An Abundance of Babies

She led the way to the kitchen, knowing he had to want a cup of coffee. He’d developed a fondness for the brew at the age of eleven, when he used to come to the restaurant after school and do his homework, waiting for her to get off work. Over the years, his affinity for the drink had only intensified.

Unable to contain her growing curiosity any longer, she turned from the coffeemaker on the counter and asked, “So, what was it that kept you from promptly returning from the video store? An old friend you ran into? A wave of nostalgia that took you past the university?” Filling the two cups that stood waiting on their saucers, she waited for Sebastian to jump in.

He sat down on the stool beside the counter and pulled the cup and saucer over to him. “The former.”

“Oh?” Geraldine laced her own coffee liberally with a creamer, wondering if she was as bad at sounding innocent as she thought. “Who?” Sebastian raised his eyes to hers and then she knew. Knew without his having to say a word. Geraldine felt her mother’s heart constrict just a little within her breast. “How is she?”

Sebastian took a long, silent sip, then laughed softly, shaking his head in disbelief. Not that she hadn’t managed to do this “magic trick” of hers before. “You know, you really should have never let that mind-reading talent of yours go to waste.”

Eyes the same color as his crinkled as she smiled at him, this serious boy who had grown into such a serious man. “Only works on you, I’m afraid. Not much of a calling for mothers to make revelations about their children on the open market.”

He thought of the tabloid headline he’d seen recently at the supermarket: Country Star’s Mama Sings the Blues About Her Son. “Unless you’re the mother of a celebrity,” he told her.

Geraldine set down her cup again. “Oh, but I am.” She tucked one arm around his and gave him a quick hug. “I’m the mother of an up-and-coming doctor who gave up his budding practice to rush to the side of his ailing, pain-in-the-butt mother.”

Leaning over, he kissed the top of her head. Affection laced through him. “You were never a pain in the butt.” And then he grinned down at her. “It was more like a pain in the neck.”

Relieved that he could still joke after seeing Stephanie, Geraldine feigned a serious expression. “Show a little respect, you hear?”

He drained the coffee cup, then helped himself to another serving. “You started it, remember?”

She watched him set the coffeepot back on the burner. He was agitated. He always drank a lot of coffee when he was agitated, which only made him more so. It was a vicious cycle.

“I’m your mother, I can start anything I want.” She sobered, dropping the bantering tone. Treading lightly on the sensitive ground, she approached it again. “So, you didn’t answer me. How was she?”

Just as damn beautiful as ever. More. I wish I’d never seen her.

“About to give birth,” he replied offhandedly. Though it was hard to maintain his vague tone when he added, “As a matter of fact, I delivered her twins.”

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?”