Swimmer in the Secret Sea Read Free Page B

pushing for nearly three hours,' he said.
    'That's too long, isn't it?' she asked.
    'It's because the baby's weight is up instead of down.'
    And suddenly they were out again, in the tempest. Laski held her up, pouring himself through his fingertips into her, as she lifted her legs and pushed.
    The nurse entered with a tall young man in white uniform. He stood at the foot of the bed with the intern as Laski and Diane held on, out upon the sea, love-blown sailors lost in fathomless depths of time and destiny, coming now slowly back to a room of strangers who seemed eternal too, in a never-ending play. 'If you'll just step outside a minute,' said Doctor Barker.
    Laski went into the hallway and gathered himself together in a single prayer without words, offered to the ocean.
    The door swung open. The young doctor stepped out and said, 'Things are developing now. We'll be taking her down to the delivery room.'
    Laski went back to Diane. She was bent up, contracting alone, and he went to her.
    'You're baby's on the way now,' said the nurse, smiling cheerfully at Laski.
    He suddenly remembered the baby, the little swimmer in the secret sea. He's struggling too, struggling to be with us, struggling just like we are.
    Laski's heart became an ocean of love, as nine months of memories flooded him, and the baby was real again, real as in the night when Laski felt tiny feet kicking inside Diane. Our baby, our little friend, is being born!
    And this, thought Laski, is why we labor, so that love might come into the world.
    The contraction passed, and he and Diane were washed back, limp like sea-plants when the waves abandon them on the shore. 'It looks very good,' said the intern.
    The nurse came in, wheeling a stretcher. 'All set?'
    'Yes,' said Diane. They slid her from the bed onto the stretcher and they all walked beside it down the hallway toward the delivery room. Doctor Barker was being put into a white gown. Laski leaned over and kissed Diane.
    'Aren't you coming in?' she asked, her voice filled with longing.
    The nurse continued wheeling her into the delivery room and Laski stood in the hall outside. His will, his speech, his guts were gone. Barker stepped over to him. 'The nurse will give you a cap and gown and you can watch from behind the table.'
    Laski's strength came back in a whirlwind as a great smile crossed his face. We're going all the way together! He stood, watching the doctor and the intern wash their hands in a nearby sink, washing them again and again, in slow methodical manner. The nurse came to him and held up a gown. He slipped his arms into it and she tied it in back. She gave him a white cap which he fastened over his ears. Then he and the intern went into the delivery room, where Diane lay on the central table, her legs in stirrups, her wrists strapped down.
    'You can sit here,' said the nurse, setting a stool behind the table. Another nurse fixed the mirror that was above the table, so that Laski could see the area of birth.
    'A clear picture?'
    'Perfect.'
    One of the nurses then brought a little sponge soaked with surgical soap, and wiped Diane's vaginal area.
    'Oh, that feels good.'
    'Has she had any anesthetic?' asked the other nurse.
    'No.'
    'Well, now, isn't she wonderful?'
    Doctor Barker came and sat on a stool at the other end of the table. 'I'm going to drain your bladder.'
    He inserted a tube into her urethra and a moment later her urine ran out of it, into a bucket at Barker's feet.
    'I have a contraction,' said Diane.
    'Go ahead and push.'
    Laski could not reach her, and she lifted herself, working alone. When the contraction subsided, Barker said, 'I'm going to make a small cut. First, I'll give you something to numb it.' He inserted a needle at the edge of her vagina, making three injections. Then he pinched her skin with a tweezers. 'Do you feel that?'
    'No.'
    He made an incision, cutting sideways toward her thigh. 'Check the heartbeat.'
    The nurse laid her stethoscope on Diane's lower belly and