toward the small of her back. “Push there please,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
Jodie let go of Penni’s hand and pushed with her fingers through the cotton T-shirt Penni was wearing.
“Harder.”
Jodie pushed with her knuckles.
“Harder!”
She made a fist and pressed until she felt the place where Penni’s ribs joined her spine.
“Ahh,” Penni groaned in what seemed release or relief.
Jodie eased off.
“No. Not yet,” Penni cried.
Jodie resumed the harsh pressure until her arm and hand began to tire.
Penni finally uttered a long low sigh followed by several panting breaths. As her body began to lose its tension, she said, “Thank you. That’s been going on all night. Your pushing helped.”
“You think you’re going into labor?”
“I don’t know. I’ve had some cramps before and the doctor says that’s not unusual. But never this bad.”
“Could be the flight or the stress.”
“I hope so.”
“You need to go to the emergency room?”
Penni shuddered. Garrett had had an asthma attack when they were kids and Penni had insisted on accompanying her brother and father to the emergency room. It had been an eye-opening and traumatic experience. “If I’m not in labor, that sure will trigger it.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“It’s almost dawn. Let me see if I can make it till morning then we’ll have more options.”
“You sure?”
“Can I stay with you?”
“Of course.”
“Will you keep your hand on my back?”
“What if I fall asleep?”
“I’ll wake you if I need you.”
“Good.”
After a few minutes Penni fell asleep and remained so till morning light, Jodie watching the back of her sister’s head the whole time.
At seven Penni called Randall who in turn called some contacts in their area and found an obstetrics practice that agreed to examine Penni before normal hours. They borrowed Leah’s car and Jodie drove them to the clinic across town. By then Penni’s cramps had subsided though there were still some waves of contraction through her lower abdomen and back. She laid Leah’s bucket seat all the way down and rolled onto her side to make herself somewhat more comfortable.
Inside the clinic a gentle and solicitous female obstetrician named Donna Tillman did a full examination including an ultrasound. Jodie offered to wait outside but Penni insisted she stay with her throughout the exam. Doctor Tillman found no signs of labor initiating or fetal distress. Still, she was concerned about the frequency and severity of the cramps. “If you were my patient,” she said, “I’d put you on bed rest as a precaution.”
“But my husband, doctor, and support network are all in Boston,” Penni said.
Doctor Tillman nodded. “I know how important that is.”
They set up a conference call in Doctor Tillman’s office with the three of them conversing with Randall and Penni’s Boston obstetrician, Frank Ayers. After a full exchange of information and opinions, Penni asked, “Is it safe for the baby for me to fly home?”
Doctor Tillman said, “The baby is safe in your womb. The question is can you manage the flight?”
“I did O.K. yesterday.”
“You’d not been up all night.”
“I’ll go with her,” Jodie said suddenly.
Penni looked at her with surprise. “What about Mom?”
Jodie paused for a second, as if startled, then said as much to herself as all the other ears listening, “She’s the one telling me to go.”