39 Weeks (49 page)

‘Nothing happening eh? That was about ten minutes since the last one.’ James said checking his watch.

‘Oh my God, this really
is
it. Okay don’t panic, just don’t panic. I have to . . I don’t know what I have to . . I should . .’

‘What, you should what? Shall
I phone the hospital?’
James said panicking anyway.

‘No you mustn’t phone the hospital until the contractions are at the most
only
three minutes apart
.’

‘Okay no hospital yet. Should I phone anyone else?’

‘Well I was supposed to be phoning my Mum when this all started happening.’

‘Right, yes. Good idea. You need to phone your Mum. I’ll get your phone, where is it?’

‘No I can’t phone Mum she’s on her date with Colin Stoddard.’

‘Well . . someone, there must be someone you should be telling.’
James said sitting on the very edge of his chair and holding my hand much too tightly.

‘It’s alright, I feel alright. Even when I get a contraction it’s not that bad. I thought it’d be agony but actually it’s alright.
’ I said pleased and relieved when
I realised it really wasn’t as
bad
as I’d been expecting all these months
.

‘Really?’

‘Yes really.’

‘So what now?’ he said finally releasing his grip on my hand a little.

‘Um . . I don’t know
this bit could go on for
a while,
an hour or two
,
or even a day.’

‘A day! What do you mean a day?’
James said releasing my hand altogether, and looking as if he’d been pole axed.

‘Well the books both said there’s no knowing how long it takes, could be quite quick, or could go on for hours.’

‘Yeah but a day?’

‘Okay that’s probably worst case scenario.’
I said trying to soften the blow.

‘I hope so.’

‘How long’s it been now, since the last one?’

James checked his watch. ‘Six minutes.’

‘Well they’re supposed to be regular, just gradually shortening the time between each one, so the next one should be in about four minutes.’

‘Are you sure there isn’t anyone I should phone
?’

‘Why you’re not scared are you?’ I said teasingly.

‘A bit I am yes, you’re going to have a baby.’

I took pity on him, he really did look worried and all the colour had drained from his face. ‘Well Marsha’s just down stairs and she’s had two, and if it looks like it’s getting close I’ll phone my mum, date or no date.’

‘Okay.’ He said looking relieved. ‘Sorry I just . .’

‘It’s okay, I understand.’

‘I mean I really want to help, but . . well I don’t know if I’m up to delivering a baby.’

‘You won’t have to deliver a baby, I promise. As soon as
I’m sure and it looks like it’s getting close I’ll go to the hospital. I don’t want you to deliver the baby either, I want to be in hospital with a proper nurse and a doctor or two and plenty of pain killers.’

‘Yes . . yes. Should I get Marsha now do you think?’

‘Let’s give it another . . say half an hour, and if I’m still getting contractions every ten minutes
then we’ll
. . .’

This time the pain was more intense. I felt it edging towards me, building . . building . . and then it hit.
I held my breath and clenched both fists waiting for it to ease. It only lasted about thirty seconds but that was enough.

‘Okay I’m going to get Marsha.’ James said as soon as it wa
s obvious the pain had subsided, and completely ignoring the fact we’d just decided to wait half an hour before getting Marsha involved.

‘But you don’t even know her, I’ll go.’ Strange how one minute you can be in agony and the next st
raight back to normal, I wasn’t expecting
the
contractions to be like that.

‘No you need to sit still.’
James said.

‘I’ll phone her then alright?’

So I phoned Marsha and she said we should go downstairs to hers, Flora had
a bit of a temperature so she
didn’t want to be out of hearing distance in case Flora needed her, but we were welcome to go downstairs and wait it out there
.

James looked extremely relieved
when I told him, and I had to smile to myself. I was feeling just as scared, more so probably, but I was the one having the baby it wasn’t like I could just hand the responsibility over to someone else
like he just had
, I wish,
I had to get on with it like it or not, but I understood
how he was feeling
.

‘Sorry about all this.’ I said to Marsha when she opened the door.

‘Don’t be silly, you couldn’t help it. Good job I was here, and James of course.’ She said nodding to James.

‘Oh yes this is James.’

‘Hi.’ Marsha said.

‘Hi’ James said awkwardly.

‘So when was the last one?’ Marsha asked.

I looked at James, who looked at his watch. ‘About five minutes ago.’ He said.

‘And how far apart are they?’

I looked at James again, who said
‘a
bout every ten minutes
I think’.

‘So you’ve probably got a
while to go yet before the baby put’s in an appearance.
Tea an
yone?’

‘Why not.’ I said.

‘Can I have coffee?’ James said. ‘And shouldn’t you
be
sit
ting
down?’ he said to me.

‘Well’ Marsha said. ‘You could sit down if you want to of course, but nowadays they think it better, easier, if you keep upright and walking about, at least in the beginning.’

‘See I told you I didn’t have to keep sitting down all the time.’ I said. ‘Why don’t you sit down James, and I’ll help Marsha make the tea.’

James settled himself in front of the telly, looking much more like his old self. Now that the pressure was off him and Marsha seemed to know what she was doing he could relax, and he did.
In fact he relaxed so much and made himself so comfortable that y
ou’d have thought he hung out at Marsha’s every day while he waited for a pregnant lady to have her baby.

In the kitchen I asked Marsha what was wrong with Flora. ‘It’s probably nothing.’ Marsha said. ‘Just teething I expect, but you can’t be too careful. So what about James?’

‘What about him? I told you we’re just friends.’

‘Yes I know, but oh my God.’

‘What do you mean oh my God
, o
h my God what’s he doing here, or oh my God what were you thinking?’

‘No oh my God he’s gorgeous.’

‘Oh that. Yes I suppose he is a bit.’

‘And you turned him down for my brother?’
she said incredulously.

‘Well Rob’s not exactly . . ugly.’

‘No . . maybe . . but . .’

‘Oh what do you know he’s your brother, of course you’re not going to see him the same way other women do. Trust me, Rob’s a bit of an oh my God himself.’

Marsha smiled at me in a pitying sort of way. ‘You don’t think you might be a bit biased or anything do you?’

‘Well maybe a bit.’ I said smiling. ‘But only a bit. Have you heard from him or Mac?’

‘No not since yester
day when Mac said Rob was due to get
to Edinburgh
sometime today
.’

‘I could have had the baby by the time he gets back here.’

‘Yes I suppose you could have.
How long now since the last contraction
?’

I stuck my head round the door of the living room and asked James how long it had been, and he checked his watch again. ‘Fourteen minutes, why have you had another one?’

‘No not yet.’

‘I thought it was supposed to get a bit shorter each time?’ James said.

‘Yeah it is.’

Marsha shooed me into the living room carrying the tea and coffee
. She was about to put the mugs down when Mac walked in,
closely
followed by Rob.

‘Mac!’ She said
quickly
depositing the mugs and rushing over to hug him. ‘I thought you weren’t getting back until tomorrow?’

‘
Well that was the plan, but your
impatient brother
here
couldn’t wait, so we set off straight away.’

We all looked at Rob who was glaring at James.

‘Well you’re just in time.’ Marsha said brightly. ‘Judy’s just started having her contractions
and luckily James was here
with her, so she didn’t have to be on her own. Isn’t that good?’

‘Oh yes that’s really good and
so
lucky.’ Rob said dead pan. ‘
Didn’t take you long then.’ Rob spat at me.

‘It’s not what you think.’ I said.

‘No. What is it then?’ Rob said with a face like thunder.

‘Rob for goodness sake, James was just helping. Good job too if you ask me, you wouldn’t want Judy to have to be on her own while she was in labour would you?’
Marsha said.

‘She doesn’t look like she’s in labour to me.’
Rob answered
.

‘Well I was . . but I think it might have stopped now.’ I said lamely.

‘Stopped.’
Rob said. ‘How convenient, first you’re in labour so you call James, not your mum, or Shelley, or Marsha, but James. And then it’s stopped, just like that.’

‘Well if I didn’t think I was in labour what am I doing here downstairs with
your sister
? And I didn’t call James he just happened to be here when it started.’

‘Happened to be here.’ Rob repeated with decidedly sarcastic overtones.

‘
Well you weren’t around were you?’ James said standing up. All this time he’d sat quietly while the conversation batted backward and forward over his head, but now he decided to join in.

‘I don’t think that’s any of your business.’ Rob said getting nasty and squaring up to James as if he was ready to punch him if he had to.

‘I think you
’d
better go.’ I said to James as I put myself between the two of them.

‘
But the baby?
’ James said forgetting all about Rob for a minute.

‘It seems to have stopped. It must have been a Braxton Hicks thingy.’

‘Come again?’
James said
looking confused.

‘It’s a sort of practise for the real thing
, n
othing to worry about. I’ll call you
. Thanks for being here, I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t been here with me.’

‘You’re sure you’re going to be alright, I’ll stay if you want me to.’ James said looking pointedly at Rob, almost daring him to say something.

‘Oh don’t mind me.’ Rob said.

‘No I won’t.’ James said giving me a hug while still glaring at Rob.

James left and after promising Marsha I’d phone her the minute anything happened
I went back upstairs to my flat
. She was a bit worried about me being on my own but I had to get out of there. Rob just stood mute staring into space the whole time, as if none of the last ten minutes had happened.

Well that went well I thought to myself. Great.
The only way it could have been worse was if Rob had walked in and caught me kissing James not that it was very likely, the kissing I mean, but I guess Rob didn’t know that. So now what? All I could hope for was that Marsha would talk to him, I mean it seemed improbable th
at Rob was going to listen to anything I had to say
right now under the circumstances.

After all the excitement, if that’s what you could call it, I decided to have a soak in the bath and try and calm down a bit. Ella had
definitely stopped trying to be born and had gone to s
leep as far as I could tell, but w
hen I thought about it the whole Braxton stuff must mean tha
t it wouldn’t be long now. As usual
I was excited and terrified all at the same time
, but at least the contractions hadn’t been as bad as I thought
.

As I soaked and absent mindedly sponged water over my bump I started thinking. Things weren’t looking good, but . . and it was quite a big but . . Rob had been pretty miffed at seeing James sitting there in Marsha’s living room,
and didn’t Mac say that it was Rob who wanted to get back straight away. T
hat could only mean one thing . . he sti
ll cared about
me. Why else would he have been
in such a hurry and
so angry
with me
?