y?”
She shakes her head and points toward her mom. “I want to be with Mommy.”
“I know baby girl, but Daddy is going to drive really fast to get Mommy to the hospital.”
“What about me, Daddy?”
Cue the waterworks. My eyes blur with tears and I struggle with telling my sweet daughter no. My experience is lacking right now and as much as I want to tell her she can come with us, I’m afraid I’ll forget about her in the melee. Taking her hand in mine, I lean forward and kiss the tip of her nose. “Can you do me a favor?”
She nods, but it isn’t without a whimper.
“Mommy and I need you to be the big sister right now and go with Miss Nola and Quinn. They’re going to follow behind us so you’ll be at the hospital when your baby brother arrives. I promise you that you’ll be the first one to see him after Mommy and I do, okay?”
Evelyn nods again, and before I can say anything, she’s scooped up into the air by Quinn. He whispers something in her ear, and whatever he says puts a smile on her face. “Go.” He motions toward the car where my wife’s waiting.
As luck would have it, there’s traffic. It’s typical for any part of California but just this once, I wish there wasn’t. I honk and flash my lights, but no one cares. We’re all headed somewhere, with our own agendas.
Whiskey screams out and, once again, her feet are pressed against the glove box. This time though, I know it’s not because her back hurts. “Don’t push,” I tell her.
“I have to, he’s right there.”
“Whisk—” my voice is cut off by another scream. I’m trying to hold her hand and navigate through traffic at the same time, but it’s hard. “Please, Whiskey.”
“Ajay, he’s coming. I can feel him.”
“Fuck.” I’m left with no choice but to maneuver through the maze of cars in front of me until I’m on the shoulder of the freeway. I gun it, pushing the pedal as far as I can with my flashers on, hoping that people see me and praying that a police officer doesn’t. I ask Siri to find me the nearest hospital because we’re not making it back to Los Angeles where her doctor is. My navigation pops up, showing me I’m within a few miles of a hospital.
“That’s not the plan,” Whiskey says, in between her breathing.
“None of this was the plan, but we’ll have to make do for right now.” I ask Siri to my call my in-laws and as soon as Patricia picks up the phone, Whiskey screams out.
“Oh my God, Jamie. Where’s Ajay?”
“I’m here, driving her to the hospital. It looks like he’s coming a few weeks early.”
“We’re on our way.” I give my mother-in-law the name of the hospital that we’re going to just as I turn off and ask her to call Dhara and let her know. They were supposed to fly out next week in preparation.
I race toward the hospital and pull into the emergency room bay, parking off to the side. I’m likely to get towed, but right now I don’t care. My son is on his way into the world and I’m not going to miss it. As soon as the security guard comes out, probably to tell me that I can’t park here, I yell that I need a wheelchair and that wife is in labor and starting to push.
Once I have the door open, I lock gazes with Whiskey. She smiles and for some reason this puts me at ease. “I love you,” I tell her before, once again, pulling her into my arms. Just as I turn to head toward the door, the man is back with a chair.
“You can’t park there, sir.”
“Tow it or move it yourself.” I toss him the keys and push the chair containing my precious cargo into the hospital. “My wife’s in active labor,” I scream as loud as possible. People stop, and stare. When Whiskey screams out in pain, the staff starts moving. I’m told to follow a nurse who is barking orders. Two orderlies meet up with us, one is taking our information, while the other is making sure no one gets in our way.
We stop in the middle of the hallway and my wife is transferred to a bed. Now, the nurse is leading the way and the orderly is pushing her, giving me the chance to hold her hand. “I’m the best driver in the world,” I say to her. “Maybe I should give up being a drummer and go into Indy car racing or something.”
“Then you’d smell like gasoline all the time and you’d be covered from head to toe in those ugly uniforms so no. I love my drummer too much to let you switch careers.”
I’m tempted to crawl onto the bed with her, just so I can hold her. She’s squeezing my hand, as if it’s her lifeline. It hurts like hell, but I’m doing my damnedest to keep the grimace off my face.
We rush through another set of doors and we’re finally in the maternity ward. It’s quiet, or at least it was until Whiskey came barreling in. Another nurse greets us, leading us to her room. The orderly moves the bed with such ease, I feel like I should give him a tip or something.
“Hello, Jameson. I’m Rose.”
I have to bite back a laugh as I look around the room. There’s rose wallpaper in the room and the hospital we’re at is Rosewood Medical.
“Jamie,” she groans out. Rose puts Whiskey’s feet into the stirrups while others work around my wife. She’s set up on a monitor and our son’s heartbeat fills the room. It’s the coolest sound I’ve ever heard, aside from Evelyn calling me Daddy and Whiskey telling me she loves me.