Page 90 of Troubles in Paradise
“Send her in,” Ayers says.
The room is dark but there’s an outline of light around the bathroom door. Ayers is sitting on the bed crying.
“Nut,” she says. “It hurts. They tell you it’s going to hurt but that doesn’t prepare you for how white-hot, teeth-crushingly painful it is.” She stand up, paces the room, then sits down again. “Here it comes, Nut. Hold my hand.”
Okay, okay. Maia sits next to Ayers on the bed and Ayers grips Maia’s hand so hard that Maia wants to cry out. Ayers is making a wheezing sound that turns to a whimper that turns to rapid breathing.
Finally, she relaxes. “Oh God,” she says. She turns to Maia. “Hi.”
“Hi. Is it over?”
“For now,” Ayers says. “I can’t recommend this. Promise me you’ll never have children.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the health center?”
“No,” Ayers says. “No way. There’s a storm coming, Nut.”
“There is?” Maia says, and they both laugh.
“I don’t want to be in a hospital filled with strangers when the power goes out. There are going to be emergencies that need to be addressed. And it sits up on that hill…I just don’t think it’s safe. Plus I can’t ask all of you to come up there with me. I just…don’t want to go.”
“But what about the good drugs?” Maia says. Any time the topic of Ayers’s delivery has come up in the past few weeks, all Ayers talked about were the good drugs. “Don’t you want the good drugs?”
“I do,” Ayers says. “I really do. Here comes another one, give me your hand.”
Reluctantly, Maia surrenders her hand, and Ayers squeezes even harder than before, with nails, and Maia squeals but Ayers doesn’t notice, thank goodness. Maia doesn’t want to be asked to leave. She’s honored that Ayers wants Maia—and apparently only Maia—in the room.
“You know who I miss right now?” Ayers says. “More than anyone else, do you know who I need here?”
“Mama?” Maia says.
“Rosie,” Ayers says, and she starts crying again. “I need Rosie Small right here, right now! You know what she would be doing?”
The door to the bedroom swings open and a West Indian woman in scrubs walks in and says, “Rosie Small would be pouring two shots of tequila, one for you and one for her, we both know that.” The woman puts her hand on Ayers’s head. “How we doing, Mama? I’m Sadie. I’m here to deliver your baby.” She glances at Maia. “You’re the spitting image of your mother, sweetheart. If we hit a lull in here, I’m going to tell you some stories about your ancestors. Can you help me with a couple things?”
“Okay,” Maia says. She will do literally anything to avoid holding Ayers’s hand through another contraction.
“Clean towels,” Sadie says. “Ice chips. And see if anyone has a Coca-Cola for me.” She eases Ayers back onto the bed, spreads her knees, and says, “Let me check and see where we’re at, doll. Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! We got a baby crowning.”
Ayers screams through the next contraction. Maia grabs a stack of towels from the bathroom and puts them on the bed.
“Ice chips,” Sadie says. “And send the father in here, please. This baby is on its way.”
When Maia leaves the room, she nearly collides with Phil and Sunny, who are stationed outside the door. “It’s time to send the father in, she said.”
“That would be me,” Phil says.
“Why Phil and not me?” Sunny says. “That makes no sense.”
“I think she means the baby’s father,” Maia says. “Baker, bro, it’s time.”
Baker leaps off the sofa and slides between Phil and Sunny and into the bedroom.
Maia fetches a bowl of ice chips and a Coke but she can’t get back into the room because Phil and Sunny are blocking the way. Ayers is screaming. Maia gets tears in her eyes and thinks,I am never, ever having a baby.It’s incredible that each and every person in this world had a mother who’d endured some version of this.
Rosie went through it with Maia; LeeAnn and Huck were there. Maia hands Sunny the ice chips and the Coke to pass into the room and then she goes out to the front yard and stands with Huck while he has a cigarette. Maia isn’t supposed to hang around Huck while he smokes but there’s a new life entering the world and a hurricane coming, so the usual rules don’t apply.
“Do you remember when I was born?” Maia asks.
