Page 9 of Falling for Autumn
“Well, can y’all give her something?” I asked.
“No, we cannot. But you can stand by her side and be her quiet support system,” Nurse Meanie instructed.
The other nurses in the room didn’t dare speak up. The doctor maintained a calm demeanor and didn’t even react to my ass getting checked.
Not long after she checked me, the next declaration was, “She’s crowning,” and then “She’s here. We have us a beautiful baby girl.”
I smiled at Autumn, but there was a look of sorrow and despair on her face. It wasn’t anything that I expected to see from a new mother. I wondered, not for the first time, where the baby’s father was. Even if they hadn’t reconciled, he should’ve been here to see his baby’s birth.
“Dad, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” Nurse Meanie asked.
“I’m uh . . . I’m not the?—”
“It’s okay. Everyone isn’t comfortable with the task. You want to come and see her or stay up there and hold mom’s hand?” Dr. Callaway asked.
I looked at Autumn, whose eyes were still closed. “I’ll stay here for the moment. I can see her a bit from here.”
I didn’t want to invade too much more on her privacy than I already had, and I wasn’t certain what the hell I would see if I walked to the other end of the bed. But when Autumn gave my hand a comforting squeeze and nodded, I looked down, and her eyes were on me. The sadness hadn’t disappeared, but I could see gratitude in them.
“Go ahead,” she whispered. She released my hand, and I headed to the end of the bed and saw the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on.
She was light like her mother with round, chubby cheeks and a headful of reddish-brown hair that was plastered to her head. Scrunched up, like babies generally are, she had a set of lungs on her that rivaled the engine in my car.
“She’s beautiful, Autumn,” I announced as they rushed the baby to a little incubator. They wiped her off and hovered around her, doing things that made no sense to me. But when they finished, the nurses looked at me.
“Here, you can take her to mom,” Nurse Meanie announced.
I took the baby carefully, not sure how to hold her, until one of the other nurses moved behind me and positioned my arms.The baby stopped crying, opened her little eyes, and looked at me. They were gray. I wondered if they would remain that color. She had a little upturned button nose like her mother.
“Hi, sweetheart. You were giving your mother a time back there,” I stated as I walked back to Autumn’s side.
She lifted onto her elbows and peered down.
“Relax,” Nurse Meanie stated and lifted her bed slightly so that she could be in the perfect position to hold her baby.
I placed the baby in her arms, and I saw the world change before me. The look of sorrow and despair that had been there before immediately disappeared. She stared at her baby girl in wonder as she smiled and cooed to her. A tear fell from her eyes as she caressed the baby’s cheek with a finger.
“You’re so beautiful and so perfect,” she cooed.
“She is,” I chimed in.
“Can you help me unwrap her so that I can see all of her?” she asked, looking up at me.
I did as she asked and watched as she counted her fingers and toes. I couldn’t help it, but I did the same.
I couldn't help but think that if I ever had a little shorty or a princess, I would be right there when my jits were born. That shit made no sense to me, how niggas could be out here recklessly gifting these chicks with kids and pop on to the next broad like it was no thing. If you didn’t want kids, you knew what to do to prevent that shit. It wasn’t hard to wrap it up. Hell, they still gave rubbers down at the free clinic.
I knew because I had just taken my teen cousin, Rod, to pick up some last week. There was no excuse for being a deadbeat ass daddy.
Autumn pulled the baby closer to her and kissed the top of her head.
“What’s her name?” I asked.
She looked at her baby, kissed her head again, and then back at me.
“I wasn’t sure until this moment. Looking at the color of her hair and the heat of the day, I can’t help but name her . . . Auburn Summer.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” Nurse Meanie declared.
