Creating the first draft of the baby shower list was a simple task. The general rules of etiquette were used to invite close friends, family including 2ND cousins, and a friend or two from work. So when Lily’s mom, Nancy, asked why Mother Wheeler wasn’t on the list. Lily just moaned, “She is just going to ruin everything like she always does. “
“Mother Wheeler is your only living great-grandmother.”
“Mom, she knocked Sarah’s bridal shower cake off the table.”
“Oh honey, she just tripped on the dining room rug.”
“We call her Cruella DeVil. She always has that awful scowl on her face.”
“Honey,” Nancy tried not to laugh, “You have to invite her. It’s not an option.”
Lily grumbled under her breath and wrote Cruel la on the guest list. There was a tear in her eye as she picked up the brochure from the bakery and looked through the cake flavor list. “Can I get her a personal cake laced with arsenic?” Nancy ignored Lily has she started writing out the invitations.
It was a beautiful June day in Stone Harbor, NJ. From the beach house porch, Lily could hear the ocean waves pounding the surf. At seven months pregnant, Lily weighed about 128 pounds. Her long blonde hair seemed to glow as the summer sun hit it. The sun dress Lily wore was white with big bright orange and pink geometric flowers on it. The empire waist had an orange ribbon with pink polka dots. The dress would seem too childish on any other grown woman, but on Lily, it seemed fitting. Not that she was childish; let it be known that she could be a bit bratty at times. Being the youngest of 4 will do that to a girl. However, Lily had this air of naivety that just seemed so surprising at times for a woman of 32 giving birth to her second child. Lily smoothed out her dress and proceeded into the house heading for the living room, which was full of ladies and baby shower gifts. As the guest of honor glided across the room towards the open chair being reserved for her, Lily hesitated a second before she passed Mother Wheeler. Her great grandmother sat perched on the sofa dressed in her usual black attire with a walking cane held out before her as if it was a royal scepter. Lily gave a forced smile to the old grouchy woman just as if she were a small child trying to please someone she feared. Just then a piercing pain came to Lily’s ankle, and within seconds, she was falling to the floor belly first.
Lily awoke in a hospital room unlike she had ever seen. As she looked around, nothing looked familiar to her. She wasn’t even sure it was a hospital room. The nurses who came into the room were wearing white dresses and little winged hats on their heads. Trying to get attention, Lily opened her mouth to speak by nothing came out. She was in such pain tears came to her eyes. That was when Lily noticed something strange. As she looked out the window, Lily saw sprawling city blocks, but it looked like a movie set of New York City from the 1920’s. The pain had become so unbearable she just closed her eyes and prayed for it to go away.
When she awoke again, Lily realized that her arms were in full casts. A nurse came over to the bed and started wiping her face with a cold cloth. The coldness of the cloth felt good against her warm skin.
“Now, there Mrs. Wheeler, bet that feels better. Don’t you worry about a thing. Your husband will be here soon so we can discuss your condition with him,” the nurse said calmly has she wiped down Lily’s legs. Thoughts were racing through Lily’s head. “Mrs. Wheeler, What the &*#$ does that mean? Mrs. Wheeler? What?” The nurse was walking out of the room when Lily finally pushed all the pain aside and in a desperate voice pleaded to the nurse, “My baby, nurse, what about my baby?” The nurse just walked away. Lily looked at the bump on her belly. With her arms in casts, Lily tried desperately to touch her stomach. She needed to feel the baby but couldn’t feel her baby from inside her anymore.
An entire day past before a thin, dapper looking man in a dark suit walked into the room. A fedora hat was perched just so on his head. As for his attire, it was obviously custom-made and reminded her of the type of suits the old Jazz musicians used to wear during the roaring 20’s. The vest had 5 or 6 buttons. Lily giggled to herself and thought, “A vest and cuffed pants with wing tipped shoes? Who is he, F. Scott Fitzgerald?” His bright blue eyes were attractive at first, but if you gazed too long into them, you would notice that they were angry and soulless.
“Little Annie is dead; thanks to your deplorable mothering skills. How could you let a 3 year old go running out into the street?” shouted the angry man.
“Who are you?” whimpered Lily through tears. The man walked towards Lily’s bed, and bent over her. She could feel his hot, sour breath on her face. “I am your husband, you stupid woman. And now you are worthless to me with broken wrists.” More tears streamed down her face as she stumbled over her words.
“The baby, what about the baby?”
“It’s dead!” and with that the man disappeared as fast as he had appeared.
Lily cried herself to sleep. When she awoke, she called for the nurse, but no one came. Lilly looked around the room. The walls were old white tiles, dirty and cracked. There were no signs of a TV or any medical equipment. Just a white enameled metal bedpan sat on the table next to her bed. As she looked out the window at the cityscape, Lilly saw something odd upon the window sill. Stones. Three roundish, grey stones resting on the sill. All lined up next to each other like soldiers on guard.
There were no visitors, only nurses came into the room to take her temperature and to feed her food. No one spoke to her about her baby. Lily only knew that Mrs. Wheeler had fallen down and tried to brace her fall with her arms. Each time the nurses entered, they would call her Mrs. Wheeler. Lily insisted her name was Lily, but the nurses would just smile nicely and told her she was stressed. After several days, the pain started to subside, and Lily was awake more than she was asleep. Seven stones now sat on the window sill. It was right after she had finished her lunch when Mr. Wheeler, her supposed husband, walked into the room. “Get dressed, Mary, it’s time for you to go to your brother’s house.” At that moment, a nurse walked in with some clothing and started dressing Lily. The man walked out of the room as his wife dressed. “What about the baby?” Lily whispered to the nurse.
“I’m sorry. You are going to have to wait until your body passes the baby,” the nurse whispered back. Tears started streaming down Lily’s face. She started crying so hard she began hyperventilating.
When Lily woke up, her eyes were still closed, but she could hear people talking and what sounded like a baseball game playing in the background. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see her real husband, Ryan, sitting next to her, holding her hand, but watching the TV. An IV drip was in her arm along with several wires attaching her to various pieces of medical equipment, and its humming sound was comforting to Lily. Ryan turned his head towards her, “Hey babe, you gave us a big scare.”
“The Baby?” she whispered.
“He’s fine, same as you.”
She closed her eyes with relief.
After Lily’s discharge from the hospital, she went to stay with her mother. The guest bed room was full of flowers. It brought a smile Lily’s face. As she walked into the bedroom, there were three stones on the window sill.
“Mom, why are there are there stones on the window?”
“Oh, it’s some tradition your dad’s family has.”
The night was long and full of tossing and turning. The morning seemed to take forever to arrive. It was seven in the morning; and Lily was exhausted. Thinking a shower would make her sleepy, she got up and took a long hot one. She crawled back into bed and promptly fell asleep. She awoke to Mother Wheeler staring at her. “Good of you to join us.” Lily looked around the room and wondered who the “Us” was. The Great grandmother just started at her hands. Then without warning, she rose from her chair and started walking out of the room. “Annie wasn’t your fault,” Lily blurted out. The old woman stopped in her tracks. She didn’t move. Lily continued, “Do you remember the stones on the hospital window?” Mother Wheeler nodded her head up and down ever so slightly, but kept her back to Lily. “I know what they mean,” said Lily in a hushed tone.
While Mary Wheeler lay in the hospital with her still born child, her husband filled with remorse over the loss of the youngest children, filed for divorce from his wife and gave his two boys, John and Milton, to Mary’s older sister. Mr. Wheeler kept the thirteen year old daughter so she could take care of the house. John and Milton went to school during the day and then would return to their aunt’s house. At night, they would slip out of the house, and down to the hospital to visit their mother. Since children were not allowed in the hospital, the boys had to take extreme care to sneak their way into their mother’s hospital room. She was always sleeping, so after each visit, the boys would leave a stone on the window sill to let their mother know they had visited.
The old woman slowly turned towards Lily. There was a small tear running down her cheek. “I never knew,” Mother Wheeler said as she looked up and saw the small stones lined up along the window’s ledge. A small smile came across her face.
