Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch) (18 page)

The next morning, Naomi and Joey took Ki
t on a mini tour of campus.  They stopped at the bookstore and Naomi bought a current student catalog.  Kit wondered what she wanted it for and she was floored when Naomi gave it to her on the way home saying, “Just look through it.  You never know, you might end up there sometime.  They have one of the best art schools in the country.” 

             
Naomi and Rossen were always talking about when she went to college.  Kit thought they were nuts.  New mothers didn’t go to college.

              Kit really had reached one hundred and eighty pounds over the last weeks and even though her doctor said she was perfect, she still felt as big as a house. 

             
Playing her guitar had become awkward and she could only work at Rossen’s computer for a half hour or so at a time, before she had to get up and move around.  Sleeping through the night had become a fairytale and she could only eat a few bites without the fear of heart burn.  She’d pretty much decided this pregnancy stuff could get old fast and she wondered how in the world she was going to make it through four more weeks.

             
Her prenatal appointments were scheduled just a week apart now and they did another ultrasound.  Rossen didn’t go in this time and she was relieved.  She wasn’t sure she wanted him to see her huge tummy.  She got another great photo, though.  This time they could even see the baby’s hair.  On the way home she and Naomi stopped at Shopko and bought things like diapers and a car seat and some tiny clothes and blankets. 

             
The first week in May, Rob asked Rossen to take a bull to Alpine to a rancher friend of his there.  Joey was good friends with his daughter and wanted to ride along, so Naomi suggested Kit go with, saying, “The scenery is marvelous if you think you can stand to sit for sixty miles.  You can take the suburban.  It rides smoother.”

             
Anything was better than sitting just hanging out waiting, so she went, and Naomi was right.  It was a breathtaking drive.  They left at six in the morning and drove up through Star Valley and after dropping the bull and visiting, they headed back down on the Salt River road on the east side of the drainage.  It was about the same distance, but a whole new country for her to see. 

             
About halfway back, Kit decided this trip had been a mistake.  Everything she owned began to have charley horses and her back began to cramp miserably.  On top of that, they were stopped by a flagman who reported a wildfire up ahead that was uncontained and threatening the highway.  He let them pass with a warning that the road could be closed at any time and they may have to turn and backtrack to Alpine and come down the other way.  Kit groaned inwardly.  She didn’t say anything, but she felt awful.

             
She kicked off her shoes and began trying to stretch and relax as best she could.  When they safely passed the place where the fire came closest to the road, she breathed a sigh of relief.  The smoke was blowing straight toward the highway and she knew it would only be a matter of minutes before this route would indeed be blocked.  As it was, the visibility was terrible and she was grateful Rossen was the one driving the Suburban and trailer.

             
Several miles past the smoke, the road narrowed and began to wind with a large river on one side and a steep ridge of mountains on the other.  At this point Kit started to get carsick on top of her other miseries.

             
Traffic slowed behind several big rigs in a row and Kit began to pray, realizing that if she had to be sick, there was nowhere to pull off out of the way.

             
She was watching the line of trucks ahead when everything seemed to go into slow motion.  The double tanker three vehicles ahead of them lost control on a turn and began to fishtail back and forth, then skidded as its rear tanker slid toward the river.  The trucker finally got stopped, but not before the back wheels of the rear tanker went over the edge to dangle in space above the bank.  In a chain reaction, the next two trucks careened as everyone tried to stop before they hit the vehicle in front.  Rossen hit his brakes and the suburban skidded hard to the right as he, Kit and Joey were all three thrown forward. 

Neither airbag deployed, so Kit assumed they were all okay
, until she felt a frightening pull, low in her stomach, and an even more frightening warm gush of liquid begin to soak her sundress and run off the leather seat and down her legs.

             
She was horrified and looked up at Rossen with panic in her eyes. 

****

Rossen instantly realized Kit’s water had broken and several different anxious emotions washed over him, as he looked backward and then forward, trying to decide what to do.  The trailer directly in front of them had jackknifed across the road.  The trailer they were pulling had jackknifed too, as well as the big rig directly behind them.  Beyond that he couldn’t see, but both he and Kit knew there was a dangling tanker in front of them and a wildfire closing in behind.  Reality settled in fast.

             
Joey leaned forward from the backseat and asked, “Kit, are you okay?” 

             
Kit’s voice wavered as she answered, “I think so.”

             
Rossen immediately tried to get on his cell phone, only to find they had no service. Tensely, he said, “Joey.  Dig around and see what Dad has in here that’ll mop up water.  I’m going to climb up one of these hills and see if I can get cell service.  I’ll be right back.”  He gave Kit an intense look as he squeezed her hand and jumped out of the truck, to scramble up the steep ridge. 

He had to climb ridiculously high, but he
was finally able to call out and report what had happened.  His voice was slightly unsteady as he reported on Kit.  From his vantage point he could see there were a total of seven vehicles affected.  Two in front, his and four behind, and he realized with a sick heart it would be hours before the road was clear.  The wrecks were clear across both lanes and even a helicopter couldn’t land in this!

             
He ran and slid back down to the road, reminding himself to be calm in front of Kit.  Coming around to her side of the truck, he opened her door.  As he did so, water ran off the floor mat and over the edge of the door opening, to drip down onto the pavement below.  He looked at her and smiled.  “Kit, honey.  Aren’t ya glad you took those classes?”

             
He expected her to go right into labor, but other than saying she didn’t feel very good, nothing that radical happened.  She got out to walk around and stretch and except for her soaking clothes, she looked great.  He remembered first babies should take awhile and tried to comfort them all by saying they’d be home and to the hospital long before the baby arrived. 

             
Joey was perplexed at his anxiousness and said, “So, her water broke.  That’s no reason to panic.  She’s still almost a month early.  Chill out.”

             
Rossen looked at her like she was brain dead.  “Joey, once her water breaks, the baby has to be born.  Today.  Or at the latest in the morning.  There are no other options.”

             
Joey’s eyes grew wide.  “Oh.”  She looked at Kit again with a new urgency.  “All righty then.”

             
An hour after they’d been sitting there, they heard sirens.  It was in front of them and stopped a long way away.  It was another thirty five minutes before a highway patrolman and an EMT walked through the maze of trucks to check on Kit.

             
She’d been intermittently walking and sitting in a lawn chair they’d found in the back of the truck and put in the meager shade.  The EMT knelt beside Kit to ask her some questions and the cop told Rossen that although there were multiple wreckers on the way, it was going to be awhile.  The patrolman continued to walk down the road and Rossen went back to Kit, wondering how long it would be before she went into labor.

             
The EMT had one hand on her belly and the other held up so he could see his watch. Rossen almost started to tell him she wasn’t even in labor yet, then he saw the man’s face.  The mild mannered EMT of two minutes ago had switched into work mode, big time.

             
Rossen went to Kit and really looked at her, and suddenly came to a rude awakening.  She was indeed in full blown labor and was just trying to downplay it.  He took her hand to look into her face.  “You turkey.  I didn’t even realize you were in this much pain.  Why didn’t you say something?”

             
Now he could see the beads of moisture on her forehead and upper lip.  He dug in her purse for a clip and pulled her hair up and twisted it into a rough knot on top of her head and secured it. 

             
The EMT asked, “What have you got in your vehicle?  Any towels or anything?”

             
Joey answered skeptically, “Two car blankets, one of which is scratchy wool, a travel pillow, some insulated coveralls, an emergency kit, several napkins from McDonalds and an old horse halter.  That’s as good as it gets.  Sorry.”

             
The EMT, whose name turned out to be Seth, instructed Joey to lay the rear seats of the suburban down and open all the windows to cool it off.

             
He turned to Rossen.  “Can we unhook the trailer and pull ahead enough to be able to get those back doors free?”

             
Rossen rushed to do as he asked, while Seth went back to Kit.  He got her up to walk again while he talked to someone on his radio.  With the trailer unhooked, Rossen went back to her side and put an arm around her waist to support her as she paced.  Almost immediately he could feel her have a contraction under his hand.  Either it was milder than it felt or she had amazing self control.

             
After a few minutes she went to stand near the back of the suburban and as he stood next to her and brushed her hair back with a gentle hand, she leaned into him hard and put her head against his chest.  He could feel her tense and she groaned almost silently.

             
He sat inside the back of the truck and gathered her onto his lap and began to rub the small of her back firmly with the heel of his hand.  He leaned his head against hers and said, “Talk to me Kit.  This is no time to shut me out and try to go it alone.”  He continued to rub and massage her shoulders.  “Tell me what you need.  What would help?”

             
She pulled back enough to look into his eyes.  “Just hold me, and we’ll get through this.  Rubbing my lower back helps.”  She leaned back toward him and tensed hard as he pushed against the strain in the small of her back.  When she finally relaxed, he felt her release a deep sigh and he tried to relax as well. 

They went on like this, over and over, and he
continued to marvel that she didn’t say a negative word.  She hardly said a word at all.

             
He didn’t think this was supposed to happen quite this fast.  At least their instructor had said it wasn’t.  He looked around them to see that virtually nothing had moved in the last three hours and tried to make himself loosen up.  It was going to be a long day. 

             
Watching her struggle over these hours, he thought back to their conversation over dinner the first night of their class.  He wished there was some way to trade places with her.  He’d do it in a heartbeat. He continued to hold her like she’d asked, talking and encouraging as well as he knew how.  How one young body could handle this much pain for this long he didn’t know. 

By the end of another two hours he respected her strength more than ever.
  Seth was timing her contractions and Rossen could tell by the look on his face that this baby wasn’t going to wait for a nice, cozy hospital.  He prayed the baby would be okay, even though she was coming a few weeks early.

             
Rossen turned to Seth.  “You aren’t by any chance LDS, are you?”

             
Seth smiled.  “I was just thinking a blessing would be a good thing.  I have oil.”  The two of them moved close to her and proceeded to give her blessing as her body tensed into another long contraction.  As they said amen, Rossen gathered her close again and continued to rub as he talked to her. 

             
Talking seemed to help.  He could feel her relax and breathe as he spoke and he began to ask her questions to help her focus away from the pain.  Between the next contractions, as she lay back against him, he turned to his sister, glad she wasn’t one of those emotional, ditsy types and said, “Joey, go see if any of these truckers have a blanket or sheets or towels or anything like that.  We’re going to need something better than a wool blanket for this baby.”              

             
Kit didn’t even look up and he realized she already knew she was going to give birth in a beautiful wooded canyon in the back of his dad’s Suburban.

             
Seth had his case open and was sorting through, pulling a few things out to set them aside. 

             
Her contractions were coming one on top of the other and surprisingly, Rossen could feel himself grow singularly calm.  They’d do what they had to do as well as possible.  It was as simple as that, if you figured in constant prayer.