Midnight Miracle

“Baby. Baby,” Jim whispered to his first son, fully realizing that he would be his last. Jim’s mother had come to help with the family for the first eight months, but she was gone now. It was late, and Jim felt alone.

After watching his son sleep in his crib for a while more, Jim picked up the baby and rocked him. He needed to feel the presence of another human. He walked over to the computer in the corner and sat in the chair.

He turned on the computer monitor and read the e-mail that he had memorized. “Hey, honey,” he whispered. “My water just broke. We’re going to have a baby! Come to St. Paul’s hospital as soon as you get this. Love, love, love, Abby.” On her name Jim broke out in tears. Abby had never seen her son, who was named Abraham in her honor. She hadn’t lived long enough to hold him, name him, or catch his first smile.

Jim began rocking the baby remembering the night of his son’s birth. Everything went so fast. Jim had run through the hospital with a big smile. His tie was flying around his neck over an unbuttoned suit jacket. He had never been so happy. As he reached the room, he got an uneasy feeling. The nurses were busy rushing in and out.

“Please,” Jim said. “I’m the baby’s father.”

The nurses looked at him sympathetically but made no offer for him to come inside. Jim stood bewildered in a long white hallway for a few moments before a doctor came out. Something wasn’t right. The doctor didn’t have a smile on his face. He didn’t rush out proclaiming the baby’s gender the way it’s done on television.

“Are you Abigail’s husband?” He asked somberly.

“Yes. How is she feeling?” Jim spit out with an anxious grimace on his face.

“I’m sorry. She didn’t make it,” The doctor said.

He tried to continue, but Jim interrupted in a whisper, “Didn’t make what?”

“She passed on,” The doctor answered in an equally quiet voice. “I’m so sorry. I did everything that I could.”

“No!” Jim screamed. He threw his full weight against the white wall of the white hallway. His head pounded from the sound of his own scream, and electricity jolted through his veins making his body hurt from the core. “No! No! It’s not true! No!”

He realized too late that he was shaking. Abraham started whimpering in his arms in front of the computer screen. Jim hushed his son with a soothing hum and gentle sway of his arms. The baby let out a hiccup and fell back into a sleep with his head tucked under his father’s chin.Again, Jim read the e-mail, though made blurry from his tears. If only he had gotten there an hour earlier, he would have been able to tell his wife that he loved her too.

“Abe, what are we going to do?” Jim asked the sleeping infant. “What are we going to do without mommy?”

Abraham stirred at the sound of his father’s voice. He made a whimpering noise and squirmed in his father’s arms. And with one word, the world was better for Jim. He knew he was going to make it. Abe stretched out his arms to Jim and screamed with glee, “Papa, papa!”