BabyNapper

Chapter 5: Highly Unexpected

"Hmm..." I mumble to myself, scanning through all the shelves. "Peach, Mint, Lavender..."

I was at the downtown pharmacy in a large aisle looking for some herbal tea that Dr. Priscilla has recommended for me. There was a large variety of it on the shelves that I looked through.

I never knew that there were so many options.

Picking up a small box of red raspberry leaf tea, I looked at its contents.

My phone then rang in my pocket and I answered it.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey, sis!" Deborah said. "Where are you? I and Caroline are in the park."

"Sorry, I'm at the pharmacy. Dr. Priscilla told me that I should drink a type of herbal tea to help my contractions for when the baby comes."

"Well, what kinds have you been looking at?" She asked.

"Uh, mint, peppermint, dandelion root..."

"Woah. Don't choose the dandelion root tea. That stuff makes you pee a lot."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Trust me, I know."

I stifled and returned my sight back to the box of tea.

"Before I go, where is Caroline? I wanna speak to her."

"She's a little busy with the ducks. Oh, Caroline! Don't touch the ducks! Sorry, Maddy, I've gotta go. See you at the house."

Then she hung up.

My attention returned to the box of tea I was holding.

"The red raspberry tea is better, you know." Someone said from beside me. I turned to my right to see a woman with curly hair in a light brown jacket.

"Oh, oh really?" I said.

"Mm-hmm, it helps with decreasing your labor time." She said. "Plus, it helps get the, uh, lady parts ready."

I chuckled a bit as I looked at her.

"Well, thanks for the recommendation," I told her with a smile.

"Let me guess, twenty weeks pregnant?" She said, looking down at my baby bump.

She was correct.

"Oh, yeah. How did you-"

"I'm a nurse. Maternity nurse at the L. J. Hospital." She told me. "It's a living  that I'm always obligated to doing."

We started to get along great as she introduced herself.

"I'm Emily." She said.

"I'm Madeline," I told her as we shook hands.

"Hmm, haven't I seen you before?"

"Oh, well you may have. I do yoga videos on my channel."

"Oh! You're that yoga mom!" She said with a gracious expression.

I chuckled.

"Guilty as charged," I said. "I live down by White Rose Avenue." 

"No way, I live there too. Just a few years ago."

"Huh. What a coincidence."

She gave me a suggestive half-smile.

"Say, would you like to come to my house sometime?" I told her. "I gotta go back to check on my daughter but I was thinking that we should chat up sometime."

"That sounds lovely."

"I'll see you then, and thanks for the suggestion!" I said, going to the exit.

"You're welcome!" I heard her say. But before I left, she gave me her phone number and asked me to call her anytime.

As I arrived back home, I set the bag of tea in the kitchen and went upstairs in a slow manner.  Down the hall, I carefully peeled through a crack in Caroline's ajar door to see her sleeping. Opening it slightly so that I had enough space to get through without the sound of the creaking hinges waking her up.

I leisurely tip-toed over to the side of her bed and squatted down to the carpeted floor at a slow angle, my hands and feet curved flat on the floor.

There she laid, on top of her soft cushioned mattress, her head resting calmly on the cool, silken-like pillows.

I leaned over and kissed her on top of her tender forehead. When I lean back, I see that a smile appears on her face. I then get up and head out her door, letting her succumb to her sleep.

As I went back downstairs, I laid with Deborah on the couch. Her legs positioned in a propped up manner to her chest. Beside her laid a bowl of pretzels. I dug my hand in the bowl and took a handful into my mouth.

I laid back arched with my legs spread on the floor and my hands grasping to my enlarged belly. In a reluctant state, I let out an exhausting sigh.

Deborah turned her head over to meet my face.

"Tired, huh?"

"You can say that again..." I said in a depleted manner.

"Well, I've got just the thing to handle that." She said as she reached from the side of the couch and revealed to me a steaming box of pepperoni pizza. She must have ordered it after I had left to go to the pharmacy.

After a while of devouring pizza and chatting with my sister, a night later came into session.

"So, Andrew is going on a business trip tomorrow? She said with a mouthful of pizza.

"Yeah," I said. "He and his boss are going to meet these financial investors to discuss some business inquiry."

"Wow," Deborah took another bite of her pizza crust. "My sister, you have married rich and successful."

"Come on, Deborah. He may not be rich but that's the whole reason why I love him."

"That... and another reason." She said with a smug smile.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that he's got a big-"

"Woah, okay." I stopped her before she could finish the sentence. "I have a child sleeping upstairs, you know."

She laughed heartily.

"Girl, I'm just kidding." She tosses a piece of crust into the box on the floor and her head turns to the kitchen table.

"What's that?" She asked, looking at the bag of tea that I bought today.

"Hmm? Oh, that's just the tea I told you about today. Remember?"

"Oh, right."

"It's red raspberry leaf tea. This nice lady I met had suggested that I drink it for my symptoms."

She raised an eyebrow at me.

"What lady?"

"She's a maternity nurse at the Lee Johnson Hospital where I gave birth to Caroline," I told her as I stood up. I bent down with one arm extending down to reach the box. Deborah took the box and threw it away for me.

I sat back down with my clutches hands onto my baby bump.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." She said. "So, a maternity nurse huh?"

"Yeah."

"Wish I had her around when I had Jacqueline," Deborah said.

"I think you did well when I saw you giving birth in the emergency room."

"I wouldn't exactly call it 'well' when I was the one screaming in every direction of the place."

We both shared a moment of laughter.

"Well, be grateful that Jacqueline didn't end up like her father."

Deborah scoffed with a mirthless expression.

"I'll be damned if Isaiah gives an influence on my daughter. We may have to share custody rights every two weeks, but there was nothing about a prisoner and his child bonding."

"I hear that," I said.

We gave each other an exchange of high-fives and continued talking throughout the night until we fell asleep.