An Abundance of Babies

Geraldine sank down on the stool, bracing herself against the counter. Her cane clattered to the floor. “She’s pregnant?”

Sebastian bent down and retrieved the cane, leaning it against the underside of the counter beside his mother. She nodded her silent thanks.

“Not anymore. Two healthy babies, a girl and a boy, thanks to yours truly. Delivered in the video rental parking lot.” He added the coda as if he were delivering Shakespearean lines.

Geraldine frowned, having a difficult time assimilating all this. “Right out in the lot?”

It might have come to that. Stephanie had seemed ready to pop. “In a van, actually. Some woman lent it to us when it didn’t look as if the ambulance would make it in time. I didn’t get her name,” he added, realizing only now as he said it. “She probably regretted her random act of kindness the minute she got a load of the inside of her van.”

Geraldine shook her head. He’d delivered a baby in the time she’d been watching the clock and twisting her medal almost off its link. “I let you out of my sight for what starts out to be just a few minutes and you run off, playing Dr. Kildare.”

He looked at his mother blankly. “Dr. who?”

She waved a hand at him, picking up her cup again. “Never mind, before your time.” Taking a long sip, she allowed herself a second to speculate on the situation. “I wonder how her father took all this.”

Stephanie’s father was the last person he’d concerned himself with. “I couldn’t care less.” Curiosity arose suddenly, out of nowhere, getting the better of him. “Why should he take this badly? Didn’t he approve of her husband?”