He was on his own now. Shut out of their world. He heard Lucy cry out again and he had never felt lonelier in all his life than he did in that moment. The hallway that he walked up and down each day was now alien and cold. Another cry stabbed into his heart and he shivered. He had to do something, take some kind of action no matter how futile, so he went to the telephone again and commanded Doris to try this Nurse Drake.
‘I would,’ said Doris curtly, ‘but p’raps you should remember that most of us isn’t made of money and most of the town hasn’t got a telephone!’
He slammed the telephone down. Useless contraption. He swore and thumped his fist against the wall, not knowing what to do. He paced the hallway, past the portraits that looked at him accusingly and the landscapes that beckoned and he struggled to breathe. Fears swirled inside him and gave him a splitting headache. He fretted for Lucy, for his unborn child, for his daughter who was unmarried and knew nothing about the birthing of babies.
‘Well, I suppose she’s about to learn,’ he laughed out loud to himself in a brief minute of respite but then the fears grabbed him again and he had to do something so he picked up the telephone again.
‘Try for Doctor Appleby again!’
‘I have!’ Doris said.
‘Well, keep trying until you get him!’
Doris told him that she didn’t need reminding to keep putting the call through thank you very much and disconnected him before he could hang up on her again.
Eventually Edie appeared, white faced and stony, and he watched her walk straight into her bedroom and emerge with the scissors she had used on her skirt that very morning. She walked past him as if he was a shadow she could walk through and into the kitchen. He followed uselessly and watched as she got a pot, filled it with water and put it on to boil. Then she threw the scissors in.
‘Who told you to do that?’ he asked.
‘Mama.’
He stood there for fifteen minutes watching her watching the clock. Neither of them said anything until Beth burst through the door.
‘What’s happened? Has the doctor come?’
He shook his head and thought that Beth was looking at him accusingly, as though it was his fault the doctor hadn’t shown up.
‘What about a midwife then? Nurse Drake’s real good, she delivered me and my sisters,’ said Beth, thinking they were useless without her around to organise them.
‘Where’s this Nurse Drake live?’
‘Eddy Street,’ said Beth, ‘off Peel down near Grant. I sometimes see the boy that lives next door.’
This was news to Edie and Paul but it went by without even a wink. Their minds were congested with fear for Lucy. Paul shook his head again. He watched Beth join Edie standing over the stove. The two girls stood studying the boiling scissors as if it was the only thing happening in the entire world. He wanted to join them at the stove but felt outcast. Then when the hands on the kitchen clock ticked over again Edie grabbed the scissors with the dish towel and, with Beth behind her, hurried back to Lucy’s bedroom. The door closed in his face.
Slam.
He couldn’t stand it so he went outside into the front yard. The children next door were playing cricket using a rubbish tin as a wicket. He called, ‘Arthur, Arthur, I need you to run a message for me.’
The boy came over to the fence, followed by his two younger brothers Geoffrey and John. Paul thought Arthur was about eleven, certainly old enough for responsibility. Paul fished in his pocket and pulled out a coin.
‘Do you know where Eddy Street is? I need you to run to Eddy Street, off Peel. Find Nurse Drake, she lives there. Tell her she’s wanted here — no, tell her she’s needed here immediately.’
He looked at the younger boys, ‘You two, go and tell your parents what Arthur’s doing for me.’ He handed Arthur the coin. ‘Well, go on Arthur, quickly — a life may depend on it.’
The boys scurried off, the younger ones jealous that only Arthur got a coin. Why weren’t they getting a coin when they were also delivering a message? It wasn’t their fault it only had to be delivered to the kitchen where their ma and pa were having a pot of tea and what they called ‘a discussion’.
Paul walked in circles and prayed to God to save his wife and child, but if a choice had to be made he’d have his wife. He prayed until he heard Edie calling him. Then he rushed inside, where the door of Lucy’s bedroom was wide open. He blinked at the scene before him, trying to make sense of it.
Beth was picking up bloodied linen and cloths.
Edie stood still against the wall, her back pressed against it hard, as if she wished hard enough it might swallow her up and take her back to the beginning of the day and they could all start again. Her father looked at her and his soul filled with pity. Her day had started out so bright and was ending up so black.
‘Edie,’ he called.
Edie didn’t hear him. Her ears were filled with buzzing and she was wringing her hands. Her white, tense knuckles knocked against each other, her fingernails dug into the skin and a drop of blood spilt to the floor. She hadn’t even noticed. The pain in her heart was so great. She didn’t know yet that her mother was dying, but she did know that this baby that had appeared out of nowhere was an evil thing. It had been here no more than a few minutes yet had brought nothing but sorrow and pain to those she loved. Imagine what horror it would wield over the course of a full life. All her fear, all
