Page 30 of Baby Blue
That made him chuckle, so he sent back:Yeah. Surprise.
Her response made him laugh aloud:I’m worried.
He’d gotten all of the little load of laundry he’d done for Indigo’s new things folded and put away when he heard Anne’s car pull up in the drive next door. In less than a minute, she tapped on the door. “Come on in!” he called out.
“Hey! What’s up?” Anne asked. Blue turned with a smile, but it almost disappeared when he caught sight of her face.
She looked tired?really, really tired. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s just been a long, hard night,” she said and dropped onto his sofa.
“Long and hard?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We lost two patients tonight. A couple of teenagers in a wreck. Torn all to pieces. It was,” she said, then paused before swallowing and adding, “hard.”
Blue didn’t know what to say. It had never occurred to him that Anne saw those kinds of things at work. He’d always pictured her with a stethoscope and a thermometer, taking temperatures from little kids and helping old people to the bathroom and back into bed. Seeing people actually die wasn’t something he thought she did.What should I say?he wondered, so he tried, “That’s terrible. Want something to drink?”
“No. Thanks. I want to go to bed and try to forget about everything I saw. Nobody knows…” she said and trailed off.
What would a decent person say to that?he thought to himself. He finally said, “No. I can’t say I know what that’s like. But I’m sorry you had to see it.”
She looked up at him and smiled. “You know, I think I’ll take that drink.”
“Soda or beer?”
With a laugh she answered, “Beer. Definitely beer!”
He pulled out the last one and popped the top. Well, that was it for his beer supply. He’d have to do without until he got paid, and even then he might not be able to afford any. Handing it to her, he smiled. “Here ya go.”
“Aren’t you going to have one?”
He shook his head. “Already did. Don’t need another one.” That was a lie, but he didn’t want her to turn it down just because it was his last one. She’d been more than generous with him, and he wanted to return that favor.
“Oh.” Blue watched as she took a swig and settled back into the sofa. Then she sat up straight. “Oh! What was it you wanted me to see?”
“Well,” he said, standing from the arm of the sofa where he’d been sitting, “come in here and look. I’ve been busy.” He crossed the room to the little bedroom he’d decided to use as a nursery. Wasn’t like there were a lot of choices?the house only had two bedrooms and he had to have one big enough for his own bed?but it was big enough for a tiny baby. “Whaddya think?” he asked as he gently pushed the door open.
The baby bed sat against the far wall, a little mobile clamped to its end. Its mattress sported a sheet covered in cartoon pictures of tiny sheep. About three feet away was the rocking chair. The rug it sat on was worn and dirty, but it helped to deaden the sound and make the room quieter. He stood there, quite proud of himself, and looked around. Yeah, it was shabby, but it was better than a basket any day.
“This is nice! You did a good job!” she whispered as she looked around.
“Oh, it’s not so nice, but at least she’s got a bed, and I’ve got a place to rock her. I need to find some kind of little chest,” he said, pointing to the laundry basket full of clean and folded clothes, the very one that had been her bed until that evening. “And a few pictures to put on the wall. And I should probably paint in here. It could use a new rug too.”
“All very doable,” Anne told him. “But you did a good job. Looks nice.”
“Thanks.” He stood there, watching his tiny child sleep, then hung his head. “Oh, hell, who am I kidding? This place is a shithole. No baby should have to grow up here,” he muttered under his breath.
Anne’s hand was warm on his shoulder as she whispered to him, “One step at a time, Brent. Don’t be so impatient with yourself.”
He sighed deeply. There wouldn’t be money for paint or a rug, or even pictures for the walls, with the next paycheck or the next or the one after that. It was hopeless. He simply didn’t have the money to raise a child. The credit card would be maxed out soon, and then what? He felt Anne turn back toward the living room and he went too, pulling the door quietly closed behind him.
Anne made her way toward the front door. “Thanks for the beer. You should get some sleep. You have to work in the morning.”
“Yeah. True. See you in the morning,” he said. “Oh, wait! You have the day off,” he said and chuckled. “My boss told me to stay home tomorrow without pay because I wanted off an hour early to take Indigo to the doctor.”
Anne turned, her mouth gaping. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. He’s a piece of shit,” Blue told her. “And he was harassing me for talking on the phone on my lunch break.”
