sister needs us.'

I glanced down at my sunsuit.

"Come as you are,' "Mother insisted. "There's no time to dress. Beth needs us!"

So I got into the car with Mother, and she drove at reckless speed until we reached the hospital parking lot. While an attendant took charge of the car, Mother hurried me into the building, and down a quiet hygenic smelling corridor. The woman at the reception desk permitted us to go directly to Beth's room.

In my flurry of anxiety I had forgotten I was barefoot and wearing my green sunsuit. I was completely Beth-conscious.

I might as well have been clothed in a nun's concealing garb, as I silently prayed, "My sister needs help. Please God, let me know what I can do to help her."

I looked down at Beth. She seemed tiny lying there in bed. Only the huge mound of her abdomen rose under the sheet. Perspiration dotted her pale forehead, and drenched the dark hair curling about her face. She appeared so young and yet so old. Pain twisted her mouth. She looked directly at Mother and me, but seemed not to recognize us. Then she shrieked with agony.

Mother began to cry. And I was so shaken that I felt as if I were becoming completely unglued.

Hal was bending over his wife, clinging to her pain clenched hand. His lean face was as white as the sheets, and his chin trembled.

"Dr. Proctor," he said hoarsely. "Can't you do something for Beth?"

"I'll perform a Caesarian, immediately," the doctor said.

Somehow, as if it was happening in a nightmare, I saw Beth placed on a stretcher and wheeled into the operating theater. A nurse herded Mother, Hal and me into a small waiting room. There we must sweat it out. 94

Time seemed endless. Mother wept, and Hal kept his hands pressed tightly over his eyes most of the time. I stared at the floor and prayed that everything would be all right for Beth and the baby.

I lost track of time.

Then I remember a nurse came in and announced, "She's come through the operation. The baby boy is in excellent condition."

Just when we were all three sighing with relief, she added solemnly, "But the Mother must have an immediate transfusión, possibly more than one."

"Take my blood!" Hal jumped to his feet.

"Dr. Proctor knew you'd offer," the nurse said kindly. "But you haven't the right blood type."

I got up and stood beside the nurse.

"Beth and I have the same blood type. Let me give blood to my sister."

"My type isn't the right one," Mother wailed. "Or I'd insist on-----

The nurse cut in on Mother's remark. "Come with " she took me by the arm. "There's no time to lose."

me,

"I want to be there with my wife," Hal insisted. The nurse permitted him to come with us.

Beth was still under the effects of the anesthetic when the transfusion was given. She never knew I was there.

Later I was sitting beside her bed, while Hal was hovering over her, murmuring, "You'll be all right, honey. Your sister is seeing that you'll have extra blood."

Suddenly Beth's eyes flared through the glaze spread over them. "Blood?" she said weakly. "Transfusion," Hal replied.

Beth's pale lips contorted and she gathered every ounce of strength she had, and shrieked, "No! No! Not from my sister!"