Babies

(The newborn ward of a hospital.  NICK and LAURA stand side by side.)

LAURA:  Looking at anybody in particular?

NICK:  My granddaughter.

LAURA:  You look a little young to be a grandpa.

NICK:  Do I?

LAURA:  Well…You look a little young to be an old grandpa.

(NICK laughs.)

NICK:  What about you?

LAURA:  I’m an aunt.  Third time around.  Still waiting for my son to give me a grandson, but I’m not pushing him too hard.

NICK:  I remember my mother begging me not to have kids until I was sure I was ready.  Now the parents are convincing the kids they’re ready.  Telling them they’re going to run out of time.

LAURA:  Well, we know more about biology now.

NICK:  Until we learn we know nothing.

LAURA:  Are you a poet?

NICK:  I’m a car salesman who reads too much.

LAURA:  That’s refreshing.

NICK:  Which part?

LAURA:  The combination.

NICK:  And what do you do?

LAURA:  I’m a nurse.

NICK:  Really?

LAURA:  Yes, really.  At this hospital, actually.  Today is my day off.  My niece is very inconsiderate.  Popping out a baby on my beach day when I can’t even clock in for overtime.

(A moment.)

NICK:  Is she…worried?  Your niece?

LAURA:  She’s still heavily drugged.  It wasn’t an easy labor.  She, uh, fought.

NICK:  Fought?

LAURA:  She did the whole ‘I don’t know if I want to bring a child into this world’ thing.  Except, unlike a lot of women, her body seemed to be going along with the idea.  A few hours until a comet strikes—the body knows things.

NICK:  My daughter-in-law was a quick one.  Half an hour.

LAURA:  Half an hour?  Really?

NICK:  Well, by the time we got here.  She was watching a tv show she liked and she didn’t want to leave the house until it was over, so by the time she got here—

LAURA:  Pop.

NICK:  Exactly.

LAURA:  That’s good.  She’ll probably be a very pleasant baby.

NICK:  He.  It’s a boy.

LAURA:  Name?

NICK:  Nick.  They named him after me.

LAURA:  That’s nice.

NICK:  Well, I was named after my grandfather too, but he was a racist and bipolar, so hopefully this is a ‘best two-out-of-three’ situation.

(LAURA laughs then looks at the babies.)

LAURA:  Aren’t they beautiful?

NICK:  Which one is yours?

LAURA:  The one all the way to the right.

NICK:  She’s perfect.

LAURA:  They’re all perfect, but…Yes, she’s perfect.

NICK:  Mine is the one in the front with the little Red Sox cap.

LAURA:  Are you a fan?

NICK:  No, but my daughter-in-law is.  We don’t do sports in my family.  We’re a business crowd.

LAURA:  You seem soft for a businessman.  All that literature?

NICK:  My wife passing.  That’s what did it.

LAURA:  I’m sorry.

NICK:  Don’t be.

LAURA:  I lost my husband a year ago.

NICK:  It’s been two years for me.

LAURA:  Is that why you seem more well adjusted than I do?

NICK:  No, it’s probably because I’ve taken up prescription drugs.

LAURA:  No, you haven’t.

NICK:  Why not?  They’re fun.  The good ones.  I’d have to take some of them for various things anyway, so my doctor just kicks in a few more, and I walk around feeling great all day.

LAURA:  But before you started—

NICK:  It was a husky sort of life.  As in, life was a husk.  I wasn’t living.  I still might not be.  I don’t know if you could consider this living.

LAURA:  I’ve noticed that I forget how many times I’ve showered.  So I shower too much to be on the safe side and my hair is always damp.  I’m concerned about mildew.  I’m also concerned that my hands are never going to unwrinkled, but I’m willing to risk both those things as long as I don’t start to smell.

NICK:  Very interesting.

LAURA:  Are these the prices you pay for getting older?

NICK:  We should warn the babies.  You have all this to look forward to.

LAURA:  Or maybe they don’t.  Maybe their time is even more limited than the normal life is.

NICK:  All these little people.  The amount of potential in this one place and time…

LAURA:  It’s like a little horse race.  The bell rings, and they all take off.

NICK:  I was born in my family living room.  We weren’t Okies or anything, it’s just that I was born during a snowstorm.  My mother was mortified.  My entire life—all she ever did was scrub that floor.

LAURA:  And now here you are.

NICK:  Kids are resilient.  Life is resilient.  Maybe that comet will come down and it won’t be the end.  Maybe something will keep going.  It seems impossible that it wouldn’t.

LAURA:  What was it like when you were standing here looking at your own child?

NICK:  There were three times like that.  They were all…I remember being nervous the first time because I was so young.  I remember being confident the second time.  I remember being exhausted the third time.

LAURA:  I only had my son.  When they brought him to me, he seemed impossibly small.  I thought—they can’t give you to me.  I’ll destroy you.  With my massive hands and I was so clumsy and—Oh, I almost didn’t take him.  And then I did.  And I did have massive hands and I was clumsy, but—we did persevere.

NICK:  If the little ones can do it, maybe there’s hope for all of us.

LAURA:  Oh don’t be silly, Grandpa.

(She smiles at him.)

There’s always hope.

(He smiles back at her, and then they turn and continue looking at their little ones.)