Simon started his new job at the end of August, before Salima began at Juilliard. It was very exciting for him. The school was in the Bronx. The students were from age three to twenty-one, and Simon worked with the older ones, which was his strength, as he had demonstrated with Salima. The program was more extensive than what he had been able to do at Caldwell, and he showed Blaise and Salima around the second week he was there. He was ecstatic and he could hardly wait for the baby to come. His life was complete, with Salima and Blaise, their baby, and his new job.
The week after he started at the New York Institute for Special Education, Salima started at Juilliard. She had a wonderful adviser whose main job was to keep Salima from signing up for every class they offered. She signed up for a heavy course load, and Becky took her to school on the bus every day. And Salima used her white cane while she was there and didn’t care. All she could think of were the music classes she was taking, two of them with Lucianna, who was incredibly proud of her. She joined a church choir in Harlem for extra course credit, and she was so busy with classes and after-school activities that Simon and Blaise hardly saw her. And she had a thousand new things to tell them every night.
Blaise was still working at the network on her due date on the first of October, and she felt huge by then. The baby was a good size, and in the last days of her pregnancy, she looked like she was going to pop any minute.
Simon happened to be watching her morning segment before he left for school, on the baby’s scheduled due date. She was talking about a recent scandal in the Senate when he saw an odd expression cross her face. She maintained her concentration, but he had the sense that something was wrong, and called her immediately when she came off the air. She answered her cell phone as soon as she saw it was him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, feeling nervous, about to leave for school, but he wanted to be sure she was all right first. She had looked odd to him.
“I think so,” she said hesitantly. “My water broke while I was on the air. I was going to call the doctor in a minute. I’m glad you called.” And he was startled to realize she sounded scared. It was so unlike her that all he wanted to do was get to her and reassure her and take her in his arms.
“I’ll be right over,” he said immediately. He had already warned the school that they were expecting a baby any day, and they had been very nice about it.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Blaise said in a strained voice. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m having contractions every four minutes.” He tried not to panic when she said it, and made an effort to sound calmer than he felt, for her.
“That’s okay, sweetheart. Get Mark or Charlie to take you to the hospital with Tully. I’ll meet you there in ten minutes. Have Mark call the doctor. Right away!”
“Okay,” she said meekly. She was having trouble talking through a contraction, and Mark appeared as it was happening and was terrified at the look on her face as she handed her BlackBerry to him and Simon told him what to do.
“Call the doctor and bring her to the hospital immediately. She’s having the baby,” he told Mark with a calm he didn’t feel, as he ran out of the apartment, and Mark promised to get her to the hospital as fast as Tully could drive them there.
Everyone who saw her leave cheered as Mark and Charlie led her away, and Blaise waved and smiled wanly. She really had stayed until the last minute.
“Christ, were you planning to have it at your desk between meetings?” Charlie scolded her as they crossed the lobby and found Tully outside. But Blaise didn’t say a word. She was in too much pain. It had all happened so fast. And on his way to the hospital, Simon called Becky and told her to pick up Salima at Juilliard. She wanted to be there too, and after some hesitation, Blaise had agreed.
After that Simon got minute-by-minute reports from Mark in the car with her, while Tully drove through midtown morning traffic as fast as possible, praying he wouldn’t have to deliver the baby. Mark told Simon the doctor was on her way.
It took them twenty minutes to get to the hospital, and Simon was on the sidewalk waiting for them when Tully pulled up and Mark hopped out immediately, looking panicked.
“Get a doctor fast! She’s going to have it really soon!” Blaise could no longer walk or talk by then and looked relieved when Simon got in the car with her and gently helped her out. Mark had gotten a nurse with a wheelchair, who sized the situation up immediately and literally ran the wheelchair with Blaise in it into the building, saying only, “Let’s get you upstairs,” as Simon ran beside them and Blaise clutched his hand in a viselike grip.
“I love you,” she managed to say between contractions.