CHAPTER NINETEEN STUART

Good thing I wasn't going to jail anymore. I wouldn't have been able to run in the City track meet and win another medal. I ran so fast that I won a silver medal. The best part about running is, well, running the race of course and being with Sam at the track meet (and Bethany) and riding on the bus with all the other kids from school. So now I had a gold, silver and a bronze medal.

After the school meet, my dad had helped me screw some hooks on the wall in my room to hang my medals on. When I got home from the City meet, I put my silver medal on another hook in between my gold and bronze medals.

"They look good there," said my mother. She stood at my door.

"I don't want to punch my walls anymore," I said. "I don't want my medals to fall down."

"I'm glad to hear that," she said. "You ready to go for ice cream? A victory cone."

"Can I have three scoops?"

She smiled. "Of course. Let's go. Dad's waiting in the car."

For my three scoops I got tiger tail, chocolate, and moose tracks. Me and my family (well, not Mary and Lewis) ate our cones outside, sitting on a bench. My mother got a kiddie cone. Seriously. Who eats a kiddie cone when you can have an adult cone?

On the way home in the car, Mary called. Her voice was on speaker phone in the car.

"I'm having pains," she said.

"Real pains?" my mother asked.

"I think so. They feel different."

"How long apart?"

Declan looked over at me. "I bet she's having her baby."

They talked a little longer about stuff I didn't care about then they hung up.

"Well, boys," said my mom, turning around to look at Declan and me, "Mary might be having her baby soon."

My dad sped up and drove a little faster than he normally does. But not as fast as Donny. I'd kinda forgotten about him because of my running. I didn't like thinking about him.

"Like, how soon?" said Declan.

"Hard to say." My father turned the corner toward our house.

In the middle of the night, I had heard my mom talking on the phone. I got up from my bed and went to the kitchen. She motioned for me to stay put, instead of telling me to go back to bed. So I sat down at the kitchen table,and looked at the clock. 3:00 am.

"What time did she go in?" my mother asked whoever was on the other end of the phone.

She nodded, then said, "We'll be right over."

As soon as she stopped talking to whoever was on the phone, my mother said, "Mary's having her baby! Right now. She's at the hospital. They're saying she could go quick."

Within minutes, my mother had woken up my father, and Declan woke up too, wondering what all the commotion was about.

"We should all go to the hospital," said my mom. "Now that we're up. We could wait there to hear the news and see the baby right away."

"I don't like hospitals," I said, kicking the chair across from me. Hospitals were stinky.

"We'll just be in the waiting area," said my mother.

The gross smell hit my nostrils and I wasn't even at the hospital. "I don't like hospitals." I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned.

"Stuart, this is different. Mary's having her baby. No one is sick. This is an exciting time to be at the hospital."

"I'm not going!" My body felt all jittery and I was buzzing, and it was different than before when I ran.

I didn't like being up in the middle of the night. It reminded me of escaping out a window from a foster home and then not being able to get back in and being left outside all night. Freezing and shivering. Then in the morning everyone acted like it was my fault.

My mother held up her hands. "Okay. Let's figure this out."

"I'm not going!"

"Okay, Stuart," she said quietly. "We heard you. We are trying to figure out a solution."

"You go," said my dad to my mother. "Keep in touch and I'll come over when it's time. Maybe it will be calmer here."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I can stay home with Stuart," said Declan. "We can stay here together."

My mother and father both looked at me.

"We can," I said.

"We would need you to stay home, not go outside, not run anywhere."

"I already ran today," I said. "I don't want to run anymore. Anyway, I don't get medals for running outside." I yawned.

"That's true," said my mother.

"Let's give it a try," said my dad to my mom. "There's not a whole lot the boys can do at the hospital anyways."

"I'm going back to bed," said Declan.

"Me too," I said.

My mom and dad left, and Declan and I went back to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I rolled one way and the next. I sort of wanted to punch the walls. Then I thought of something else to do. So instead of punching my walls, I got up and went to the kitchen and pulled out all the stuff I used to make bracelets. I had picked up a little baby rattle at the store to put on the bracelet.

I was still working when my mother and father came into the kitchen, both of them yawning. My mom was really smiling though. By now it was getting light out. Wow. I hadn't even noticed.

"Did you stay up all night?" she asked, squinting at me.

I held up the bracelet. "I made this."

"Stuart, it's beautiful." Her smile filled her entire face. "Nathan will love it! You're an uncle!"

"Declan said I couldn't be an uncle. And I'd have to go to jail. Who's Nathan?"

"Well, you're not in jail and you're an uncle! Mary and Lewis named their baby Nathan. If you want to take the bracelet to the baby, we can go later this afternoon to the hospital."

"Maybe," I said. I wondered if I didn't go if I would still get to be an uncle.

****

After going back to bed and sleeping until noon, I did decide to take the bracelet to the hospital. I'm not sure why I decided but I think it was because I wanted to give the bracelet to the baby, now. Not later. Now.

And my mother explained to me that going to the hospital is like me running. Running can be good or not so good. It's good when I run in races and win medals. But bad (my mom says not so good, which just means bad) when I run away from someone when I'm not supposed to.

So, my mom said I could go to the hospital for something good, just like I'd run for a medal. I had gone to see Sam and it was bad but going to see a new baby was good.

We picked up Declan from his job at Best Buy and we drove with my mom and dad. When we got there, I walked in with my dad. He told me I couldn't run in the halls, and he held onto my hand. Like, held it tightly.

"I won't run. Sam told me there's a time to run and a time not to run."

"Smart boy," said my dad. He let go of my hand.

When we got to Mary's room there were all kinds of blue balloons, like there was a party going on. Who would have thought going to the hospital was like going to a party? The baby was in a little bin-like thing beside her bed.

I stared down at Nathan, and I couldn't believe how small he was. Then I sat in a chair and my mother put baby Nathan in my arms. Again, I looked down at him only this time he was close to me.

He had his eyes closed. He had the tiniest hands I'd ever seen, and a tiny nose and mouth too. He yawned and stretched and I laughed. I thought he looked more like Mary than Owen. He had black hair and skin that looked like Mary's and not red hair or white skin like Owen's. But I couldn't see his eyes so I didn't know what colour they were. Maybe they were green like Owen's.

"Was I ever this small?" I asked.

"You were," said my mother.

I still stared at him. I couldn't imagine being this little. "Did I learn differently when I was just born? Like this?"

"You did. But you're who you are now, and that's special. Just like this little nugget." She stroked the baby's cheek.

Just then he opened his eyes. Were they green? They were!

"Hi," I said. "I'm your Uncle Stuart."