Chapter 1: Like a Superhero's Cape

Chapter 1

Like a Superhero’s Cape

I had just put the first annual Pap smear appointment scheduled after lunch into exam room two when a shrill urgent beep chimed out noisily through Dr. Curtis’ pager. She took it out of her pocket and looked at it. She grimaced at the beeper and went over to the phone at her hallway workstation.

“This is Dr. Curtis…”

While she was on the phone, I stepped back into the lab to check the pregnancy test that was percolating on the counter. It was negative. Crystal, the young college student waiting to get her Pap smear in the exam room would probably fall off the table from relief. She had confided earlier that she had caught her boyfriend cheating on her in his fraternity house and she wanted a complete STD work up and pregnancy test along with her yearly Pap. At least she doesn’t have a baby to worry about in all this mess, I thought, shaking my head. I hadn’t heard Dr. Curtis ring the doorbell signaling for me to join her as her chaperone for the rest of the patient’s exam, so I went ahead and dipped Crystal’s urine sample to check for traces of blood and protein.

As I approached the workstation to document the results in her chart, the doctor was already on her way out of the exam room with samples in her hand.

“What’s your hurry, sister?” I joked.

She gave a half smile, visibly distracted.

“Sorry. It would have taken too much time to wait on you to come in. I gotta get out of here like right now,” she said. She wrote furiously while she talked.

“Dr. Shaw is going to finish up the rest of my annuals for the afternoon, but I need you to call my other patients and reschedule them. Tell the two follow-ups that they can come first thing in the morning, or they can come about three forty-five. I should be out of surgery by then.”

“No problem, boss,” I said. “Are we having a baby, today? I don’t remember anyone being due this week.”

She sighed deeply.

“There’s not anyone. Sonia is in distress, again.”

“Oh, no,” I moaned.

Sonia was kind of the sweetheart of our practice. She had been through so much trying to have a baby. She had already gone through two miscarriages and had a stillborn. For some reason, as each pregnancy progressed, she would develop pre-eclampsia, a condition in pregnant women that causes their blood pressure to climb dangerously high, putting both mother and child at risk.

But through it all, she managed to still be in great spirits. She was always cheerful and positive. We loved it when she came into the office because she always brought sunshine, no matter how rough a day we happened to have. She would bring cookies and other goodies for us all the time. She was like a part of our extended family.

I had never met her husband. Apparently, he worked out of town during the week, so she would always come in for her appointments by herself. But I assumed that they were close because she talked about him all the time, and she showed no evidence of being unhappy with their arrangement. She told us that he was making preparations to start his own business that he planned to have up and running by the time the baby came, so he could spend more time at home. I had never met him, but she affectionately called him ‘Bay,’ short for ‘Baby’ so much that even the girls in the office referred to him in conversation like that, too.

She was so close, this time. She was almost at the end of her twenty-eighth week. I said a quick, silent prayer that she would be able to hold on long enough to bring this baby safely into the world.

“Okay, I’ll take care of everything for you. Tell her that we’re thinking about her.”

“I will. I’ll call you all later to give you an update.”

She rushed out of the office, her lab coat blowing behind her like a superhero’s cape. As I watched Dr. Curtis leave, I hoped that her superpowers would be enough to save Sonia’s baby.

Does Sonia have a successful delivery? Pre-order your eBook here to find out.