18th February
The following day after Neal and Harry had talked and surfed the net long into the night the guys drink a carafe of coffee then set of for the hospital.
On arrival they head for their respective wives room only to find them both empty! Returning to the nurses station and about to inquire their whereabouts they see both Sarah and Giselle sitting in the lounge feeding their babies and joking with some other new mums.
On entering Neal and Harry are both a little taken aback when the other mums go a little girly and ask for their autographs. Sometimes lately its a little hard to remember they are both famous actors!
But they polity sign the proffered pieces of paper smile for the obligatory cell phone picture and the two happy women go giggling off down the hall.
"Well, look at you two... all happy and chatty?" Neal quips.
"Don't get to excited the doctor has put me on some sort of happy meds...it won't last!" Giselle replies dryly.
Neal winks at Harry "Well, you had better get the name of the meds and order up a crate of it!" with that he sits down next to Sarah who having finished Dawn's feed hands her over for winding. He puts Dawn on his shoulder like Sarah had shown him yesterday but as Sarah goes to hand him a cloth to put under Dawn... it's to late! She's spits up on his shoulder!
"Oh, yuck!!!" said Giselle giggling.
Harry who had sat down next to Giselle laughs out loud making Abhay jump.
"Like I'm not having enough trouble trying to give Abhay his bottle you have to make him jump and distract him!" Giselle tells him off.
"Well, I guess his hearing must be OK then! That's one box ticked!" Harry replies
"Here let me try, it's because his tongue gets in the way it makes it harder for him to feed!" Harry tells Giselle with some pride at his new knowledge.
"What?" Giselle turns to look at Harry totally confused.
"Neal, and I ....we must have looked up a hundred sites on Downs Syndrome. It's amazing! These days they go to normal schools and live full lives. They can even take A levels and learn to drive a car!" Harry smiles at Giselle cheerfully.
"A lot of them can anyway! There are different degrees of Downs apparently...we found this on the net it's more up to date than the stuff the hospital gave you" Neal hands Giselle some papers about Downs
"There's even an association to help people 'The Downs Syndrome Association' it's called" Harry tells Giselle
"Novel name I must say" Giselle takes the papers offered and starts to read though them while Harry struggles to feed Abhay.
Just then they here a commotion in the hall outside, Neal hands Dawn back to Sarah and goes to the door...
"Hello, mother I thought I recognized your yelling!" Neal smiles and gives his mother a bear hug "So what all the shouting about? ....Hi, dad!"
"Son!" his father shakes his head in defeat.
"Well! That nurse...." Agnes waves her hand in the direction of a fleeing nurse "She told us what room Sarah was in and then she said your sister was in the room next door? But how can that be Giselle is in France......." Agnes stops dead mid sentence "Giselle?"
By now they had entered the room and Agnes was face to face with Giselle "But your in France? we are coming to see you next week? Neal why do you have baby spit down your top?" Agnes looks around the room taking in Sarah sitting with a baby in her arms and Harry with a baby in his arms too! Giselle is sitting next to him?
Agnes shakes her head and makes for the nearest chair discarding her coat as she goes... this picture is all wrong?
"So you BOTH have babies?" Agnes eventually asks in a shocked voice
"Yes, mum...we both have babies" Giselle sighs sometimes her mother can be a little dense!..... Thank god they are nothing alike!
"Jonathan! are you going to say something or just stand there all day?" Agnes turns to her husband
"Ahm...congratulations?" Jonathan walks across the room and looks first at the baby in Harry's arms
"Our son Abhay!" Harry smiles up at Jonathan.
Jonathan bends down and kisses Abhay's head " welcome to the world... and good luck! Boy are you going to need it with my daughter for a mother!" he turns and ruffles Giselle's hair giving her a kiss.
Then he makes his way over to Sarah and looks down at Dawn "My she's a beautiful baby! Welcome to the world Dawn and welcome to this mad, mad family of mine!"
"Thanks, dad!" Neal intones.
"So who do I get to cuddle first? My grandson or my granddaughter?" Agnes chips in.
"Mother, there's something I need to tell you..." Giselle starts to say.
"Well, my grandson is the closest so I guess he's first!" Agnes holds out her arms and Harry hands over Abhay.
"I'm trying to feed him but it's not working very well!" Harry tells her.
Meanwhile Jonathan has sat down next to Sarah he wrinkles his nose " I think someone needs her nappy (dipper) changed?"
Sarah get up "If you will excuse me I will just make this young lady a little more presentable" and she leaves the room.
"MOTHER!" Giselle tries again "dad, I need to tell you about Abhay!"
"He has Down's Syndrome? Yes, dear I can see that!" Agnes looks up at the silent room
"How? ...." Harry looks confused knowing they had tried and were unable to contact Giselle's parents as they had been in transit at the time.
"Well, I have eyes dear I can see he has Down's! The world has moved on a lot since I way young...." Agnes's voice trails off.
"The world has moved on? What are you talking about?.....mother?" Giselle looks at her august.
Jonathan speaks up "We had a Down's baby... before you and Neal... he had a heart defect... he died when he was three weeks old...."
"We never saw the need to tell either of you, it was over thirty years ago I was only 19 I just wanted to forget all about it!" Agnes's voice is barely a whisper "His heart? how's Abhay's heart?"
Agnes looks up at them tears in her eyes, Neal goes to his mother and puts his arms around her.
Giselle answers her "The doctor says his heart is fine they checked him out yesterday"
"Good! You know we will give you....all of you, all the help and support we can" Agnes smiles as she looks around the room at her children and their partners all starting out in the strange world of parenthood.
"Thank you, dam this!" Giselle looks over at her mother "mummy I need a cuddle" then the tears come thick and fast.
"Off course you do dear" Agnes hands the baby to Harry and goes to Giselle holding her tight until the tears eventually abate.
Jonathan joins them patting his daughters shoulder and kissing the top of her head.
"I think it's time you got some rest, daddy and I will be here when you wake up and Harry will look after Abhay....won't you Harry?"
"Amm, yes! Of course I will!" Harry is still shocked by his in-laws revaluation.
Agnes and Jonathan head for Giselle's room with Giselle while Neal goes to Sarah's room and tells her what she had missed!
No comments:
Post a Comment