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Lucky Little

“Nurse! Nurse!” I gathered myself as best I could staggering down the hall.

It was just about 22 hours ago I was getting up to go to work just like any other day. I put in a long day at work and then head over to Phil’s for rehearsal about 9:30 pm. I get the call that Sonya is being rushed to the hospital about 11:30pm, Vincent is born at 1:25 am, Sonya’s liver stops growing and even starts to reduce in size and we get our own little room about 3:30am. Just like the doctor said, everything would be fine after the baby was born. What do Sonya and I know? We knew for a short time that she was feeling better. We knew that Vincent was born crying and with one eye open. Sonya was exhausted. I was spent. Both of us were just done, mind, body and spirit. Sonya had a nice fresh bed and I had a decent size reclining chair with a pillow and a blanket. I gave her a last kiss on the head and we both fell asleep. It was a deep sleep, but it was soon interrupted. It must have only been about 40 minutes. “Bobby. Bobby”, Sonya whimpered. Barely above a whisper. I could tell right away, it was back. “Ohhh, Bobby. Call the nurse. Ohhh. Oh God. Bobby!” “Oh God no, this can’t be happening” I’m telling myself. The nurse runs down the hall beating me into the room. Sonya is curled up in a ball moaning in pain. Another nurse shuffles past me as I stand in the doorway at a loss for what to do. I’m helpless here. The nurses hurry along the sides of the bed preparing it to go mobile. About that time, the doctor that delivered Vincent shows up giving me some relief. She was awesome. Within a few minutes I was giving Sonya a kiss goodbye as they wheeled her off. As they headed to a different part of the hospital they were joined by a couple of other doctors. These were the first male doctors I had seen since we had been at the hospital. Much older, Dr. Red Duke looking doctors. I could tell it was serious. They told me they would come get with me as soon as they could, that I should go to the waiting area. I head back out to the chapel. I won’t go inside to pray but I’ll pray outside it. I didn’t know much scripture but I knew, ‘I waited patiently for the Lord, he turned to me and heard my cry.’ You could say I reminded God of that scripture a few times that morning. The cafeteria had opened and I was looked like a wreck. I had an ICU sticker on that got me in to see Vincent. Poor little dude. His forearms and calves were about the size of my fingers, and they had needles stuck in them and these tiny wrap around cuffs that monitored his heart and breathing. That had him hooked up to so many needles, wires and machines you could barely see him. They sent me away after a few minutes as well. Then I had my sticker to get in to Sonya in ICU on another floor. I had a plate full of food but couldn’t eat. The lady at the cashier saw my two stickers and what must have looked like a pretty worn out man and just waved me past, no charge. I sat there and just ran it over in my head, “we’re all going home, we’re all going home, we’re all going home.” My chant was interrupted by one of the male doctors that I had seen earlier in the hall as they wheeled Sonya’s bed away. He said that Sonya’s liver was expanding again at a considerable rate. They asked me to come upstairs that they would need to go over some paperwork with me that I would need to sign. I could tell by their body language that they were talking about the ‘your loved one may die or need to be on life support’ paperwork. I don’t have to be an expert on those types of forms. I don’t need them at all. That’s what I was thinking then anyway. Nobody is gonna die or need life support. I knew I couldn’t tell the doctors that. “I’ll sign whatever I need to sign” I told them as we stepped in the elevator. I could see they were relieved. They had got that part out of the way. That’s all I wanted to do was bring their guard down a little. I knew what really needed to be done. “Just let me go see her first. I want to be alone with her.” I requested. We stopped at the last set of sinks to wash our hands before entering the ICU where I knew Sonya was needing me by her side. The doctor pointed out the curtain that Sonya was behind. There she was, my princess. She was out cold. I kissed her forehead and ran the tip of my nose across her eyebrow. I could really feel the specific coarseness of her eyebrow hair that way. It was another unique part about her that I wanted to know to the fullest. Short, straight, soft eyebrow hairs. She always liked it when I did that too.