Gold Hill (9 page)

“
It’s just one of those
things,” Jill said. “What I wanted more than anything was for him
to get better, to stop hitting me, to stop using drugs,
and . . . the
women . . . ”

She looked around the
loft.

“
Even though I’m happy
now, I mean, really, really happy now,” Jill said. “A tiny part of
me still wishes Trevor had gotten better like he promised all those
times.”

“
I still wish my Dad would
come home,” Heather said. “He’d meet me at some pricey place for
lunch and tell me how sorry he was. He’d want to make it up to me
and then would be there, day in and day out. He’d have sage advice
from all of his world travels or that time he was stranded on a
desert island or when he was a Tibetan monk.
But . . . ”

Heather
shrugged.

“
Right,” Jill said.
“Delphie says ‘The heart wants what the heart wants.’ I’m glad
things turned out this way. I’m glad my heart wants this
now.”

“
My heart’s really happy
too,” Heather said.

“
And Tres?” Jill smiled.
Heather blushed.

“
I mean, poor Tanesha,”
Heather’s eyes insisted on avoiding the topic of Tres Sierra. Jill
smiled. “She keeps saying that as long as she has school,
everything is all right. It seems to be helping them.”

“
She’s not allowing
herself to get too dependent. It’s probably smart.”

“
It’s funny though,”
Heather said. “When I see them together, like this morning, they’re
the picture of love. He can’t take his eyes off her and she
radiates a joy she doesn’t have when he’s not here.”

“
They’ve always been like
that,” Jill said.

“
I know,” Heather
nodded.

The women fell silent while
they drank their coffee.

“
How’s Valerie?” Heather
asked.

“
Crazy,” Jill said. “She’s
with Samantha. They were trying to decide what she should wear when
she delivers. She’s in labor, right? And she’s trying on different
outfits with her best friend. I had to leave because it was too
surreal. Mike’s beside himself. He went for a run with
Jake.”

“
Sounds weird,” Heather
said. “Was she mad we didn’t get all the cleaning done last
night?”

“
No,” Jill said. “You
remember our housekeeping goddess, Rosa? She came early this
morning right after you left. She looked at the space and made some
calls. It’s now pristinely clean and they’re arguing over whether
to paint the walls today or wait.”

Heather smiled.

“
What I don’t get is who
is going to deliver this baby?” Jill asked. “Tanesha’s agreed to
help, but she could really get into trouble if something bad
happens.”

“
Why doesn’t she have
Camila help her?” Heather asked.

“
Camila?” Jill
asked.

“
She’s the mid-wife Blane
works with,” Heather said.

“
She’s the mid-wife Blane
works with,” Jill repeated. “What are you talking
about?”

“
Oh, you don’t know?”
Heather asked.

“
Know what?”

“
Since we had Mack, Blane
has been working with a mid-wife team,” Heather said. “One of them
is really popular, everyone’s favorite. I don’t know if she’d have
time, but she likes working with Blane. She sees mostly poor women
who can’t afford to have their babies at the hospital. Blane helps
assess the women and then helps with the delivery.”

“
How does Blane help with
the delivery?” Jill asked.

“
With acupuncture,”
Heather said. “Don’t you remember he gave me some when Mack
came?”

Jill shook her
head.

“
No?” Heather asked. “I
thought he did. We’ll have to ask.”

“
Maybe I’m slow today, but
you’re saying that Blane does acupuncture
for . . . ?”

“
The pain,” Heather said.
“I’ve been to a few births. It’s amazing. No pain, no
tearing.”

“
And Camila?”

“
Oh you’ll love her,”
Heather said. “Does Val speak Spanish? I mean, she speaks English
but when she gets excited she’s all Spanish.”

“
Celia made Val and Jacob
learn Spanish when they were kids,” Jill said. “I’ve been trying to
learn.”

“
Me too,” Heather
said.

“
I suck.”

“
Me too,” Jill said. “You
think Camila would deliver the twins?”

“
I don’t see why not,”
Heather said.

“
Do you think we should
just . . . you know, set it up?” Jill
asked.

The women looked at each
other for a moment while they evaluated what they knew about
Valerie and her situation.

“
Let’s call,” Jill
said.

“
We don’t know if Camila
has time today,” Heather smiled.

“
Plus, she can always say
no. Do you think Blane will be up for it?”

“
After shaking the
anesthesia, he seems fine,” Heather said. “He’s at work with Aden
right now. He wanted to work as much as he could
before . . . well, we don’t know what will happen
next. I’ll call him.”

“
I love it when everything
works out,” Jill smiled.

“
It’s what my heart
wants,” Heather took out her cell phone and started making
calls.

“
Mine too,” Jill
smiled.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday morning — 10:15
A.M.

“
I think this is really
best,” Valerie said holding up a short floral summer dress. She was
standing in the loft that served as her second closet above Mike’s
painting studio in the carriage house behind the Castle.

“
Good thinking,” Samantha
smiled. “Just don’t wear panties.”

Hearing a noise, Valerie
turned toward the door. Mike, Blane, and a small Latina woman were
standing in the doorway.

“
Hi,” Valerie said. “We
finally decided on what to wear.”

The small woman furrowed
her brow at Valerie and said something under her breath to Blane.
He nodded.

“
Hey Sami, we think we’ve
picked out just the right color to paint the office space,” Mike
smiled. “Would you like to see?”

Samantha flashed him a look
of relief.

“
I’ll be right back,”
Samantha leaned over to kiss Valerie’s cheek. “Love you
Val.”

“
Okay,” Valerie smiled at
Samantha. She walked to Mike. He kissed her and left with Samantha.
“Hi Blane. How are you feeling?”

“
Hi Val,” Blane smiled.
“This is my friend Camila. She’s a mid-wife that I work with.
Together, we’ve helped deliver more than a hundred babies this
year. I wondered if you might want her to help you with the
baby.”

“
Sure,” Valerie smiled.
“When we get there, but I don’t think it will be for a long, long
time. I’d understand if you don’t want to wait.”

“
Why don’t you let us take
a look?” Blane asked.

“
Oh sure,” Valerie said.
“We can go to the office with Sami. That way I can help pick out
paint too.”

An involuntary groan
escaped Valerie’s lips but her bright smile never faded. Blane
nodded to Camila and took Valerie’s left side. Camila took
Valerie’s right side. Together, they negotiated the loft stairwell
and started down the brick path to the Castle. Tanesha ran out of
the house to take Camila’s place. The midwife ran into the Castle.
She stopped to talk to Jacob and they rushed inside.

“
I love this time of year
in the garden,” Valerie said. “Everything is so beautiful. You guys
want to stay out here for a while?”

“
I think they’re pretty
anxious to get the paint color picked out,” Blane said.

“
Okay,” Valerie said.
“Let’s come out when we’re done.”

“
You bet,” Tanesha
said.

They helped Valerie up the
spiral staircase and to the deck of their recently discovered
office space. Tanesha opened the door and Valerie stepped
through.

“
Gosh, this is gorgeous,”
Valerie said. “Really perfect. Everyone did such a nice
job.”

“
Hey Val,” Jacob said.
“Why don’t you come in here so that Camila can check
you?”

“
Okay,” Valerie beamed at
him

Valerie stepped into the
room. Before she could say or do anything, Jacob closed the door
leaving her in the room with the midwife. Valerie
panicked.

“
Please,” Camila placed
her hand on the examination table.

“
But . . . ”

“
Your baby is ready to be
in the world,” Camila said. “Are you not ready for her?”

“
I . . . ” Valerie blinked at the small
woman. She shook her head.
“I . . . ”

“
Your brother thinks you
don’t want to lose your mother again,” Camila said. “Is this
true?”

“
My mother came just a
couple of days ago and . . . ” Valerie’s eyes
welled with tears. “She . . . ”

“
I love my Mother very
much too,” Camila said. “She came to me when I had my children. I
didn’t want to have them so I could spend more time with
her.”

Valerie walked to the
examination table. With Camila’s help, she got on the
table.

“
What was your mother
like?” Camila asked.

“
My mother
was . . . is . . . smart and kind,”
Valerie smiled. “She worked really hard but she always had time for
me. She’d wake me up every day and was there every night when I
went to bed. When I left for college, she would call me every
Sunday to remind me to do my laundry. I never thought for a moment
that she didn’t love me, you know like most girls do. She was the
source of everything I did.”

“
But she never smothered,”
Camila touched Valerie’s arm and she lay back on the
table.

“
Right,” Valerie said.
“Everybody was jealous because I had such a great mother, and a
great Dad but Mom was . . . I mean everyone loved
her and . . . ”

“
You can’t bear to say
good-bye again,” Camila said.

“
My brother and Delphie,
you know about them?” Valerie asked.

“
Delphinium is well known
to me,” Camila leaned over conspiratorially. “I sent my daughters
to her when they were going to get married. She talked my youngest
into waiting another year. Good thing too. Her boyfriend’s other
girlfriend got pregnant.”

“
And now?”

“
She’s with a lovely young
man,” Camila said. “When I heard about Blane, I went to see
Delphie. Was he going to help me? My ladies? Sure enough. He’s been
a miracle. Even the worst, most difficult pregnancies, he is there
to make it all better – during and after.”

“
What does Blane do?”
Valerie asked.

“
Acupuncture,” Camila
said. “The little needles keep the pain away. Only healthy ladies
and happy babies. Let me take a look.”

Valerie put her feet in the
stirrups and scooted down.

“
Jake and Delphie get to
see Mom all the time,” Valerie said. “I haven’t seen her since she
died . . . She practically raises Katy, that’s
Jake’s daughter. But me . . .
I . . . ”

Fat tears fell from
Valerie’s eyes.

“
You don’t want to lose
her again,” Camila said.

“
I can’t lose her again,”
Valerie sobbed in earnest.

“
It seems to
me . . . ,” Camila’s voice came from between
her legs. “I’m going to feel around a bit.”

“
Okay.” Valerie said
between sobs.

“
It seems to me that if
your mother almost raises your brother’s daughter and Delphinium
sees her all the time, she must be here a lot.”

“
Sure.”

“
But you can’t see
her.”

“
I can’t see her,” Valerie
said.

“
And seeing her is the
only thing that matters?”

“
No,
but . . . ”

“
Do you feel your mother?”
Camilla asked.

“
Um . . . ” Valerie said.

Camila’s head peeked out
over Valerie’s legs.

“
How do you know your
husband loves you?” Camila asked. “I know your husband loves you. I
could see it all over him. You?”

“
He shows me every day,”
Valerie said.

“
But what about when you
are at work in on a movie and he is here painting?” Camila asked.
“What happens when he can’t show you?”

“
I just know.”

“
So why don’t you ‘just
know’ that your mother loves you and is around all the time?”
Camila asked.

Camila disappeared again.
When her head appeared again, her face held the
question.

“
Why don’t you know your
mother is around all the time?” Camila repeated.

“
I can’t see her,” Valerie
said.

“
Bah, seeing is not so
important,” Camila said. “You think about it. I’m going to speak
with Blane. Are you all right with him helping you?”