This was the type of situation that completely unnerved Hosea. Was Veronica sleeping? Should he wake her up? How? Just then he heard a godawful moan coming from across the hall. A tiny tuft of white hair and an atrophied face poked out from beneath a blue sheet. The body attached to it looked like that of an eight-year-old girl. Hosea looked closer. Oh my God, he thought, it’s Leander Hamm, Lawrence’s dad. Nobody had told him old Mr. Hamm was in the hospital, and, from the sounds of it, he wasn’t long for this world. Well, thought Hosea, it could be a good thing. Not that he invited death upon his townspeople regularly, but, after all, Leander Hamm would have had to have been almost ninety-five, and that’s a good long life. If he were to buy the farm sometime soon, then Veronica Epp’s alleged twins might not be as big a problem. Though it didn’t bode well for having Lorna move in with him.
Which reminded him. He cleared his throat and stretched out his arm to knock on Veronica’s door, keeping the rest of his body safely behind the wall. He had to find out from Veronica what the story was and he didn’t want the doctor coming around and wondering what his problem was.
“Come in?” Veronica called out to the empty doorway. Hosea had quickly pulled back his arm after the knock and was still standing behind the wall next to her door.
“Uh, Mrs. Epp, it’s, uh … Hosea Funk.”
Dead silence then except for the swishing of stiff sheets.
“Oh, Mr. Funk? Well, come in.”
Hosea had thought that Veronica Epp would have recognized the name right off the bat. He was the mayor, after all, but then again, she had just woken up and was in a somewhat groggy condition. He wouldn’t let it bother him. And besides, as he stood there, far from her actual bed, a look of recognition came over her face and she smiled warmly.
She rolled over, on her back now, and Hosea was truly alarmed at how enormous her belly was. Darnit, he thought. That’s gotta be twins.
“How are you feeling, Mrs. Epp?” Hosea planted his gaze on her face to avoid having to look at her stomach.
“Fine, thanks. The doctor just thought it would be a good idea to come in a bit before I go into labour, because I’m a high risk.”
“I see,” said Hosea. “Well, that’s good.”
Veronica Epp looked slightly puzzled.
“I mean it’s good that you’re here, being observed like this. It’s a very good thing.” Hosea coughed twice but resisted the urge to tug.
“Yes, Dr. Jean is very attentive, very good. And, love ’em dearly though I do, it’s rather a nice break from my other kids, you know.”
No, Hosea did not know. And what was this business with calling Dr. François Dr. Jean? That was rather personal, wasn’t it? He knew he would have balked to be called Mayor Hosea instead of Mayor Funk, but then again that wasn’t usually a problem in Algren as most people just called him Hosea or Hose. The few times someone like Tom had called him Mayor Funk he had detected just the slightest hint of sarcasm. But, of course, that might have been because Tom was his friend and why would friends be formal? But still.
“Hmmm …” Hosea nodded, trying to smile. He stepped towards Veronica and put his hand briefly on top of the mysterious machine making beeping noises and showing various squiggly lines on its screen.
“Handy contraption, this, eh?” Hosea stared at the lines in deep concentration as if he knew what they meant. What he was trying to do was figure out how he could best ask the question without appearing to be prying, that is, inappropriately curious about what was so obviously none of his business.
Veronica strained to turn her enormous body towards the machine to get a better look. The sight of her shifting startled Hosea and he stared, wide-eyed, hoping her gown would not slip off and expose her privates.
Hosea was beginning to feel very warm. Veronica looked uncomfortable. She grimaced slightly, then scratched her stomach. As she did so her gown shifted over a bit, and what was revealed to Hosea was just about the most gruesome thing he had ever seen. He thought he would be sick. What was it, he wondered, a scar? A birth defect? A smallish, round, bluish disk of smooth skin with what looked like lips in the centre of it stretched across the middle of her stomach. It wasn’t a tiny head pushing through, was it? Hosea knew it couldn’t be. He knew, of course, that babies did not just poke through the abdominal skin of their mothers for a look around or a bit of air. However, it looked like it would burst any second and Hosea did not want to be around when it did.
“Ha, would you look at that?” Veronica laughed. “Wouldn’t know it was a belly button, would you?”
A belly button! thought Hosea. Of course! And suddenly Hosea felt very lonely. Something so simple, so tender and common as a belly button and he had not been able to identify it. He had been scared of Veronica Epp’s belly button. He was fifty-two years old. He should know about these simple things by now. Old Leander Hamm, all shrivelled up and dying, he had a belly button, too. And Lorna Garden and Tom and Dory and Jean François. For some reason the thought made him sad, momentarily. He had to get on with the job here. He would have to get directly to the question, just simply ask it of Veronica and hope she wouldn’t think it was strange.
“So you’re high risk, are you? Why exactly is that?” There it was. He had popped the question. Hosea braced himself, waiting for the worst.
“Well, they think it’s triplets.” Veronica Epp now beamed up at Hosea. For her it was like winning the lottery. Hosea’s gaze moved down to her mountain of a stomach and then out the window towards the tiny trickle that was Algren’s Main Street. Lawrence Hamm’s dad moaned from across the hall. Hosea felt like he had just been kicked in the groin.
“You mean three?” he whispered.
three
“Knutie!” Dory had said after a week of Knute’s hanging around the house trying to help. “Didn’t Hosea mention some kind of part-time job or something or other?”
“Ick,” said Knute. She wasn’t so resistant to the idea of working for Hosea Funk as to the idea of working, period. She was still licking her wounds from the awful experiences of her last two part-time jobs. And, of course, she was working. She was taking care of Summer Feelin’, getting her acquainted with the few kids in the neighbourhood, organizing tea parties, trips to the park down the street, keeping her amused in her relatively new environment. Also, she was helping out around the house. She helped Tom with things like changing the oil in the car. He knew it needed to be changed but had forgotten why. She tried to explain as best she could. She helped him set a trap for a skunk that had been lurking around the back door. She hacked away all the ice on the sidewalk so he wouldn’t slip when he went outside. She took him grocery shopping in the hope that they could find something healthy and delicious for him to eat. She experimented with new chicken and fish recipes and tried to spruce meals up for him with wine and candlelight and a red-and-white checkered tablecloth. And she was teaching him how to juggle.
He loved to juggle. So far he had two balls mastered. Summer Feelin’ would scurry around picking up dropped balls and throw them back at Tom and he’d try again. “Remember, Dad,” Knute would say, “one and then the other. The right goes over to the left, and the left to the right, okay? One, two, three, catch them. Good. Try again.”