Chapter 43
Sheba sensed the tension between David and Delilah. She had hoped that her sister would get along with her current husband. Up until the past few days, they had. She wondered what had happened to cause the rift.
“David, why are you and Delilah always going at it?” she asked when Delilah left to go shopping.
“Delilah has to realize I’m the king of my castle, and if she wants to take over something, she needs to go back to Shreveport, to her own place.”
“But, baby, having Delilah here helps me out a lot.”
“I know that, and that’s the only reason why I haven’t asked her to leave.” David went inside the master bathroom.
Sheba sighed. Not déjà vu. First, Uriah and now David. Her baby kicked. “Little man, what are we going to do with your daddy and aunt?” Sheba’s stomach felt like a knot. She doubled over in pain. “David!” she yelled.
David ran out. “Sheba, hold on, baby.” He pulled her up in his arms, but Sheba couldn’t sit up straight. David yelled, “Where’s your nurse? I’m paying her all this money, and she’s nowhere to be found.”
“I heard you down the hall,” the nurse said as she entered the room.
“What’s wrong with her?” David shouted.
The nurse asked Sheba, “Were you experiencing pain prior to this?”
“It came all of a sudden. I feel like someone hit me in the stomach with their fist,” Sheba said and cried out in pain.
“We should get you to the hospital,” the nurse advised.
Sheba looked at David. Fear was written across her face. She could feel something wet in between her legs. “Yes, get me to the hospital now.”
“What’s wrong, baby?” David asked.
“I think it’s time.”
An hour later Sheba had her heels in the stirrups. Due to the medical complications and David’s overbearing personality, which seemed to irritate the hospital staff, the doctor had convinced David that it would be best if he waited in the waiting room. The pain shooting through Sheba’s body had subsided some, but not completely, after they gave her a shot in her spine.
The doctor said, “I need for you to concentrate on something good and close your eyes and do as I tell you.”
Sheba’s mind was only on her baby. She couldn’t think of anything else. “God, I know at first I didn’t want this baby, but now I do. I love him more than life itself. I love him. Please don’t let anything happen to him. Take me, if you have to, but please spare my baby’s life,” she pleaded.
The doctor whispered, “He’s not breathing.”
His whispers weren’t low enough that Sheba couldn’t hear him. “No, please don’t tell me my baby’s dead,” Sheba said as a bout of pain hit her body. A few seconds later she heard her baby’s cry. “Let me see him. I need to see him.”
The baby was cleaned up and then handed to Sheba. She cried as she held her five-pound baby in her arms.
The doctor said, “He’s not breathing like I would want him to, so we’re going to need to examine him and put him in an incubator.”
“What do you mean, he’s not breathing right?” Sheba asked as the doctor took her baby and began examining him more thoroughly. “What’s wrong with my baby?” Sheba yelled frantically.
“Nurse, give her something to calm down,” the doctor requested.
The nurse did as she’d been told. It took two of the nurses to hold Sheba down so they could administer the shot.
Sheba, calmer, said, “My husband. Where’s my husband?”
David was escorted in. “Sheba, I could hear you outside, but they wouldn’t allow me in.”
Sheba held on to his hand. “Our baby’s in an incubator. He wasn’t breathing. I need to see him. I got to hold him only for a few seconds.”
David said, “I’m going to check on him. You just get some rest, my queen. Little David is going to be okay.”
Sheba didn’t believe that her baby was going to be okay, and she could tell by the scared look in David’s eyes that he didn’t, either. She had to hold on to his words, though. Little David had to be fine. She’d already lost two people she loved; she couldn’t lose another one. God wouldn’t be so cruel as to let her carry him eight months and then take him from her. Not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses. No, he wouldn’t do that to her.
Sheba fell into a deep sleep. She woke up a day later and demanded some answers. “Where is my baby?” she asked David.
“Little David’s not doing too good, Sheba.” David’s voice shook.
“I want to see my baby. They can’t keep me from my baby,” Sheba yelled.
“Mrs. King, we need you to hold it down. You’re disturbing the other patients,” one of the nurses said, peeking her head into the room.
David stepped in to intervene. “Can you get a wheelchair so I can take her to see our son?”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that. We have strict instructions that she’s supposed to remain in her bed.”
“Please. If this was your child, you would want to see him,” Sheba said.
The nurse showed compassion. She looked at Sheba and said, “Fine. Don’t tell anyone I did this. If you feel dizzy at all, let me know.” The nurse then looked at David. “Mr. King, I’m going to need your help.”
David assisted in getting Sheba in the wheelchair. He took a blanket out of the closet and placed it around her. The ride down the hallway didn’t take long. The nurse showed them little David. Sheba wasn’t allowed to hold him in her arms, but she was able to touch him.
“Your mama is right here. I love you. I love you so much. You’re going to get stronger. You’re going to grow up and be just like your daddy.”
David said, “And you’re going to marry a woman just as beautiful as your mama.”
Sheba didn’t know she could love a man as much as she did at that moment. Watching David being gentle with their baby touched her. “Little David, you have to get better because Mama needs you.”
The nurse reappeared. “I have to get you back. The doctor’s making his rounds, and I don’t want him to find you here.”
David said, “You go on, baby. I’ll stay here with little David, and then I’ll meet you back in the room.”
“Okay.”
Sheba squeezed his hand. David leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips. Sheba looked back at David, who stood by the incubator, rubbing little David’s leg. She loved them both.