Christmas surprise
A couple discover that the festive season really is a time for miracles
Deep and crisp?” Will asked. “Yes, please! You know me too well,” Carol said. “And spread the cheese in an even layer, won’t you? You can fit more on that way. I’ll be there in 10 minutes. See you, love.”
Carol popped her phone back into her bag and carried on walking home through the deserted, icy streets. She was looking forward to breakfast after a busy night as a midwife on the maternity ward.
“Oh, fantastic! Pizza and a cuppa. Just what I need.” Carol bent over to catch her breath – it had been a long climb up the three flights of stairs to the top-floor flat where she lived with her husband.
Will gave her an enormous kiss. “Sit down, love, and tell me all about it. How many babies born on the unit last night?”
“Seventeen! It’s always so busy at Christmas.” “How many called Noel?”
“One Noel, but only as a middle name, two Hollys and, amazingly, no Carols this year.”
Carol made a face. Many years ago, her parents had thought it clever to name her
Carol as she’d been born in December.
Her school days had been plagued by bad renditions of We Wish You A Merry Christmas on every possible occasion. The winter she lost her two front milk teeth had been a particularly good one for her tormentors.
“Poor kids!” Will laughed. “Still, it all pales into insignificance compared with my name, doesn’t it? Whatever possessed my parents to call me Wenceslas, I have no idea. I wasn’t even born at Christmas.”
“No wonder you changed your name as soon as you could,” Carol giggled.
Will sighed. “It’s your parents’ job to embarrass you, isn’t it?”
Carol and Will both fell silent for a moment. They had hoped for so many years to have children of their own, but it was not to be. “We’re happy as we are, aren’t we?” Will said. “We’ve got each other and we’re going to have a cracking Christmas.”
“Of course we are. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.” Carol yawned and stretched.
“Must be your bedtime,” Will chuckled. “I’ve prepared the turkey and veg, so sleep as long as you want. I’m off to the homeless shelter soon for my shift and I can sort out the rest of our meal when I get back. You deserve a rest.”
Carol watched as Will sorted out a few things to take with him to the refuge, including a delicious-looking cake he had made, shaped like a pine log, then she disappeared to the bedroom and fell fast asleep. When she awoke hours later, the flat was in darkness. She dressed quickly in black velvet trousers and a new fluffy jumper her mother had knitted, then added a pair of sparkling dangly earrings.
Suddenly, her face crumpled and tears streamed down her face. The longing to hold a baby in her arms, her own baby, was overwhelming. “It’s just Christmas,” she explained to Will when he returned. “It brings back all those feelings, those buried longings.”
Will held her tightly, muttering into her shoulder, “I feel the same. How I wish…”
“Boxing Day!” Will clapped his hands together.
“Do you think we’ve got time for a quick walk this morning, before you go to work? It’s so pretty outside, with all the snow.”
“Great!” Carol said. “I don’t start till after 11. I’ll get my coat. Oh, wait a minute, there goes my phone…” Her face fell. “That was the hospital. They’re short-staffed and want me to go in a couple of hours early. Sorry, Will.”
Carol was soon back at work, helping with the everyday miracle of birth. By lunchtime, she had delivered the most beautiful baby boy with a shock of black hair and deep blue eyes. His mother was doing remarkably well, which was more than could be said for his father, who had passed out cold during the delivery and had had to be taken to the nurses’ station and given a couple of stitches for a cut on his forehead.
Carol’s next task was helping an anxious first-time mother suffering from raised blood pressure and heading towards a Caesarean. Hot on the heels of this drama was an older lady having twins, which meant two midwives in the room and an awful lot of extra people in white coats buzzing around.
Carol had missed her tea break as it had all been too busy and she skipped lunch, too.
By mid-afternoon, she felt completely light-headed, almost on another planet.
“Only another couple of hours,” she mumbled as she flung herself through the doors of the delivery suite, colliding with her boss.
“What on earth?” the senior midwife said. “You look terrible! I’m not sure you should have been asked to come in early today if you weren’t up to the job.” “I feel fine,” Carol protested. “I didn’t have time for lunch – maybe I’ll sit down.”
“You’re not only going to sit down,” said Carol’s boss. “But I’m going to have you thoroughly checked over. You’re as white as a sheet and you look absolutely exhausted. Here, let me just take your blood pressure…”
A little while later, Carol was lying on a hospital bed with a huge grin plastered all over her face. She reached for her phone.
“Honestly, Will, I’m fine. For some reason, they say they’d prefer you to come and get me, in case I faint or some such nonsense. Is that OK?”
Carol looked at the tiny blobby picture in her hand and her heart began to sing the most hopeful song in the world. “Are you alright?” Will asked, appearing beside her bed.
“What’s going on? Are you ill?”
“Will!” Carol held the scan out in front of her as if it were the crown jewels. “You’ll never believe what’s happened! I didn’t realise because I’d given up – I thought this day would never come, but now it has and I’ve been checked over and everything’s fine.
“Explains why I’ve been finding the stairs up to the flat a bit too much – had you noticed?”
“Slow down,” Will said. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yes! I’m the laughing stock of the ward,” Carol said. “A midwife who didn’t even know she was pregnant. All the staff have been in to tease me.”
“Best Christmas present ever,” Will said. “I can’t wait to be a dad!” Carol swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I can’t wait to get home – got a craving for one of your awesome homemade pizzas.”
Will raised an eyebrow. “Deep and crisp and even?”
“You bet! With extra cheese.”