LITMIR.BIZ

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dress strained across her belly.

      ‘Nadine, this is Luci Dawson, one of the community health nurses,’ Seb said as he switched sides to look into the little boy’s left ear. ‘Luci, would you mind checking Nadine’s blood pressure for me while I finish up with Byron? This is Nadine’s fifth pregnancy and she hasn’t had any problems, but she hasn’t had any antenatal care either and she’s not sure of her dates. She thinks she might be about seven months but seeing as we’re here I thought we’d do a bit of a check.’

      ‘Sure.’ Luci smiled at Nadine.

      The woman looked much further along than seven months. Luci couldn’t imagine not having any antenatal care herself but Seb had warned her that things were different out here. Nadine looked relaxed but Luci knew Seb was worried.

      It was hard to pinpoint her age. Her brown skin was smooth and glowed but her eyes looked tired. She could be anywhere from twenty-five to thirty-five. Even so, a fifth pregnancy was a lot.

      Luci wrapped the blood-pressure cuff around Nadine’s arm and pumped it up. She popped the stethoscope in her ears and listened for the heartbeat followed by silence as the cuff deflated. Her blood pressure was fine.

      ‘All normal,’ she told Seb.

      ‘Good.’ Seb nodded. ‘Byron seems to have another slight middle-ear infection, swimmer’s ear most likely. I’ll give him a course of antibiotics but no swimming for a week, okay? And before you go I’d like to listen to the baby’s heart and take a couple of measurements, if that’s all right. Can you just hop up on the bed behind the screen for me?’

      Seb rifled through one of the medical bags and found the medication he wanted. He wrote Byron’s name and the instructions on a label and attached it to the bottle.

      Luci took the bottle and handed him the stethoscope. She picked Byron up and popped him on her hip and followed Seb around the screen. Protocol dictated that she needed to be present for the exam.

      Nadine had already hoisted her dress up to expose her belly, which was as tight as a drum. Luci felt a familiar pull of longing and jealousy when she saw the woman’s heavily pregnant frame but she tried her best to ignore it. She was a professional, she could do this.

      Seb placed the bulb of the scope on Nadine’s tummy and moved it around, listening for the baby’s heartbeat. Luci watched him. She saw him frown and reposition the stethoscope. She could see Nadine hold her breath but then Seb smiled and Nadine relaxed and exhaled.

      Seb pulled the stethoscope out of his ears and looped it around his neck. Luci handed him a tape measure, which he took but didn’t immediately use.

      ‘Well, that explains a few things,’ he said as he smiled at Nadine. ‘You’re having twins.’

      ‘Twins?’ Nadine and Luci said in unison.

      Seb nodded and his blue eyes sparkled. ‘Now I know you’ve done all this before but this is the first set of twins you’ve had. I want you to have some antenatal care. I want you to make an appointment at the hospital in Dubbo—actually, I’ll make it for you,’ he said as he helped Nadine to sit up on the edge of the bed.

      He pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket and scrolled through the address book, looking for the number. Nadine stood up and slipped her feet back into her flip-flops before taking Byron from Luci.

      Seb had been put through to the right department and covered the speaker with his hand as he spoke to Nadine. ‘Can you make it to Dubbo tomorrow afternoon?’

      Nadine nodded and Seb confirmed the time.

      ‘They will do an ultrasound scan,’ he said as he ended the call. ‘It’s important that they try to confirm your dates and check that everything is on track. Any dramas, make sure you call the Budgee clinic. I’ll still be there tomorrow and I’ll phone Dubbo for an update,’ he added, wanting to make sure that she understood he’d be around to keep an eye on her. He handed Nadine a card with the Budgee clinic number on it and added the number for the Dubbo hospital, along with the appointment time.

      ‘Do you think she’ll keep the appointment?’ Luci asked as they hit the road a little later for the return trip to Budgee. Flocks of galahs and sulphur-crested cockatoos were feeding at the side of the road. The cockatoos rose up in a squawking mass as the car passed them but the little pink and grey galahs seemed oblivious. They kept their heads down, pecking away at the gum-nut seeds that were strewn on the ground.

      ‘I hope so. Twins are obviously trickier to deal with, and gestational diabetes is high in the indigenous population so I’d like her to have the proper care. It’ll be another month before anyone is back out at Frog Hollow. Anything could happen in that time.’

      * * *

      Luci’s muscles groaned in protest as she lowered herself onto a child-sized kindergarten chair. Muscles she’d forgotten she had ached and every time she moved she was reminded of the night before. She’d been stretched, bent and contorted into all sorts of positions last night but she wasn’t complaining even if her muscles were. She and Seb had barely made it back to the motel before tearing each other’s clothes off. Their desire had been building all afternoon until it had reached fever pitch and they had almost sprinted to her room and spent the rest of the evening making love, stopping only briefly to shower and grab some food before they’d gone back to her room. Luci knew they must have looked like they had been having frenzied sex but she hadn’t cared any more. It hadn’t been like home. She could behave as she pleased out here and it pleased her to misbehave with Seb.

      She smiled to herself as she thought about what they’d got up to, until she realised that the preschoolers sitting at the table with her weren’t going to give her time to daydream.

      She was spending the afternoon in the child-care centre and kindergarten attached to the community health clinic. The work was pretty much the same, assessing the development of the children, but the approach was different. Instead of a formal appointment, Luci played with the children in the kindergarten environment, doing surreptitious development checks. Sitting with the kids while they drew pictures or constructed masterpieces out of cardboard rolls, boxes, egg cartons and metres of sticky tape gave her a chance to assess their hearing, speech and fine motor skills. Later she’d play outside with them in the sandpit and on the climbing equipment, observing their balance, co-ordination and gross motor skills.

      If she noticed any issues she could then make referrals to the visiting therapists but, again, making appointments didn’t necessarily work. Appointment times were not generally considered fixed and Luci had been told that a lot of the time the health-care staff just had to hope that some of the kids were in attendance at playgroup when the visiting therapists were in town.

      Luci was writing a child’s name on the cardboard robot that he’d made when she noticed Nadine and Byron coming into the centre.

      Nadine looked tired today, definitely not as fresh as yesterday. The circles under her eyes had darkened and Luci thought her face looked a little pinched and drawn, as if she was in pain. Luci stood up. ‘Nadine, hello. Are you on your way to Dubbo?’

      Nadine nodded. ‘I thought I’d drop Byron here while I went for my appointment, if that’s okay. He knows this kindy.’

      Budgee was about halfway between Frog Hollow and Dubbo. Nadine had had to pass through town in order to reach Dubbo.

      ‘Sure,’ Luci replied as Byron ran off to play. ‘Are you feeling all right?’

      ‘I didn’t sleep well and my back is a bit sore. I think I might have pulled a muscle when I picked Byron up this morning.’

      ‘Have you got time for a cup of tea or water? Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you something to drink?’ Luci offered. But before she could usher her to a chair Nadine clutched her stomach and looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

      ‘What is it?’ Luci asked.

      But Nadine didn’t answer, she just looked down at the floor. Luci followed her gaze.

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