Old Hands, part 23

I had told my pregnant friend Christiane Santaularia to think of me if she needed any help when the baby came. “I’ll take you to the hospital, I’ll come and pick up Laura—anything you need, any time of the day or night,” I said. So I was not surprised when I got a call around 11 one evening that the time had come. “Would you take Laura?” Ramón asked.

“Of course!” I said.

“We’ll drop her off on the way to the hospital,” he said in a rush, and before we knew it, she was on our doorstep.

We found out the next morning that Christiane had had a little girl, now named Iris. Mother and baby were doing fine.

“What a great name for your sister!” we told Laura. “Named after a flower!”

She stayed with us for the day or two till the baby came home. We were all thrilled to see the tiny infant. The days were already warm enough to sit out in the backyard with her, at Christiane’s house or wherever the gang gathered for the kids to swim.