The baby was the hit really of the Hall of Fame Banquet that is once she woke up was fed and changed. Everyone had to see her then. Some of the people hadn't known Emily had been pregnant and were quite shocked to learn about Laurel. But she is such a beautiful little baby that she delighted most everyone after the initial surprise at her presence wore off. She didn't seem to mind being passed from hand to hand around the room.
While everyone was oohing and ahhing over Laurel, Cherry and I bid farewell to Emily and went to see Matt. I had expected him to be there and was surprised that he was not. He answered his doorbell looking surprised to see us. "Hey there, Cuz."
"Hey yourself," I replied as we entered his living room.
"What's up?" Matt asked and I had to smile at his use of Emily's favorite sign in voice.
"I am surprised you didn't come to Emily's induction to the Hall of Fame for the Deaf School Banquet," I answered.
"Oh, I declined the invite. I felt awkward going there. I only know a few signs. I thought I'd be lost. It was Emily's night and I didn't want to take anything from her by always having to ask what something meant."
"Matt you doofus, it was interpreted for the hearing people in the audience," Cherry said with a smile.
"Oh, hindsight is twenty-twenty. I guess I should have gone then."
"Yes, you should have. It was very nice."
"Next time. Hey listen you two I have an early morning appointment. I need to cut this little visit short. I'll call you in a few days Rachel," Matt stated. We bid him farewell and went to the dorms where Cherry stayed.
A couple days later the rest of the student body at Wolf Lake got wind of Emily's induction into the Hall of Fame. They decided to throw Emily a surprise party in honor of her special recognition. Cherry and I both were aware that Emily wasn't keen on Surprise parties. After the surprise baby shower she'd let us in on that fact. But then one of the staff members got involved. Brenda Pfizer had been asked to maybe help out with making the arrangements to get Emily to go to the party by Jill Moore. Jill is another friend of mine but not really of the same realm as Cherry and Elizabeth. I don't go out to do things will Jill but we talk a lot at school that is when I'm not bugging the hell out of Emily. Anyway, Jill asked Brenda to help with the party. Somehow in the ensuing days it went from someone giving Emily advanced warning to being an out and out surprise.
I had also gotten involved by that point and felt sort of stuck between a rock and hard place. I knew Emily didn't like surprises but with Brenda and everyone else so gung-ho about it I felt like I couldn't do or say much. As the party time grew nearer I did try and drop a few hints to Emily. One week I asked, " Do you like surprises?"
She reiterated, "Not really. They make me uncomfortable."
I replied, "Okay in two weeks I'll tell you something that is meant to be a surprise."
The two weeks went by and the week before the party I said to her, "Next week there will be a party before class, during break and after class. People will be bringing food and cake."
"Why?"
I felt like I couldn't just tell her what was going on, not when so many people wanted to surprise her. So I said, "You will understand next week."
The next week came. I decorated the student lounge as it is the only place where we are allowed to have food. I had somehow become the decorating committee. Jill was to bring Cake. Other students had different things they were to bring. We tried hard. Poor Jill made two different cakes and bought a third. The first cake fell. The second cake she ran off and left at home. And the third cake she almost didn't get bought until I called her and asked if she remembered the cake. She bought this gorgeous cake. It was a white cake with white, icing, peach and burgundy roses and green icing.
Time was running short for getting the party ready. Emily had been at another campus all day and was expected to be running late for class. But we none expected that she would cancel class altogether. I was shocked when Betsy came up and plastered a sign on the wall saying that the class was cancelled for the evening.
Emily doesn't just cancel class. It is very unlike her. The strange thing we found was that she paged Betsy and not Jane. "Why did she cancel class?" I asked Betsy.
Betsy replied, "I don't know she didn't give me a reason. She just said something came up."
"Can you page her and tell her about the party. Maybe if she knows and can come later she will."
"She said something came up. She cancelled class she won't come later."
"No I mean later. Can I write this so you understand me?"
"No tell me in sign."
"I know something come up. I want you to page her and at least tell her about the party."
"No something came up. She won't be here."
"Fine, Thanks," I replied feeling very heavy hearted. Not for myself but for everyone else that had gone to so much trouble.
Other teachers had been involved with the planning. I was approached by one of the professors that is hearing. "Has anyone contacted Emily? She will feel awful when she finds out about this."
"No, Betsy won't page her. I tried to get her to but she won't."
"She has to be told. She'll want to try and get here if she can."
"There isn't anything I can do. I don't have a pager. I don't know where Emily is so it's not like I can call her house," I replied.
"Let me try," Curtis said and went in search of Clarissa. Moments later he returned and asked where Betsy was. I pointed to the Computer Lab. He disappeared and returned with the same stark response from her that I had got. "Maybe Jane will page her since Betsy won't."
"Jane is in class. I will have to wait for Brenda. Maybe she knows what we should be doing," I replied and then went to find Cherry and Jill and everyone else that was left waiting. Everyone was so confused at what we should do. Finally Cherry went and told the class that was waiting for Emily that it was cancelled since Betsy hadn't thought to put the sign up at the building where the class was being held. While she was gone I stayed with Jill and waited for Brenda.
"Do you feel like Betsy knows more than she's telling us?" Jill asked me.
"Yes, I do. I feel that way since she's so adamant about not paging Emily back. It's just strange."
"Hey you okay"
"Yeah, I'm fine just frustrated. I do feel sad that everyone went to so much trouble. But I guess that's what we get for making this a surprise," I answered as we walked to the snack bar to get a drink.
"Things happen. But this is really out of the ordinary for Emily."
"We planned a surprise for her and instead we got surprised."
"That's the truth," Jill replied as we returned to the main Wolf Lake building where our classes are normally at to find Brenda waiting.
"Jane told me. I'm sorry," Brenda said when she saw us.
"Don't be sorry. It's no one's fault but our own. Emily is going to feel bad about this when she finds out," Jill stated.
"Have you tried to tell her?"
"Yes, We want her to know that after her whatever it is that came up is over if she can to come by school for the party. But no one will page her." I answered.
"One minute," Brenda replied as she ducked back into Jane's classroom and told Jane what I had just said. Jane apparently gave Brenda permission to page Emily because she got Jane's pager and wrote out a note which is no small feat given the size of those pager screens and buttons. They are like very miniature typewriters that fit in the palm of one hand. She had me glance over it. Though it was not entirely correct about everything it was close enough that I said "FINE++" Then the next waiting game started. It was time to see if Emily would reply.
Let me just say that Jill wasn't exactly a good girl because she got tired at some point of being stalled by Betsy and decided to take matters into her own hands. Most of the student body knows the private emails of the professors even if we use normally a school issued one. So while we were waiting to see if Emily answered her page Jill sent Emily not 1 email but four with name variation to make sure she got the right email address. Jill isn’t anything if not resourceful.
Time continued to click by and nothing was heard. Eventually the students involved decided to try again the next week minus the surprise. Life would have been a lot simpler if we'd used that approach to start with. But Cherry and I were concerned that something was truly wrong and more than a little something had come up with Emily. Once it became clear that Emily was not answering her page or her emails we quickly cleaned up the decorations, left over cake since we went ahead and partied without the guest of honor, and the dishes and cups. We then made a trip again across town to Emily's house.
"I can't imagine what happen?" I said thinking aloud.
"I can and I don't like what I am thinking."
"And that is?"
"What if Joanna showed up again?"
"Oh, now I'm really worried," I said with a cringe.
"Sorry." Cherry replied as we pulled into Emily's driveway to see her house was well lit.
I hit the doorbell flasher and we waited. Emily came to the door a minute later looking frazzled. The baby was screaming on her shoulder. "She won't stop crying." Emily signed as she tried to sooth the baby.
"Poor baby. She has colic," I supplied watching how Laurel had her little feet tucked up against her stomach.
"What do I do? She acts like she starving. I try and feed her. Then she screams more."
"Her stomach is full of gas. It is making her hurt. You need to try and help her expel the trapped gas."
"How do I do that?"
"We'll show you." I said as Cherry and I stepped into the living room and shrugged off our coats. The beasties promptly claimed them as cozy new beds.
"Have you had any sleep?" Cherry asked Emily noticing she had dark circles under her eyes.
"Not much. A babysitter had her today since I had to go to the other campus. But she screamed last night and all day today. I hate to see her like this. I'm so tired and I don't know how to help her."
"Colic is hard to deal with. Many parents have to try different things until they find what works best for thei baby. You might need to change what you are eating if you are eating things like broccoli or radishes. The chemicals in them pass through your breastmilk and cause gas. You sort of have to experiment with what you eat to see how and what affects her." I replied taking the screaming little urchin from Emily's shoulder and bouncing her across my knee.
"Now you tell me."
"There are only so many hours in a day. I have to let you eat sleep and attempt to work sometime."
"Very funny," Emily signed and stretched.
"Go take a nap. Rachel and I will watch her for awhile."
"One thing good about being deaf is once I remove my hearing aids she can scream and I won't hear her," Emily signed before walking back towards her bedroom.
I knew she didn't mean what she had just said in a bad way. She loved Laurel and wouldn't purposely ignore her child. But there is something to be said about silence when the are screaming at the top of their lungs. I had already turned my hearing aid down because I couldn't hack her pitiful cries. Cherry retreated to the kitchen and was put a kettle on to boil some tea.
It was going to be another long night. I just wondered how long it would take before Matt showed up. I hadn't even got that thought completely through my head when the light flashed. I opened the door. He winced at hearing the baby cry. "Saw your car. Figured something was wrong considering how late it is."
"Laurel has Colic. Emily is so tired she can't see straight. Cherry and I are taking a turn at babysitting. Want to keep us company?"
"Sure. The office is closed tomorrow while they fix the heating system," Matt answered.
Four hours later Laurel had calmed down and was sleeping if but a little fretfully when Emily stumbled into the living room looking only slightly less haggard than she had when we sent her to take a nap earlier. "You got her to sleep?"
"Yes, She had a very unhappy stomach."
"Why don't you two go home now and get some rest. I know you both have class later this morning."
"Okay, but try not to feed her much for the next couple feedings. Let her stomach calm down," I said because I was exhausted from the ordeal.
"I'll stay with you if you'd like Emily? You can get a few more hours sleep in. The girls have showed me how to help her sleep," Matt fingerspelled and signed. It reminded me so much of the way I had been less than a year before.
I smiled and stole a glance at Cherry, who returned the knowing smile while Emily replied, "That is sweet of you. But I can't ask you to stay."
"You're not asking. I'm saying I will," Matt said sitting down next to the bassinet that was in the living room, gazing very quickly at the baby who was still fretting a bit.
Cherry and I waved good night but neither Matt nor Emily seemed to be aware of us departing. They were too busy trying to ignore their own feelings. It warmed my heart. .