Entangled Hearts

Chapter 34

When little Laura Gene was three months old, her mother went to Mrs. Chatterton one morning and asked, "Do you think that it is necessary for us to keep a nurse longer?"

"Miss Walters is very efficient. Why, don't you think we should keep her?"

"It seems like an unnecessary expense. Maybe I am selfish, Mrs. Chatterton, but sometimes I feel like snatching my baby right out of Miss Walters' arms, and pushing the girl out of the way. I love my little darling so much. I feel like I would rather care for her myself, without the help of a nurse."

"I am afraid it would be too much for you, May," the woman warned in a gentle voice.

"But you do not understand." Tears glistened in Laura Mae's eyes. "I am hungry for the love of my baby. It helps me forget how lonesome I am without Gene."

"I see, dear. Suit yourself, but I do not like to see you tied down so closely with the care of your baby."

"It is good weather now and we can all go out in the fresh air every day. I am actually jealous when Miss Walters goes down the walk, pushing the new carriage with my pretty baby in it. I want to push it myself." Laura Mae smiled all the while she was talking but she was very serious, and the lovely lady knew she was.

"I will discharge her, then, if you really want me to. Edith is getting along without a nurse now. Of course, her mother is still there with her, but I am here to help you too. I have longed to be able to cuddle the little darling myself." So, the nurse was discharged and Laura Mae found out just what a responsibility it was to care for a real live baby girl, but, with Mrs. Chatterton's advice and the helpful suggestions she found in her books on infant care, she found it was an enjoyable task to be a mother.

She and Edith Randall often called each other on the telephone and arranged their walks together. They would wheel their neatly adorned baby carriages to a shaded bench in a grassy park and then sit down to discuss their little darlings.

"What do you think? He has gained eight ounces this week. Bobby will soon be as big a man as his father."

"You should see my baby smile; she is beginning to notice everything! I did not know that babies were so smart when they were still so tiny."

"Isn't it fun to care for them? It makes me think of when I was a little girl playing with my dolls, only this is more interesting. Does Laura Gene like her orange juice yet?"

"Oh, yes, she likes it now and her cod liver oil, too."

"Do you know, this morning he tried to raise his little head right up! It thrilled me pink!" Thus, the babies grew, developing and growing along at the same pace. It was much like the unfolding of tiny petals on a rosebud to see them changing and growing stronger and prettier every day. The two young mothers were held near and dear to each other by a common bond. Later when the babies were a few months older, the conversations changed just a little.

"Edith, my baby has a tooth! Oh, it looks cute just one all alone down in the bottom of her mouth!"

"Bobby has two coming through at the same time, he was just awfully fretful last night. Oh, you should see him eat his cereal now." Before the girls could realize it, their babies had rows of snowy white teeth and were toddling about, jabbering in their own way about the blocks and other toys they found in the nursery.

***

Mrs. Chatterton spent fifteen long months of anxious waiting after the armistice was signed before she received word that John was sailing for the United States. Even then, he would have to remain in a Veteran's hospital for a while, before he would be permitted to go to his home on Colonial Heights. Infection had set in, and the doctors and nurses were having a very difficult time getting the wounds in his arm to heal as they wanted them to before they released them from their care.