Martha banged her file drawer shut and turned to her co-worker. Susan continued to type but Martha’s sharp voice smacked her between the shoulders and skewed her fingers on the keyboard.
“They’d better call me before they call anyone else!”
Susan started to hit backspace, but curiosity got the best of her. She turned her head, her fingers still poised to type. Martha noticed Susan’s glimmer of interest and pounced.
“Mark’s wife may be the center of his life now, but I’m going to be the first one they call.”
Susan dropped her hands into her lap and swiveled in her chair to face Martha. “Aren’t you going to go to the hospital?”
Martha stood and slammed a stack of file folders down onto her desk. “Nope. Karen didn’t want me in the delivery room. Just her own mother.” She stabbed pencils into her ever-dry World’s Best Grandma coffee mug and straightened the stack of file folders again. “I don’t care. That’s fine. But they have to call me first.”
Martha bent under her desk and pulled out one of the boxes piled there. They’d been there for as long as Susan could remember, but now Martha attacked them with fervor .
Susan bit her lip and chose her next words carefully. “My mother-in-law came to the hospital when Emma was born. She wasn’t in the delivery room with me, but I liked knowing she was there and would see the baby when she was born.”
Martha flicked through the stacks of paper in the box, cramming them into the small wastepaper basket by her desk. She shook her head and grabbed another stack of papers. “I’m not going.”
“I think David liked having her there,” Susan nearly whispered.
“Karen’s mother can be there. That’s her gift. I was there when my daughter had her baby, and that’s what it was—a gift. So I’m not going to be there, but they have to call me first and tell me what the baby is and what its name is.”
Martha jammed the lid back on the paper box and crammed it back beneath her desk. She looked around for more clutter, but finding none, sat back in her office chair and rapidly clicked her mouse. Karen thought to say something soothing, but could think of nothing. She turned back to her monitor screen just as Martha’s cell phone rang.
Martha grabbed up the phone and let it ring again. She looked at the caller ID display and then flipped the phone open. “Did she have the baby?”
Martha’s hand involuntarily clapped her cheek, then dropped to her mouth. Susan saw tears well in Martha’s eyes, though Martha fought quickly to control them. She tilted the mouthpiece of the phone away from her and made an announcement to anyone within earshot of her cubicle, “It’s a girl!”
A few co-workers ambled over to Martha’s desk to share in her excitement. They stood nearby as Martha continued to speak to her son on the phone. “What’s her name?”
Martha frowned. “Oh. No wonder you didn’t tell anyone before. Row-ry. Rur-ee. R-o-r-y,” she said more slowly. “Why’d you have to pick a name I can’t pronounce? Rorly. Rolry. You’re killing me. R-o-r-y. How about I call her Rosie?” Martha laughed. ” I can say that.”
The looks of astonishment on her co-worker’s faces must have alerted Martha to her rudeness. “No, I’m just kidding,” she said into the phone. “R-o-ry. I like it. It’s cute. Are Karen and the baby okay?”
Martha listened to her son’s response as the crowd around her desk started to disperse. She quickly wrapped up the call. “Okay then, Mark. Go back and enjoy your baby. I’ll come and see Rosie in about an hour.” She laughed. Susan heard Mark correct her on the other end of the phone. “I know. Rory. I’m just kidding.”
Susan planted a smile on her face as Martha hung up. “Congratulations! A little girl.”
“Rory," she pronounced easily as she shook her head. "No wonder they wouldn’t tell anyone the name. They wanted to keep it a secret. I could have told them I can’t say that name.” She slapped her palms against her thighs. “Oh well.”
Karen watched as Martha turned back to her computer. Unable to concentrate and let the phone call go, Martha called her daughter.
“Did Mark call you?” Pause. “Yeah. He called me first. It’s a girl. Rorly. Rawhry. Oh, damn. R-o-r-y,” she said slowly. “They’re going to call her Rosie. That’s better. I don’t know why they didn’t just name her Rosie. It’s a lot easier. But they didn’t ask me.”
Karen turned back to her desk. She wondered what Martha’s daughter-in-law called Martha when given her choice of names? She knew what she’d call her.
I loved this!!!!
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