Welcome to Hell: Rediscovering First Love

At the corner where Adin had turned I held onto the stop sign for dear life and breathed deeply struggling against the intense pain and the urge to push the baby out. The pain almost taking me to my knees. I struggled against it. I wouldn’t allow it to get the best of me. Hold on, baby boy. You cannot come out to play just yet. Mommy isn’t ready. I’m all alone.

The pain ended and I took another small step. The car, Adin’s SUV screeched to a halt beside me and I was grateful to see Brad and Kerry hop out of the car as the tires barely stopped rolling. Adin was behind the wheel and Keegan was getting out of the front seat.

“Are you insane?” Kerry yelled at me wearing nothing but jeans, no shoes, no shirt.

“I wanted the labor to speed up,” I said in my defense trying not to cry.

“Well you did that,” he said helping me to the car, his strong arm wrapped around my waist guiding me. Hell who was I kidding? He was holding me up.

I climbed into the back seat. Sitting position. Oh hell no. “I can’t sit,” I screamed at him. Sitting caused unbearable pressure and pain and increased the urgency I was feeling to push the baby out. I tried to get back out of the car.

“You have to stay in the car,” he said attempting to keep me there, grabbing me around the waist preventing me from leaving the confines of Adin’s SUV.

“It hurts too much,” I screamed at him slapping at his hands to release me. “I have too much fucking pressure.”

Keegan climbed in beside me. Kerry forced me to lie down, with my head in Keegan’s lap and my feet he lifted into his lap as he climbed in beside me just in case the baby came. Kerry could catch. No need to traumatize Keegan any further. She looked terrified, I noticed. But would Kerry survive? I would have laughed if the situation weren’t so serious.

Panting like a dog I wanted to scream out with each contraction but didn’t want to scare Keegan.

“Are you all right Mom?” She asked uncertainly. She was stroking my hair.

“God no,” I yelled. Then, I saw her face. She was about to cry. “Kat, I’m sorry. Pain,” I said as way of explanation.

Brad riding shotgun this time was just closing his door as Adin punched the accelerator and took off like a bat out of hell with a lurch forward causing me to grab the front seat to keep from rolling off. Kerry grabbed at me also to keep me from falling. Adin did an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street and drove through someone’s yard before hitting the road again.

“Goddamn wife let me get my feet in the door and close it first.” Brad was also dressed in jeans, no shirt and no shoes. Then men had moved quickly when roused by my sister.

“You said to go,” she said tersely slowing so he could grab the door to close it without falling out of the moving vehicle.

“I said no such thing.”

“Sorry,” she replied.

Everyone was tense.

“Go home,” I told Adin in a strangled voice trying to fight through the intense pain.

“Go to the hospital,” Kerry corrected me.

Giving him a death stare, biting my lower lip I snapped, “I won’t make it. You need to trust me on this. Go home. Maybe Lucy can deliver the baby. Remember? Registered nurse taking care of my mother. Unless you fucking want to deliver your own child on the way to a hospital I suggest you take me home.”

My husband’s amber eyes were wild and afraid. “Where?” He asked incredulously. “In the back seat of Adin’s car?”

I screamed with the next contraction unable to control myself. “If necessary,” I said trying to pant through the pain, learned from Lamaze class with Keegan. I’m sorry but the short, quick breaths weren’t helping. No. Not. One. Bit.

It felt as if my insides were falling out and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I knew this baby was close to coming out. I could feel it.

“You need to look and see where the baby is?” I screamed at Kerry grasping his bicep in a vice like grip as another contraction tore through my body. “Adin, stop the car.”

She slammed on the brakes. I nearly rolled off the seat again.

“Don’t stop the car,” Kerry yelled at her pulling me safely back onto the seat.

Adin whirled in her seat and glared at us. “Could someone make up their mind?” She snapped.

“Really?” His mouth was gaping open and he was glaring at me. You would have thought I asked him to change my tampon.

I leaned forward as far as I could over my large belly and poked him in the chest. “Look between my legs.” I was now pointing between my legs. “I feel the baby Kerry.”