Exposure
4
Godfather
“WILL EVERYTHING WORK okay with the girls?” Beth asked as we drove out of town Friday morning.
“I think so. I think they even managed to figure out some mutual support for each other when no one else is around. I’ll be interested to find out if it goes anywhere. Theresa is really trying to figure out where she fits on the spectrum, you know. She’s not sure if she’s lesbian or straight or AC/DC. I think Leora is more of a sexual opportunist. She’d like a guy but will settle for a girl in the meantime.”
“How do you manage to attract such strange girls to Attic Allure? I really regret missing Farrah Logan’s shoot yesterday. What you described sounds phenomenal. And I’ll bet Theresa was just wetting her panties,” Beth said.
“Um… I’m pretty sure she wasn’t wearing any.”
“You checked?”
“It was kind of part of the negotiation between Theresa and Leora.”
“Both?”
“Really turned on—mostly by each other.”
“Why doesn’t that make me mad? Instead, I can feel my panties—which I am wearing—getting damp. It excites me to think of you fingering two girls who are kissing and fondling each other. I keep thinking I must be missing something. It’s just… You know, Anna and I could sleep in the same bed—in fact we will be sleeping in the same bed this week—and we’ll giggle and talk half the night. But other than squeeze each other’s hand a little before we go to sleep, we wouldn’t even think of contact in bed. We’ll wear our little pajamas and talk about girl stuff, including how much we love you, and then go to sleep.”
“Honestly, I think Patricia is the same way. She was best friends with Janice and Judy and has become really close to Anna and Chris, but she wouldn’t think of having sex with any of them—much to Christine’s disappointment.”
“And Ronda?”
“You know, Ronda didn’t have any sexual contact with anyone before Christine and me. The summer she was gone, she experimented a little with another girl, but it was really just an experiment. It seems that all she wants is Christine and me. If we were out of the picture, I think it would be a long time before she found someone else.”
“I hope neither of you get out of the picture with her,” Beth said. “Of all your girlfriends, Ronda is both the strongest and the most fragile. Losing either of you would break her heart.”
“I don’t want to lose either of them. Not any of the five of you. I’m a glutton. I can’t stand the thought of not being with you. All. And yet, I just know that everything will fall apart this fall. Five girlfriends will be living in five different parts of the country and only you will be with me in Chicago,” I said. “I am so thankful that I met you.”
Beth held up her hand and wiggled her thumb back and forth.
“I’m the thumb of your fistful of girlfriends. If you were in a fight, I would make the other four stronger. But by myself, I need to be protected or I’ll be no good at all,” she said.
“Do you believe that, honey? For as much time as I spend surrounded by girls—including my three sisters and mother—I really don’t understand women. You are all a mystery to me.”
“Which is why we are so attracted to you. We like being mysterious.”
I got Beth to Anna’s house and Anna came out to greet her and to give me a loving kiss.
“I missed you so much,” she said. “I’d ask you to come in for dinner, but I know you want to stop at home before you go spend the evening with Chris. I love you so much!”
“I love you, too, honey,” I said. “I’m so glad you invited Beth to stay in town this week. I’m sure we’ll manage some time together this week one way or another.”
“I hope so. I just want to spend time with you. Go ahead now and run home so your parents know you’re back in town.”
“I didn’t get any printing done this week,” I said. “I managed to get proof sheets done so my clients would all get a chance to look at their session and order copies. I would guess that I’ll be printing a lot of pictures in the next week or so.”
“It’s good to know you are so busy right now, but what are you going to do when you start classes this fall?” Mom asked. “I hope you won’t let your education slip.”
“I don’t dare,” I said. “First of all, the class descriptions sound like I have a lot to learn and I want to learn everything I can. Second, I need to maintain a C average or expect to get drafted. I just need to limit the amount that I’m working. Levi at Camera Warehouse hired a couple of women part time to help organize the studio in Chicago. They’ll also help during photoshoots like Chris and Anna have been doing here. They were a big help this week.”
“Are you going to keep using your studio here in Tenbrook?” Kat asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I will probably have at least one client a week here for the next three weeks. And even though I expect to be taking pictures mostly in Chicago, I plan to be back here on some weekends for local work this fall. I got a call from Miss Sullivan before I left for Chicago asking if I would be interested in doing the senior portraits again this year. My winter break starts a week before the winter break here in Tenbrook. I could shoot all the senior portraits that week, and possibly line up Attic Allure sittings for some of this year’s seniors during the rest of break.”
“Can I use the studio while you’re gone?” Kat asked. That stopped the conversation and focused it on Kat.
“Uh… What do you want to use it for?” I asked. Mom was about to object, but paused to listen first.
“Well, I have a problem,” Kat said. “I’m having a limited variation in my scenes that I paint. I think I’ve painted my horse a hundred times, sometimes with someone on it and sometimes by itself. I’m progressing with oil paint this summer, but I need to practice on more stuff. I thought I could find things among your props and backdrops that I could practice on.”
“I see,” I said. “I don’t think I could just give you a key and let you use the studio any time, because Mr. Barkley would probably not approve. Maybe you could work something out with Patricia. It all depends on how she feels after the baby is born, but she will have the key to the studio while I’m gone. Mr. Barkley has been patient with us getting the gallery cleared out, but we need to get it cleared and Patricia said she’d take care of it.”
“I guess it would work to set up scenes to paint in the studio,” Mom said. “As long as Patricia is there, too. I don’t think you should be alone in the studio, simply for safety’s sake.”
“I’ll talk to Patricia!” Kat said. “Maybe she’ll model for me with the baby. I want to paint a picture of her.”
“Just be patient with her,” Mom said. “Becoming a mother will mean a whole lot of adjustment for Patricia. We all want to help her.”
“I’m kind of looking forward to having another grandbaby nearby,” Dad said. “Deborah is so far away.”
“You came back to hold me!” Christine said when I got to her house that evening.
“I’ll always try to be where you need me,” I said.
“It’s so nice.” She led me to the living room and we sat on the sofa with the rest of the family. “It’s not so much that I need to be held during my period anymore, but I like knowing that you care for me enough to sit with me when I feel bloated and crampy.”
“I might need to have Danny start coming over to hold my heating pad,” Julie said. Chris’s sister was sitting at the other end of the sofa with a heating pad on her stomach. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t think you should consider that until you are at least sixteen,” Mrs. Evans said. “I know you and Danny are fond of each other, but I believe your sister will tell you that there is something quite intimate about having your boyfriend comfort you during your period.”
“Do you think Kat will want me to hold her?” Brian asked.
“That is definitely too young,” Mr. Evans said. “Sixteen. I think that is too young, as well, but at least sixteen before either of you begin dating, and holding the heating pad is considered a date.”
“Remember, I didn’t have my very first date until four days before my seventeenth birthday,” Chris admonished. “You can wait a little longer.”
By ten o’clock, everyone had quit watching TV and gone off to bed except Christine and me. As soon as we were alone, we started kissing and whispering with each other.
“You can move your hand from my tummy to my breasts if you want,” she whispered. “But be gentle with them. They really get tender during my period. I just like you to touch them.”
“You know I love to,” I said as I caressed her and kissed some more. “I love to touch you no matter where. I’ll rub your tummy, your breasts, your back, your legs, your clit. Anything you want.”
“Would you rub my clit even though my pussy is a mess?” she giggled.
“Yes, I would. Christine, I think we make too big a deal out of a girl’s period in general. It’s like there’s a whole disgust built up around having a little blood in your pussy. You aren’t injured. It’s just messy. I would put my fingers in your pussy. I would make love to you. It doesn’t make a difference to me as long as you are turned on.”
“Oh, wow! I don’t know if I can adapt to that. We’ve always been taught that no one would want to be around a girl during her period. I mean, you’re right. It’s not like I’ve been injured. Blood just comes out. And when it comes down to it, it’s only two or three tablespoons a month. If you came in me during my period, I would have more come in my pussy than blood. You’d deposit about a teaspoon and a half of semen all at once. The two tablespoons of blood I produce takes four or five days to drip out of my uterus,” Chris said.
“Wow! You have all kinds of data I didn’t know.”
“Girls’ health class covered some basic information. I found some of the other information when I was researching sex in the library. Miss Ludwig was quite helpful.”
“My opinion is that no matter if it is during your period or at any other time of the month, you should be able to have whatever sexual pleasure you want to have.”
“I need to run upstairs,” Chris said. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go away.”
I sat on the sofa patiently watching the show and trying to figure out what was it was about, since I’d missed most of it while we were talking. Chris was back in a flash, dressed in a long bathrobe. She lay down on the couch with her head in my arms so I could kiss her some more. When my hand found its way into her bathrobe to caress her breasts, I discovered she had nothing else on under her robe.
“You might need these,” she said, pulling a wad of tissues out of her pocket. “And probably this.” She reached in the other pocket and pulled out a small jar of Vaseline. “The tampon dries up everything, but you can make my clit slick with the Vaseline. Touch me, honey. I want to see if I can come during my period.”
I slid into her robe beneath her waist and felt around her pussy, ignoring the string, and just rubbing softly. I found her clit and she was dry, so I scooped out a little Vaseline and applied it gradually to the area. The heat of her body soon melted the lubricant and her clit became very slippery. She moaned and quickly pulled my lips to hers as I continued to manipulate her clit.
It took a little while, partly because of the tentative stroking and partly because of the embarrassment of having my finger touching her pussy during her period, but Chris rose steadily in her excitement and held my head so her mouth was sealed to mine when she came.
“I don’t feel any cramps now at all!” she whispered as we broke the kiss.
“I love making you come,” I said. “I would like to make it my career choice.”
“How about if I make you come?” she asked.
I wiped the Vaseline off my fingers. Christine opened my trousers and began playing with my cock before she sucked it into her mouth. With just her robe on, I had easy access to her breasts while she played with my cock. I’d been hard ever since I started playing with her pussy and it didn’t take long before Chris was drinking down the teaspoon or two of my semen that spurted into her mouth. Her robe had come completely open and I stroked up and down her body, dragging my finger through her pussy and gently squeezing her breasts as we kissed.
At midnight, I headed home so I could get some sleep before Saturday.
I caught Kat with the laundry Saturday morning.
“Hey. What’s up? I’ll do the laundry,” I said.
“You can take me to the laundromat,” she sighed. “It’s my job now. You don’t even have any dirty clothes in this batch because you washed them all before you left Chicago. Since you aren’t here, the job suddenly became mine.”
“Wow! I didn’t know that. Um… Do you mind if I help?”
“Really?”
“I kind of got used to it as part of my Saturday routine. I’ve been trying to figure out how I’ll handle it in Chicago. I can’t just ask Elizabeth to do my laundry every week.”
“I like Elizabeth. She’s very sophisticated,” Kat said as she piled the laundry on top of the bed in the back of the VW. She hopped up front and we went to the laundromat. I helped sort the clothes and get them started. Kat had the change for all the machines. Then we just sat and talked for a while.
“I’m excited to see some of your new paintings,” I said. “I can’t believe how fast you are progressing.”
“It’s all learning technique right now,” she said. “I want to develop my own style like you developed with Attic Allure, but Dad reminded me that you were taking pictures from the time you were eleven or twelve until you were almost seventeen before the Attic Allure style began to emerge. He said you had to learn all about the camera and the darkroom before you could really establish yourself.”
“Sometimes Dad really surprises me. He’s mellowed since we moved to Tenbrook,” I said.
“Yeah. I guess. I’m going to miss you when you move to Chicago, Nate.” Kat leaned against me and hugged my arm.
“I’ll miss you, too. I’ll try to come home as often as I can, but I don’t know what the schedule will be like for my classes and assignments. It’s really exciting, but it’s kind of scary, too.”
When the laundry was finished, we took it home and sorted out the things that needed to be ironed. Kat started the same way I did, ironing all the handkerchiefs. I told her about Dad’s rule about handkerchiefs and that when she was ready for a boyfriend, she should make sure he knew that he was always supposed to carry a spare clean handkerchief.
I picked up Ronda a little after noon and we went into Huntertown. It was almost ninety out and we decided all we wanted were shakes at DQ. Then we went for a drive out in the country with Ronda curled up on the seat, leaning against my shoulder. We had the windows open and the radio was playing some kind of country music on the only station we could find.
We were quiet and just enjoyed being together and driving through the country. There were all kinds of backroads to explore that we’d never been on, some of which were just dirt tracks, but we didn’t need to actually back up on any of them. On one, though, we saw a nice little woodlot with a stream running through it. Ronda pointed and I slowed down.
“Can we park there? It’s so pretty,” she said.
I jumped out of the van and walked into the little wooded area. There was a track that went back to what had obviously been used as a campsite before, but it showed no sign of recent usage. The ground was firm, so I decided, ‘why not?’ I turned off the road and drove into the lot and parked in the little clearing. It had a fire ring and even a stack of wood, but we decided not to light a fire. We’d use our grill for dinner and just hold each other as we listened to the creek running not far away.
“I have no idea where we are,” I said. “Shall we just camp here for the night?”
“Let’s. I just want to be with you and be held by you,” Ronda sighed.
She was unusually clingy, but even in eighty-five-degree weather, I didn’t mind her nearness. When we got the tent set up, we just stripped and lounged around. We played cards for a while and talked about the future. And we made love. Soft and gentle love.
“If we weren’t so young, I could imagine this being our life,” she said. “The two of us each engaged in our business and being home with each other, loving and talking and loving. I’m so afraid the future will tear us apart. I’m frightened of it.”
“What are you frightened of, love?”
“Career, family, relationships. And I guess most, I’m afraid I’ll be alone. Love me again, Nate. Tell me you’ll always be with me.”
That was a new twist. My other girlfriends always cautioned me away from talking about forever or always being together. Somehow, being with Ronda was more peaceful than I’d felt in a long time.
In the morning, it took us nearly two hours to find our way back to Tenbrook.
* * *
Patricia’s thirty-seven-week photo was Sunday afternoon. She dragged in with the weather already eighty-seven degrees out. She began pulling her clothes off as soon as she walked through the door.
“I’m a whale,” she moaned as she stood in the poses so I could take her photos. She looked a little bedraggled. “Little Tony was kicking all night long and I didn’t get any sleep. I haven’t even shaved my armpits and legs. And I’m sweating like a little pig. Tell me when it’s all over.”
“It won’t be long,” I said. “Come on upstairs and let me massage you and cool you off.”
“It’s five degrees warmer upstairs than down here,” she said.
“But you can lie down and I’ll use a cool damp cloth to wipe you down. It will help.”
I supported her as she made it up to the fourth floor and lay down on the bed. I quickly got a wash cloth and soaked it in the bathroom, then sat beside her to bathe her skin.
“I should have had Tony get me pregnant in the summer and then I’d have had the baby early in the spring when it was still cool. I’d be in a bikini again by now. And he’d have known. He’d have known he was going to be a daddy and he would have been more careful. Tony!” she sobbed.
I wiped her face and her neck. I lifted her arms and bathed her pits, and cooled her breasts and the active little baby in her tummy. I got fresh water and even bathed her pussy and crotch, then on down her legs. I kissed her and then rolled her to her side and began massaging her aching back.
She did not look like a whale. Patricia was a thin and incredibly beautiful eighteen-year-old with a baby bump sticking out in front of her. To hear her moan about it, you would think she had put ten inches on her ass and was walking around on tree trunks. She completely believed that her tits were sagging down to her belly and that she was bloated in the face.
I stroked down her body from her shoulders to her ankles and she suddenly arched her back in pain.
“Oh! Cramp. Cramp. Cramp.” She grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed for a minute until it passed.
“You okay, honey?”
“It must be the heat and exhaustion. I’m fine now. Just keep massaging me, please. My back feels even tighter now.”
I massaged her and told her that I still thought she was incredibly beautiful. I loved stroking her back and shoulders.
“Do you still like stroking my boobs?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. I think you have the most spectacular first pair of boobs I ever saw,” I said.
“Seriously? Up here in the studio?”
“No. When you flashed me in the garage.”
“Oh. Did I do that?”
“I was changing film and looked up. You’d just stripped off your bikini top and were pulling on the blouse you tied below your tits. They were the first pair of human female boobs I’d ever seen. I nearly passed out.”
Patricia started to laugh and then doubled over with another cramp. There was suddenly a wet spot spreading on the bed beneath her.
“That’s… my… I’m in labor!” she practically shouted. “Oh, shit. I have to walk down all those stairs!”
“It’s okay, honey. I’ll go get your clothes and then I can take you to your parents. Are they going to take you to the hospital?”
“You take me! You take me, Nate! Please!” She grabbed hold of me hard enough to nearly tear my shirt off.
“I’ll take you,” I said, helping her stand up. We just went down to the next floor and I got her dried off with a fresh towel, I helped her dress. “Where do we need to go?” I asked.
“Huntertown Community Hospital.”
As we exited the back stairway door, I saw Anna and Elizabeth just heading up.
“Anna! Go open the van.” I locked the studio door and tossed her the keys. “I need help. Patricia is in labor.”
“Wait!” Patricia said, almost doubling over. As the pressure passed, she managed to speak again. “My bag. We left it inside by the darkroom.”
“Okay. We’ll come back and get it. Let’s get you downstairs and comfortable.”
I held her and was ready to just carry her if she stumbled, but we got to the foot of the stairs and Anna lit off up them to get the bag. I led Patricia to the back of the van and Elizabeth helped me get her stable on the bed, then crawled in next to her to hold and support her while I drove. Anna tossed me the keys and slid into the passenger seat with the bag in hand.
I had the bus started and in gear as soon as Anna handed me the keys. We were off to Huntertown.
“We’ll need to make calls as soon as we get to the hospital so Patricia’s parents know she’s in labor,” I said. “They’ll probably want to tell the Kowalskis, too. And I’d feel better if Reverend Mother Superior was alert. Can you make the calls, Anna?”
“I can do that. Here Elizabeth and I were just going to interrupt whatever you were doing and barge in. I didn’t know we were going to barge in on a birth,” Anna giggled.
“You’d have barged in to help me massage and cool her. She’s hot and miserable in addition to…”
“Owwww!” Patricia howled from the bed in the back.
“Labor,” I finished.
One thing about driving the VW was that I couldn’t really speed. I pushed it as hard as I could, but we were still just at the speed limit—or below, going uphill. I was glad Anna had showed up for many reasons, not the least of which was that she knew where the hospital was. I didn’t know what the procedure was, so I just pulled into the emergency room drive and stopped.
A couple of nurses rushed out to the van with a gurney as Anna opened the back doors. They took one look at the four eighteen-year-olds and the microbus and sighed. It was obvious we didn’t know anything. They helped Patricia out of the bus and onto the gurney just as another contraction hit her. They wanted to know how far apart they were. We had to guesstimate that the last contraction was about five miles this side of Tenbrook, so nearly fifteen minutes. They relaxed.
“You need to go park,” one said, pointing at me. “You can’t leave it here in the driveway.”
“But…”
They turned and left me. Anna waved me on. I closed the doors and moved the van to the parking lot. Then I ran back through the emergency doors and looked around. Everything was quiet, like a screaming woman hadn’t just been rolled through there.
“Excuse me,” I said. “Um… Girl in labor? Just came through? Where can I find her?”
“Well, you brought her to the wrong place. Childbirth is not considered an emergency. She was wheeled through to admissions. You can get there by going back outside and following the sidewalk to the front entrance. Don’t worry. She’ll be fine.”
I took off out the doors and tried to follow the sidewalk around the building, but, of course, the sidewalk didn’t go around the building on that side and I ended up running through the street and back across the hospital lawn to get to the entrance. I burst in through the front doors and looked around frantically. I was on my way to the reception desk when Anna came out of some double doors and spotted me.
“Well, that’s exciting,” she said brightly. “I should find that phone now and make the calls. Do you have some dimes?”
“Yeah, sure.” I dug in my pocket and pulled out a fistful of change that I dumped in her hands. “Where is she. I should go to her.”
“You can’t just go into the examining room,” Anna said. “They’d only allow one—either Elizabeth or me—to stay with her. Elizabeth didn’t have any of the phone numbers, so she stayed. Why don’t you call your mother? It will be easier on her than hearing from me.”
“Yeah. I suppose. I just… Oh, crap. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“You’re being a good supportive friend and godfather to a new baby that’s on the way. Now make the call.”
I stood in the phone booth next to where Anna started dialing the Bergs’ phone number. I had to ask her for a dime back. Then I called mother.
“Mom, I’m at Huntertown Community Hospital. Patricia went into labor and I brought her in.”
“Oh, my! How is she doing?”
“I’m not sure. They won’t let me back there. The last I saw her she was screaming on a gurney, but Anna says she’s in an examining room with Elizabeth.”
“Anna and Elizabeth are with you? That’s good.”
“Yes. They arrived at the studio just after Patricia’s water broke and she started labor. I have no idea what I should do now.”
“Well, like expectant fathers for hundreds of years, you sit in the waiting room and wait. Have you called Tor and Elise?”
“Anna’s on the phone to them now. I’m sure they’ll call Jim and Ellie.”
“Well then, I suppose your job is done until it’s time to take pictures.”
“Pictures! I ran off without my camera! Crap!”
“Okay. Get a status report as soon as you can and when we have a rough timetable, we’ll grab your camera and bring it in. Or you can go back and get it if it’s going to be a long time.”
“What do you mean a long time? She’s in labor. Doesn’t that mean she’s having a baby?”
“Eventually. Labor started about an hour or so ago from what you said. Maybe a little longer. The shortest I’ve known a woman to labor was two hours. It could be a day or more.”
“A day! With her in pain like that?”
“It’s a terrible amount of pain to go through,” Mom said. “But you have to understand that at the end of it, you win a baby. All she has to do is endure a few hours.”
“I guess that’s supposed to put it in perspective. Thanks, Mom. I guess I’ll just… wait.”
“I don’t know. Watching her, I’m thinking I should just keep my legs crossed from now on,” Elizabeth said when she came out and traded places with Anna. “At least there’s a midwife kind of nurse in there who is coaching her. They said according to the progress, delivery should be sometime tomorrow morning. I think they meant after daylight, not after midnight.”
“I suppose when her parents get here, we should go back to Tenbrook,” I said. “I forgot my camera—can you believe it? Apparently, the only thing a guy is good for is driving the car and taking pictures after the event.”
“Poor boy. I’m sure Patricia would let you suffer a few of her labor pains for her. Have you seen that new Carol Burnett Show?” Beth asked.
“I don’t get to watch much TV. There just isn’t time. What is it?”
“Well, your little clown friend here hasn’t missed an episode since it started last September. It’s just hilarious. Has some of the best routines. But one time she said, ‘Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.’ I mean, think about it. That tight little hole you love to slide your cock into is the same passage a baby comes out of. A whole baby!”
“Oh, geez!” I moaned.
“Yeah. So, when you see her, have some sympathy, okay?”
“Of course I will,” I said. “I wish… Shit!”
“You were going to say that you wish Tony were here. Believe me: there’s nothing Patricia wishes more for right now.”
Before Patricia was moved to the maternity ward, I was among the visitors given five minutes. Her parents and Tony’s parents were there and Elise and Ellie would be staying the night with her. They were good moms. There were some raised eyebrows, though when Ellie entered the room. She was a lot darker skinned than anyone else in the hospital, it seemed. She was determined to stay by her daughter-in-law’s side, though.
Once I’d given Patricia a hug and told her I’d be back in the morning, Anna and Elizabeth and I headed back to Tenbrook.
“I can’t believe you forgot your camera!” Anna laughed. “It’s the first time in two years I’ve known you not to have it in reach.”
“Well, now you know, I guess, that there are things that are more important.”
“Like our proms, Anna. I know he didn’t carry a camera to mine and I’m sure he didn’t carry one to yours,” Elizabeth said.
“No. When he looked at me that weekend, there was never anything between his eyes and my flesh,” Anna giggled. “At all.”
“Do you think we need to go home tonight?” I asked. “We could just go park by the river and… you know.”
“I wouldn’t mind a little you know,” Elizabeth laughed. “But I know I’m not prepared for a night out. Are you, Anna?”
“No. But I’ll bet you and I could get prepared in the time it takes Nate to go grab his camera and get prepared.”
“Sounds good to me!” Beth said.
It definitely sounded good to me.
Things were a little awkward when we finally got camped at the river. The girls had slept together several times. But that was what they did. They slept. Unlike going out with Ronda and Christine, who were all over each other as much as they were over me, Beth and Anna didn’t have a romantic or sexual interest in each other. So, making love was a little more like taking turns. We weren’t a triple or three couples. We were two distinct couples without a third connecting leg in our triangle.
“I never thought it would be this embarrassing to make love to my boyfriend while his other girlfriend was lying beside us,” Anna giggled. “I mean, you can hear him sloshing in my wet vagina.”
“Try not to let it bother you. I’ll try to ignore you if you’ll try to ignore when he’s got his cock in my pussy sloshing around,” Beth answered. “I’ll tell you, though, listening to the two of you is like having a porno tape running next to me and I can’t help but diddle myself. It’s really sexy.”
“That away to ignore us,” I sighed.
“Don’t slow down!” Anna called. “I’m almost there!”
I picked up the rhythm again and no matter who was in the car watching, I had my cock in Anna’s pussy and there was no stopping the come gushing out of me. Apparently, there was no stopping her, either. She came like gangbusters on me.
Next to us, I heard Beth muffle a moan and thought she came, too.
When Anna and I came down and I pulled out of her, I moved over to love on Beth. She pushed me down in the middle. I was afraid she was upset.
“Cuddle your lover, honey,” she whispered. “No girl likes to be loved and left for another. Let’s just cuddle and go to sleep and we can catch up in the morning.”
“You’re okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. When it comes down to it, that was really beautiful. I just want to kind of bask in the glow of your lovemaking for a while. Believe me, I want you, too.”
“You’re so sweet, Elizabeth. I think you’re becoming my best friend,” Anna said.
“Nothing could make me happier,” she answered.
Beth and I did catch up early in the morning, and we had enough time to just lie in the afterglow and cuddle for a while before we broke camp and went into Huntertown again. We stopped for breakfast at the Hunter’s Café and then went on to the hospital. It was still only around seven-thirty. We inquired at the front desk and were told Patricia was still in labor but that progress was good. We should just have a seat and one of the mothers would come to talk to us.
About fifteen minutes later, Elise Berg came out and spotted us right away.
“I don’t know what to do. She hasn’t stopped calling for you since we woke up this morning,” Elise said to me. “I hate to ask you to go into a birthing room. It’s not the kind of thing men handle very well. But if you could just come back and tell her you are here, maybe that will settle her down a little.”
“Of course I’ll come to her. Where do I go?” I said.
“Just wait a minute until that person gets in front of the receptionist. We just won’t tell them you’re going in.”
A moment later, the receptionist turned to pull papers out of a copy machine. Elise grabbed my hand and we slipped through the double doors. She grabbed a mask from a dispenser and handed it to me, putting her own back on. We turned a corner, went up a flight of stairs and halfway down the next hall turned into a room. Curtains were pulled around two other beds, but Elise led me to the third and we stepped through the curtain next to Patricia’s bed.
“Nate!” she said immediately. “Nate!” I rushed to her side and Ellie Kowalski stood to give me room as I bent over the bed to hug Patricia.
“I’m here now, precious. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Okay,” Patricia breathed. “Did you hear that, Little Tony? Everything is going to be okay now. You can come out now. Uncle Nate is here and he already loves you.”
I sat beside Patricia’s head and just held her hand. She had another contraction, but she seemed to be breathing through them better now that she’d been when I brought her in.
“They say it won’t be too long, now,” Patricia said. “I guess we’re just waiting for a doctor to get here. The nurse hasn’t been very nice, but she said I could start pushing anytime I wanted to. Then she just left.”
“It’s okay now. Your mom and Ellie have been through this before. They know what to do. If you’re ready, go ahead. I’m right here with you.”
“Okay.”
A minute later, Patricia pulled her knees back and groaned as she pushed through a contraction. It passed and she panted.
“That was good,” Elise said. “That’s just the way to do it, honey.”
“Who’s giving advice here?” a doctor said as he came through the curtain. “Where’s your nurse?”
“She left,” Ellie said flatly. The doctor looked at Ellie’s dark skin and I could see him just dismiss her. He fixed his eyes on me.
“Are you the boy who knocked up this young girl?” he demanded. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Well, this was getting off to a bad start. I gave Patricia’s hand a little squeeze and stood to face the doctor.
“I assume you must be a doctor since you just barge in here and start demanding things,” I said. “But you are obviously uninformed. Mrs. Kowalski’s husband was killed in action in Vietnam before he found out his young wife was pregnant. He was an American hero. In fact, in sacrificing his life, he saved the life of my brother-in-law. You show remarkable disrespect for the young man who served his country to the best of his ability in front of his wife and his mother. Patricia is ready to bring her child into this world. Are you here to help?”
“I should have you thrown out of here,” he growled. For a moment I thought he might try. “Nurse! Bring the prep tray. We’re about to deliver a baby.”
A nurse came into the room pushing a cart with a variety of things on it. A second cart was pushed through that had a plastic crib kind of thing with a scale and blankets. She looked askance at Ellie, but started handing the doctor what he wanted as he read out measurements and told Patricia to push when the next wave struck her. That contraction passed and the doctor was encouraging, apparently moving past his belligerence, and becoming a doctor again.
“That was good, Mrs. Kowalski. The baby is crowning and it will only be a little bit before you have him in your arms.” He looked up at me just as I took a picture of the scene from Patricia’s head. “If you decide to pass out, try to land over that way,” he said pointing away from the bed.
“Take all the pictures you can, Nate. Little Tony will want them for the scrapbook,” Patricia said, then went into the next contraction and pushed, crushing my fingers in her grip.
“This will make a great addition to the series,” I said. “We got that last set just before you went into labor and when I take the next set your tummy will be all flat again and Little Tony will be in your arms.”
“I don’t think the blimp deflates that fast,” she laughed and then went into another contraction.
“You almost have the head out,” the doctor said. “That’s what opens the way for the rest of the baby. As soon as the head is completely through, the rest will follow. Now, ready? Here we go again. Push.”
The nurse was standing around looking busy, preparing the receiving blanket, and holding her stethoscope to Patricia’s tummy. Ellie went around to the other side of the bed with Elise so she wouldn’t be pushed around. I held fast to Patricia’s hand and raised the 35 with my other hand to snap another picture.
“We have a head in hand,” the doctor said. “Now just keep pushing, you’re doing fine. Here we go. A fine little girl,” he said as he held her up by her heels and the nurse suctioned mucous out of her nose. He gave her a little pat on the butt and she started to cry. He laid her on Patricia’s tummy and the nurse handed him a clamp and scissors. Patricia let go of my hand to touch her baby’s head.
“Antonia El Kowalski,” she whispered. “Tony! Our baby is here!” she called out loud. “She’s here.”
The doctor finished cutting and bandaging the cord and the nurse swept in to move the baby over to the receiving tray. She was very efficient as another nurse assisted her in getting the weight and length. She called out the stats.
“Six pounds, two ounces. Eighteen and a half inches in length. Head, thirteen inches. Hair, black. Eyes, blue. Heart rate, 105. Temperature, 97.2°.” The nurses quickly swaddled Little Toni and handed her to Patricia with a little bottle.
“Make sure she gets some nourishment in her,” the other nurse said. “We need to keep her blood sugar up to help her warm up. She doesn’t have you to keep her body temperature regulated now.”
I got a couple of nice pictures of Patricia and Antonia as the new mother held her new daughter.
“Okay. We need you to push out the remains of the afterbirth now so the nurses can clean things up. Then you can just lie here and rest with your new baby for half an hour before we move you to a room and take the baby for a bath,” the doctor said. Patricia followed the instructions.
“Once you are in your room, you can have visitors when you feel like it. We’ll bring the baby to you every couple of hours to feed her,” the nurse said.
“You said Antonia L. Kowalski?” the doctor asked as he filled out the birth certificate. “What does the L stand for?”
“No. Not the initial L,” Patricia said. “E-L as in both her grandmothers’ names. Eleanor and Elise. El.”
“Oh. Interesting. Congratulations, Mrs. Kowalski.” The doctor glanced at me and then said to her, “I’m sorry for your loss.” Then he turned and left.
When they took the baby to clean her up, I went back to the lobby to find Anna and Elizabeth. Ellie came out with me and Elise went with her daughter to her room. Patricia was pretty sleepy and wasn’t going to be worth much for a while. When we got out to the lobby, we found my mother there as well.
We all talked for a while and I got a cup of coffee. I didn’t realize I’d been in there three hours. It all seemed to blur past. At least I thought I’d gotten some good photos. Mom and Ellie stepped aside for a few minutes and I thought Ellie was crying while Mom comforted her.
Elise came out after a while and said she could take two to the room. Elizabeth pointed to Anna and Mom and they joined Elise.
About noon, Chris and Ronda showed up. Anna had called them after the baby’s birth was announced. I’d been back in to sit with Patricia for a few minutes, but she was sleeping.
“We’ll rotate in and out for a while,” Chris said. “You guys have all had a tough day. I know the dads will be coming after work.”
We said goodbye and went back to Tenbrook.
They didn’t waste any time. Patricia and Antonia were home the next afternoon. Home being at Elise and Tor’s house. She had already agreed, however, to spend part of her time at the Kowalskis’, as she had been doing since school got out. Jim and Ellie were as excited to have her and the baby with them as Tor and Elise were.
I went over a couple of times a day to check on Patricia and she said she’d be in church with me on Sunday.
“I should probably get Little Toni started on her perfect attendance pin,” she laughed. “And Reverend Mother Superior has agreed to baptize Toni Sunday morning. You’ll be with me, won’t you, Nate?”
“Of course I will,” I said. “I’m almost always there.”
“But this is special,” she said. “You’re her godfather. And… I hope you don’t mind… I’ve asked Anna to be her godmother.”
“That’s sweet! I think Anna will really get into being a fairy godmother.”
“I’m serious, Nate. Little Toni isn’t going to have anyone but me. She’ll need her godmother and her godfather. You’ll take it seriously, won’t you?” she asked.
“Patricia, I might make jokes, but there is nothing in this world more precious than this little baby. The first time you let me hold her, I was hopelessly and eternally in love. There will be some tough times with me living in Chicago, but I’ll stay as involved as I can be,” I said.
“I know you aren’t her father, Nate. And I know you and I don’t love each other the way Tony and I loved. But we love each other. And I don’t want to marry you. But if you can find it in your heart, Little Toni will need a daddy. Someone to look up to and to love in place of her father. Someone who will tell her what a good man her father was. I know I’m asking more than I have any right to, but will you try?”
“Somehow, I will make it work,” I said. “After all, I have a studio here in Tenbrook and you’ll need to handle schedules and help in the studio when I’m in town. That’s a big responsibility for a new mom. But if you get tired, you can always stretch out on the bed up there. I’ll get a bassinet to put next to it and you’ll be able to put Toni down for a nap when she’s tired. I’ll get one of those little apartment refrigerators for up there, too. I should really be keeping film refrigerated if I’m not ready to use it here. I’ve been taking a lot of film home and Mom is pretty tired of having my film in the refrigerator. Since I’ll have the refrigerator here anyway, there’s no reason you shouldn’t keep baby milk and juice in it. And snacks. You know?”
“I love you, Nate. Thank you for being with me.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
