Page 33 of Beside the Rolling Waves
“I can’t imagine we’re not,” Rodney agreed, so they turned the water on, rinsed their arms, and dried them off. They were soon gowned up, and Rodney used his elbow to push the door open, then held it for her so she could walk through.
The room contained multiple bassinets, and Becky looked around, trying to figure out where the nurse was who had just spoken with them.
“Rodney and Becky?” a new nurse said as she walked over to them.
“Yeah,” Rodney said.
“All right. Come on over here. We have your babies in the same bassinet. We found that with twins, they’re usually calmer when they sense the other one beside them.”
“That’s interesting. I wouldn’t think babies would be able to tell.” Becky kind of spoke to herself, and Rodney nodded, giving her a glance and showing her that he agreed.
“Somehow they can,” the nurse said, shrugging her shoulders. She seemed very kind but also rather frazzled and busy, although she didn’t hurry them.
“We have Marley with the pink hat, and Kevin with the blue.” Becky expected the nurse to apologize for using gender stereotypes, but she didn’t. And Becky was glad. They could at least tell the difference between the babies now. Because looking at them, they looked very much the same.
“If you need help picking them up, you can ask. Just make sure you support the head,” the nurse said.
Becky nodded, and something started beeping loud and shrilly, and the nurse excused herself. “Just give me a holler if you need me. I need to get that.”
She hurried off.
“I feel like we didn’t get enough instructions,” Becky said, looking uncertainly at the babies. Although, the longer she looked at them, the more they looked perfect to her.
“Yeah. I needed a good bit more to feel comfortable. Probably at least six hours more.”
“We can do this. We’re responsible adults, and people raise babies all the time.” Becky sighed. “Right?”
“Can I be honest?” Rodney asked, and she looked up at him. That was a question he normally wouldn’t ask at any point in their friendship. It made her sad that he had to ask it now.
“I expect you to be honest.” She met his eyes, and a silent message passed between them. They used to talk like that all the time, but this was the first time that she actually felt the old bond they used to have.
“I think they’re ugly. They look like little scrunched-up monkeys, and I don’t see anything cute about them. I sure hope they grow out of that stage.”
She wanted to laugh. But she looked back at the babies instead. She was a little offended. Maybe if they were her babies, she could have laughed, but they were Rita’s babies, and she felt like she needed to defend her sister.
“I guess I can see the monkey resemblance, but their cheeks are so perfect and their little mouths are just adorable.” Their eyes were scrunched up, and she couldn’t really see the rest of their bodies, because they had them wrapped in towels or maybe a special blanket, but they looked like kitchen towels.
“All right, I can do this,” Becky said. She tried to figure out the best way and decided that she was most comfortable with the head in her left arm for some reason. Maybe that was so that her right arm would be there to catch it if she dropped it. That didn’t sound like the best reason, but she just kept that information to herself. Surely she wasn’t going to drop the baby.
She put her arm underneath the head and awkwardly managed to get baby Marley into the crook of her elbow.
There was a rocking chair right beside the bassinet, and she thought that she would probably have less chance of dropping her if she sat down, so she carefully scooted around the front of the rocking chair and sank into its depths.
Now she wasn’t going to move for a very long time. Preferably until the baby was old enough and big enough to crawl on her lap on its own and she wouldn’t have to worry about dropping it.
“All right. You made that look easy.” Rodney studied the child still sitting in the bassinet. “But I think I’ll just leave him there.”
“Really? You’re going to let his sister get all the attention? That is not acceptable.”
She looked up at him, figuring that he needed a little bit of prompting in order to get the nerve up to do what she had just done. Rodney was brave at some things, but she understood that babies were a completely different story.
Rodney pressed his lips together and gave her an annoyed look, like he knew she was right, that he needed to do it, but he didn’t want to.
Still, he shifted around, getting an arm under the baby’s head and pulling Kevin up toward himself.
“All right. I understand why you sat down. I should have moved another rocking chair over beside you to begin with.”
“I’m feeling a little more comfortable. Maybe I can do it.” She got her right arm and put it around her left, just to give the baby more stability, and then she leaned forward, standing up. Presto. She didn’t drop the baby, and she was standing. She felt like she should get applause or something.
