Merritt, BC
Sarah scowled at ten year old Leah. She'd caught her taking a Cuban from the humidor to whiff it. Leah found the smell of cigar smoke that lingered in the room pleasant to her and savored the aroma of rich tobacco leaves wrapped tightly in a ten-inch stick as thick as the Doc’s cane.
Sarah was the
eldest and, at twelve years of age, had the air of authority that was
undeniably one that helped Colleen hold the family together. One disapproving
nod from Sarah automatically had the cigar back into the humidor from Leah’s
hand without a word of protest.
Sarah’s full attention was on her mother after putting a sheet over her body for modesty’s sake. Colleen didn’t care a whit for modesty then and neither did Jill, who nervously tried for eye contact from the Doc. The poor girl had no idea what to do next. Sarah nodded towards the sheets over Colleen's feet and, with a knowing smile, ordered, "Take your end, Jill, and fold it to her hips."
Relieved. Jill followed Sarah's lead throughout the rest of the ordeal.
Colleen could care for only one thing and wasn’t
showing anything but a determined grimace with each wave of contractions that
had taken control of her body. She had done this five times before but it was
always new to her. The first time she’d done this with Sarah’s birth, Colleen was fifteen... a month before her sixteenth birthday in
the year 1894. That was the first. Two years later
she gave birth to a son, Clyde. Four years after that she had Dwayne; ten years
later, an accident, Leah; and five years later another accident, Calvin. That
was eleven years before this one and Colleen had accepted the fact that, as
long as she was with Archie, her belly would be filling up with one accident
after another until she died of toxic shock in labor like she almost did twice before.
Sarah took over mopping Colleen’s brow while
Doc moved down to the other end of the table. She told Leah, “This one going to
be a girl.”
“Rrrrgh....guhhh!” Colleen pushed.
“How do you know that?” Leah asked.
“Because Mom said so. She promised.” Sarah
protested.
“It don’t happen that way.” Leah was quick to
point out, “God puts a thing on ‘em no matter what is promised.”
“No he doesn’t!”
“God like’s boys better than girls. I saw a
picture of him in one of Dad’s books up there.”
“Rrrrgggghhhhh.... uhhhhhh!”
“Push,” the Doc comforted, adding, “The head is
breaching... you’re almost there.”
“RRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!”
Sarah counted on her fingers, asserting with
authority, “It’s mathematic.”
“What do you mean, mathematic?” Leah
challenged.
One, two... two girls and three boys. Gotta
even it out. God likes odd numbers. Threes sevens, twenty-one... Three girls
and three boys, huh Mom.”
“RRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHUH!!!!”
“Waaaah.... waaaah..... whaaaaa!”
Leah looked intensely at the babe’s crotch when Doc held the crying baby up and laid it on Colleen’s heaving chest. The sound
of crying muffled as its tiny lips wrapped themselves around the nipple in the
midst of the soft cushion of her breast.
Disappointment
washed over Sarah’s face because she was where she could see the babe’s little
package from behind.
“Is it Max or Maxine, Sarah?” Leah was eager to
know. “I can’t see... I think I saw... Can you see from there? Did God put one
on it?”
Sarah said nothing to Leah but, with a stern
face she stomped a foot, “But Mom. You promised!”
“Yes! Yes! It’s Max, ain’t it!” Leah shouted
gleefully, “I told you so.”
Archie burst into the door when he heard the
babe’s cry. He stopped in his tracks and glared at the Doc, “What were you
thinking, you fucking quack!”
Doc looked up from washing his hands not
knowing what got Archie;s goat, “Look, I got no control over it... a
buck or doe.”
“No, you idiot. It’s the felt! You ruined the
felt! I just had it put on,” without thinking of what he was doing, Archie put
a hand in the amniotic mess that had spread over his cherished fresh green felt
at his end of the table. He pulled his hand back like he’d put it on a hot
grill. “Throw me a god-damned towel!”
Colleen’s eyes were shut and she had shut off
her hearing too. A mother can do that after two or three kids.
“Get her the fuck off that table!” Archie
turned to leave and, on the way out to the big room shouted, “Now! Bring her up
to her bed!”
Jill shrank back in terror at Archie's demands.
"Leah, take Max. C'mon Mom." Sarah motioned for Jill's help, "It's okay, Jill. The hard part's over."
Jill shrank back in terror at Archie's demands.
"Leah, take Max. C'mon Mom." Sarah motioned for Jill's help, "It's okay, Jill. The hard part's over."
The hotel was a three story one. The first
floor was the lobby that opened to a larger room with a roulette wheel a half
dozen blackjack and poker tables. The second floor had several rooms for
patrons of the hotel and for Jill and the other upstairs girls. The girls came with the deed to the hotel that Archie had won at the poker table and he saw no reason to let these most profitable assets go in spite of Colleen's objections.
Leah protested, "He's too heavy for me. You take him Jill."
Jill was happy to be trusted to carry the baby and to have something to do. Holding Max she felt his weight, "He must weigh ten pounds!" Then she cooed, "Yes, you are a big boy, big Max."
The name stuck, Big Max would live up to this moniker magnificently.
Leah protested, "He's too heavy for me. You take him Jill."
Jill was happy to be trusted to carry the baby and to have something to do. Holding Max she felt his weight, "He must weigh ten pounds!" Then she cooed, "Yes, you are a big boy, big Max."
The name stuck, Big Max would live up to this moniker magnificently.
Archie and Colleen’s
suite took up the entire third floor. It had a sitting room, a master bedroom
and three other small bedrooms for the children. Leah and Sarah had one bed. Dwayne
and Calvin in another and Clyde had a room to himself. Now, with Max on the
scene Clyde was going to have to make room for one of his other brothers.
