Soily, wake up!' Rosie nudged her husband. 'Things have started to happen!'
Professor Solomon Brightman sat up in bed, hearing the note of excitement in his wife's voice. It was dark still. But what was it his mother had told him? Babies have a way of beginning in the night 'Are you sure?' he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
'The baby isn't due for another two weeks,' he protested.
Rosie chuckled. 'Tell that to this little critter,' she said. 'Oh!
That was a big one!' she exclaimed as a painful contraction seized her. 'Come on, Solly,' she urged, sweeping the bedclothes aside.
'Time to get me over to the hospital.'
'Maybe you'll meet Maggie Lorimer there,' Solly mumbled.
'What? Why will she be there?' Rosie frowned.
'Oh, dear, I wasn't supposed to tell you in your delicate state, was I?' Solly bit his lip. 'Maggie's had a hysterectomy,' he replied.
'Lorimer told me.'
'Och, the poor thing,' Rosie said. `So that's why she's been avoiding me,' she nodded then her face twisted in pain once more. 'Ooh, come on Solly, shift yourself. This wee one's not going to wait much longer.'
Maggie sat up in her bed, feeling the whirr of the fan that was wafting cool air over her sticky body. The first thing she had felt after waking up was a wonderful sense of euphoria that had taken her completely by surprise. She was still here, maybe not exactly in one piece, but alive and full of a calm acceptance that she had never expected to feel. Was it the aftermath of a general anaesthetic, perhaps? Or the human spirit's way of adjusting to change? 'Mrs Lorimer,' the nurse came into Maggie's room, her face wreathed in smiles. 'There's someone to see you.'
Who was here to see her? Not her husband, surely, for it was not visiting time yet.
Maggie looked towards the open door and the nurse's smiling face then gasped as she saw Rosie being wheeled into the room by Solly, a tiny bundle held in her arms.
'Oh,' she said at last, her eyes searching hungrily at the folds of cloth surrounding the newborn. 'Oh, I didn't know..
'Meet your god-daughter,' Rosie said, grinning up at her.
'Abigail Margaret Brightman.'
'Abigail!' Maggie gasped. 'It's a wee girl!'
Solly gave a boyish smile. 'Her name means father rejoiced,' he said, his voice full of pride.
Then, as Solly lifted the tiny bundle from his wife and placed Abigail into her arms, Maggie's tears began to flow.
'You will be her godmother, won't you?' Rosie asked, her eyes bright with anticipation.
Maggie nodded, too full to speak, as she gazed down at the little face with its tiny button nose and feathery eyelids against closed eyes.
'She's perfect,' Maggie whispered, cradling the baby against her breasts. She watched as Abigail gave a sigh and nuzzled against her, the little bow mouth opening expectantly.
Then everybody laughed.
'Come on, lady, back to your mum. Looks like it might be feeding time,' Maggie said tenderly, looking back at her friends.
Then, as Solly carried his daughter back to Rosie, Maggie put out a hand to touch his arm.
'Thank you,' she said.
Once they were gone, Maggie lay back against her bank of pillows, a radiant smile on her face. She had a god-daughter. Little Abigail Brightman would be a very special person in her life from now on.
Things never stayed the same, did they? Maggie thought, gazing out at the blue sky and the clouds that drifted past her window SoIly was a professor now, Rosie a mother; Bill was leaving his old job for that new promoted post at Pitt Street. And she had become a godmother. Life had a way of surprising you in all its vagaries, twists and turnings, she told herself.
Then, closing her eyes, Maggie Lorimer settled down to enjoy the peace of a dreamless sleep.