Lenoir

The Facts of Life

Composed of Brule clay and volcanic ash, Chimney Rock rose at least 480 feet from the south edge of the North Platte River Valley floor. For emigrants on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails it was a symbol of the western dream. A road marker giving them hope that they were going to make it to their destination. Most who kept pioneer diaries jotted at least a note about the place.

Clarence could read and write, which had helped him run a successful business, but he wasn't the sharing his internal thoughts and intentions type. Lenoir could write her name and that was the extent of her literacy.

She had come to like the sound of his voice when he read to her from the Bible.

"And he said unto his disciples, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?""

Lenoir had started to dream of names for her baby. Even though it was one of her favorite passages, her mind had started to wander. Destiny would be a nice name, she thought. Or ..."

Clarence slapped the book closed and thanked her for breakfast. Ready to dig in and start his day of rest. He and two of the other men were going to adventure on horseback and see if they could find a fishing hole on the North Platte.

After dishes and checking on the livestock, Lenoir pulled out her sewing and hummed a tune that her mother used to sing to her as a little girl. Her fingers swiftly passed the needle through the fabric, making the collar on a new shirt for her husband. She had also begun making baby items. She had been keeping scraps of cloth, ribbon, and sacks for this purpose.

As she worked a little girl from a neighboring wagon came towards her with a milkweed flower in hand. She showed her the caterpillar crawling on the flower. It was a late bloomer, should have been a butterfly by now.

"It's beautiful, Hannah." She said. "Show your mother and ask her to see me. Lenoir watched as the 5 yr old marched off with her important task, the milkweed like a beacon leading the way.

Hannah's mother, Jessica, found her before Sunday nooning. A baby, Liam, on her hip.

"Ah, thank you for taking the time, Jess." She offered a cup of tea from her best cup, gladly accepted.

"Thank you for your trailside hospitality, Lennie." Her smile was sympathetic, "How are you and Clarence faring today?"

Lenoir didn't know how to ask the questions she needed to ask. She could barely be heard over the bawling of animals and babies, the boiling of water over the cook fire, and the general fuss of families getting ready for lunch. Martha Burgess was yelling at her boy, something about cleaning behind his ears.

"We fare well, thank you." Her hand smoothed the apron across her belly. "How are you and Mr. Cross?

"Quite well." She smiled and smoothed her hand across her baby's temple. He must have been born just before or just after they left Maryland, judging by his size.

Lenoir sipped her tea and offered a slice of pie. "And your children?"

"Liam has been healthy and grows fast," she glowed, "Hannah has been helpful in keeping camp lately. The twins, Greta and Catherine, just turned 8. Daniel is but 17 and thinks he is in love with Patricia Smith's daughter, the blonde one, Maggie."

Jessica had had two more children, Bonnie and Aaron, but they had caught sick and died months before the Cross family had left for Oregon. Her husband assured her they would have more.

Lenoir tried to be delicate, but she was sure that Jessica was the perfect person to instruct her on the facts of labor. They needed more tea.

Gradually Lenoir led up to the birth story conversation. But it wasn't hard to get Jess talking about the joys and trauma of what she had been through in the last 20 plus years of her life. She needed to vent.

Her first labor was heartbreaking. She had had complications, and it was a twilight labor, where drugs had been used to knock out the delivering mother. She awoke and was told there would be no baby.

Her husband knew she could get pregnant now and didn't want to wait, so they quickly got pregnant again. She miscarried. It had been too soon, her internal workings were not healed from the first doctor botched delivery. But it made her look like a woman who couldn't get pregnant or didn't deserve to. She was mortified and depressed.

She was very young for her first two pregnancies as well. The doctor advised her husband that he should let her get stronger and perhaps more mature before he try to impregnate her again.

Briefly she confessed that she had anxiety over the whole concern. Jessica had wondered if her husband wasn't buying s*x somewhere, or had a mistress, because he did not touch her for half a year.

Then they got pregnant with Daniel, their 17 year old. She was pampered for the last half of her pregnancy as her husband grew more and more concerned over, and convinced of, her fragility. In the labor with Daniel she was awake, no drugs, because he did not wait for her to be brought to the doctor nor he to her.

She was on bed rest and awoke in labor. She called for her husband, who was doing his best to make his own coffee. He ran up the stairs and delivered the baby himself, since it was already crowing. Obviously no help would arrive in time.

Happy with his wife and new healthy son, her husband was content to let her rest again. That method had proved reliable as far as he was concerned. It was two years later that Bonnie was born, red faced squealing at the world, seemingly offended by the condition of her birthing room.

Six months later Jessica conceived again, and carried to term her boy, Aaron. But both Bonnie and Aaron had caught the same condition and died not far apart as well, recently. This part of the story made her start to cry some, and baby Liam fussed as well.

Shushing Liam she continued. "I miscarried again 12 years or so ago. I wasn't far along but it is always devastating to loose the dreams you start to have of a child."

"The twins are eight. I thought I was getting big," she laughed. "I thought maybe I was having a really big boy, so I took it easy the last couple months." She twirled a leaf in front of Liam, keeping him occupied. "This time the doctor was prepared for a quick birth and possible complications, so he was there during the whole birth. My husband was much more prepared for the possibility I might die in labor than he was for the possibility that I would bear identical twin girls."

Lenoir listened and nodded. Refilling her friend's tea cup as needed.

"Hanna was a breeze. A small baby, easy and uncomplicated. She's such a treasure." She sighed. "Liam was also easier than my other deliveries." She hugged him.

Lenoir felt awkward. That was a lot of information, but she needed some things said that were more technical. "So where exactly does the baby come out?"

Jess froze for a second, and realized how innocent Lenoir really was. Tenderly she layed a hand on her arm and gave her the gritty, bloody details that nature intended.