”
“ I haven ’ t heard him. ” Sister Helen added over her shoulder as she left, “ He has no hair. ”
Neither had the Bouncer, neither had an amazingly aggressive atom whom Sister Judith was feeding and whom Jessa privately decided to call the Bruiser, but one little girl had. It was long and black and silky and it fell down in a perfect coiffure. Sister Judith saw Jessa looking at it and introduced, “ Madeleine, our femme fatale. She hasn ’ t fingernails yet, but when they come we ’ re sure they ’ ll be painted red. ”
Jessa f o und the gauze and cottonwool and began gingerly on the Bouncer. “ Don ’ t be frightened of him, ” called Sister Helen across the room. “ He ’ s one of our best toughs. ”
Eyes, nose and mouth washed, with the Bouncer earning his name by protesting at each operation, Jessa diapered and put him down and came over to feed Bing.
Bing ’ s bottle was taken out of storage. As she looked on the label “ William Brown, ” which was Bing ’ s proper name, Jessa kept her eye open again for Gink. Percy Gink, she thought, or even Aloysius Gink, but there was no bottle for any Gink at all.
Bing ’ s bottle was bigger than the taxi-man ’ s baby ’ s, but it was still much smaller than the bottles Jessa had used at G.S. And the process took much longer. Sister Helen, coming to watch her, explained, “ This is a premmie ’ s main disadvantage, Nurse Jess, his difficulty to suck and swallow. You need patience and then some. ”
“ I can see that now, ” nodded Jessa feelingly, “ and I can see too, why forty babies need a non-stop staff of twenty - three. ”
It was dinner break before she realized it. Margaret came out of her corner of the ward as she did, her cheeks flushed like pink carnations. Knowing her own ability to flush even without a hot roo m Jess had no doubt that she herself must look like a boiled beetroot. But oh, oh, it had been fun.
They ate at the window again. The dew was gone, the spider webs, blown away in a wind that had sprung up. Jessa chewed beef and potatoes and greens and never even thought about the cold chicken and iced avocado and buttered yams that Mother, desperate to keep her there on the island, would have ordered Benjamin to serve at noon Tinder the bauhinia tree.
Back again up the stairs and Jessa and Margaret close together now, being shown how to feed by drops.
From there into a small cubicle where three extra tiny ones were being attended continually and fed through tubes.
During the afternoon Sister Valerie called Jessa to watch a special case, a boy with paralysis of the lungs affecting his breathing.
“ Professor Gink made an artificial opening to his throat which allowed him to breathe, but which mucus could easily block. You must keep constant watch, ready in an instant to clear the opening. Will you do that, please? ”
Jessa nodded, “ Yes, Sister Valerie, ” realizing she had almost answered, “ Yes, Professor Gink. ”
She looked down on the little boy and decided to call him the Ace. He had sharp eyes and quick hands, and she was sure that one day he would break the sound barrier, though of course when he grew up that probably would be about as involved as catching a bus.
She thought of that Gink baby, the youngest of Daddy - long-legs ’ s large quiver-full. She found she remembered him quite clearly, even though most prems, she had discovered, were pathetically alike in the sweet immaturity. She recalled with a stab of love in her heart his small, rather lost face. Rather like an absent-minded professor, she smiled — then realized that she had committed a libel, or was it a slander?—in naming the obscure Gink prem, son of that obscure Daddy-long-legs father, after the Professor Gink.
Oh, well, Junior could be the perfesser then, she grinned.
Matron Martha came in soon afterwards. It was remarkable how she seemed to “ arrive ” by neither “ opening ” nor “ entering, ” just as she had
“ I haven ’ t heard him. ” Sister Helen added over her shoulder as she left, “ He has no hair. ”
Neither had the Bouncer, neither had an amazingly aggressive atom whom Sister Judith was feeding and whom Jessa privately decided to call the Bruiser, but one little girl had. It was long and black and silky and it fell down in a perfect coiffure. Sister Judith saw Jessa looking at it and introduced, “ Madeleine, our femme fatale. She hasn ’ t fingernails yet, but when they come we ’ re sure they ’ ll be painted red. ”
Jessa f o und the gauze and cottonwool and began gingerly on the Bouncer. “ Don ’ t be frightened of him, ” called Sister Helen across the room. “ He ’ s one of our best toughs. ”
Eyes, nose and mouth washed, with the Bouncer earning his name by protesting at each operation, Jessa diapered and put him down and came over to feed Bing.
Bing ’ s bottle was taken out of storage. As she looked on the label “ William Brown, ” which was Bing ’ s proper name, Jessa kept her eye open again for Gink. Percy Gink, she thought, or even Aloysius Gink, but there was no bottle for any Gink at all.
Bing ’ s bottle was bigger than the taxi-man ’ s baby ’ s, but it was still much smaller than the bottles Jessa had used at G.S. And the process took much longer. Sister Helen, coming to watch her, explained, “ This is a premmie ’ s main disadvantage, Nurse Jess, his difficulty to suck and swallow. You need patience and then some. ”
“ I can see that now, ” nodded Jessa feelingly, “ and I can see too, why forty babies need a non-stop staff of twenty - three. ”
It was dinner break before she realized it. Margaret came out of her corner of the ward as she did, her cheeks flushed like pink carnations. Knowing her own ability to flush even without a hot roo m Jess had no doubt that she herself must look like a boiled beetroot. But oh, oh, it had been fun.
They ate at the window again. The dew was gone, the spider webs, blown away in a wind that had sprung up. Jessa chewed beef and potatoes and greens and never even thought about the cold chicken and iced avocado and buttered yams that Mother, desperate to keep her there on the island, would have ordered Benjamin to serve at noon Tinder the bauhinia tree.
Back again up the stairs and Jessa and Margaret close together now, being shown how to feed by drops.
From there into a small cubicle where three extra tiny ones were being attended continually and fed through tubes.
During the afternoon Sister Valerie called Jessa to watch a special case, a boy with paralysis of the lungs affecting his breathing.
“ Professor Gink made an artificial opening to his throat which allowed him to breathe, but which mucus could easily block. You must keep constant watch, ready in an instant to clear the opening. Will you do that, please? ”
Jessa nodded, “ Yes, Sister Valerie, ” realizing she had almost answered, “ Yes, Professor Gink. ”
She looked down on the little boy and decided to call him the Ace. He had sharp eyes and quick hands, and she was sure that one day he would break the sound barrier, though of course when he grew up that probably would be about as involved as catching a bus.
She thought of that Gink baby, the youngest of Daddy - long-legs ’ s large quiver-full. She found she remembered him quite clearly, even though most prems, she had discovered, were pathetically alike in the sweet immaturity. She recalled with a stab of love in her heart his small, rather lost face. Rather like an absent-minded professor, she smiled — then realized that she had committed a libel, or was it a slander?—in naming the obscure Gink prem, son of that obscure Daddy-long-legs father, after the Professor Gink.
Oh, well, Junior could be the perfesser then, she grinned.
Matron Martha came in soon afterwards. It was remarkable how she seemed to “ arrive ” by neither “ opening ” nor “ entering, ” just as she had
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