My Wife's Water Broke, I Rushed Out to Play Cards

I'd just finished dinner when my childhood buddy called to set up a card game.

I was about to head out the door when my wife, ten months pregnant and washing dishes, suddenly clutched her belly and begged me,

Jim Fox, my water broke. Can you drive me to the hospital?

I took out my phone and pulled up my payment code.

"Fare's a hundred."

She bit her lip, caught between misery and shame.

"You know I don't have any money."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Then take out an online loan."

Her eyes reddened.

"I already borrowed against a payday loan for my last checkup. I couldn't pay it back, so my credit's blacklisted. I can't borrow anymore."

"I'll owe you the money. Please, just take me to the hospital first."

I shook my head.

"No money, no ride."

And with that, I walked out of the house without looking back.

Half an hour later, I reached my buddy Alfred Finch's place.

At the card table, Alfred and another one of our friends, Tristan James, had already stacked the tiles. When I pushed the door open, Alfred looked a little surprised.

"Well, look who actually showed up."

"Tristan and I were just betting you wouldn't come. Your wife's at her due date, after all. Figured you'd have to be glued to her side."

I sat down with a grin.

"Nothing gets in the way of me and my boys and a card game."

Tristan tossed me a cigarette with a laugh.

"You slip out to play cards at night and Myrtle Pruitt didn't say anything?"

I lit it and took a deep drag, the nicotine hitting the top of my skull all at once.

"She said something. Told me to take her to the hospital first."

Alfred and Tristan both froze.

"The hospital?"

"What's wrong?"

I flicked the ash off, offhand.

"Nothing. Her water broke."

Alfred's hand stopped dead on the tiles, like he wasn't sure he'd heard right.

"Say that again?"

"Whose water broke?"

"Myrtle's."

Tristan's eyes went wide, staring at me like he couldn't believe it.

"Jim, are you out of your mind?"

"Your wife's water broke and instead of getting her to the hospital, you came here to play cards with us?!"

I took another drag.

"I told her. She pays the fare, I drive her. She's got no money, so what am I supposed to do about it?"

Alfred looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

"You're taking your own wife to the hospital to give birth, and you're charging her for the ride?"

I nodded, dead serious.

"The car burns gas."

"Only a hundred, and I'm still taking the risk she'll get the seat dirty. That's pretty generous of me."

Tristan's brows knit tight.

"Your wife's about to have a baby and you're worried about your car?"

"Get back there right now and take her to the hospital."

Alfred pressed at me too, anxious.

"He's right. Childbirth is no small thing. Hemorrhage, cord prolapse, any one of them can kill her. Do not pick this moment to lose your mind."

I gave a faint smile.

"I'm perfectly clear-headed."

Alfred and Tristan traded a look. Seeing that I wasn't the least bit rattled, Alfred frowned, not understanding.

"Jim, I've been meaning to ask. Did you and Myrtle have some kind of falling out?"

I shook my head. "No."

He frowned.

"Then why are you treating her like this?"

"That's the woman you chased for eight years. It took everything to marry her."

"You used to dote on her. She so much as coughed and you wanted to be at her side twenty-four hours a day."

"Now her water's broken and you just walk out? Does that make any sense?"

The hand holding my cigarette paused.

Something in my chest went tight.

I didn't say anything. I finished the last of the cigarette in silence, crushed the butt out in the ashtray, and forced down the ache rising in my throat.

Seeing me stay quiet, Tristan spoke up too, curious.

"Jim, the three of us grew up together. Alfred and I both saw plain as day how much you love Myrtle."

"On your wedding day you cried like a mess, swore you'd love her right."

"How did two years of marriage turn you into this?"

Tristan paused, then ventured a guess.

"Don't tell me Myrtle did something behind your back, something to wrong you?"

I shook my head, and I meant it.

"No."

"She's been good to me."

Myrtle Pruitt was the best woman I had ever known.

Beautiful, gentle, clever, kind.

One look, and I was gone.

After we married, no matter how late I worked, she always waited up, a lamp on and a table of food, until I came home.

When I ran a fever, she stayed awake all night, wiping me down with a towel again and again to bring the heat down.

When my business failed and I was buried in debt, she handed over every cent of her savings, smiling as she said,

"It's fine. I'll carry it with you."

Every holiday, she had gifts ready for my parents in advance, more thoughtful about them than I was, and I was their own son.

Those scenes ran through my head one after another, and the pressure in my chest grew heavier.

Alfred was about to keep pushing when my phone suddenly rang.

It was my mom.

The moment I answered, her anxious voice came through.

"Jim, where are you right now?"

"Get to the maternity hospital, fast. Myrtle just gave birth!"

I gave a flat "oh," and said, unhurried,

"I'm in the middle of a card game. I can't get away."

Then my dad's furious roar came from beside her.

"A card game matters more than your wife and child?"

"Get over here right now!"

I sighed and said, helpless,

"When she's discharged and comes home, I'll see her and the baby anyway."

"No need to make a special trip."

That only made my dad angrier.

"You worthless little bastard!"

"Myrtle nearly killed herself giving you a son, and you won't even come to the hospital?"

"I'm telling you, if you don't show your face today, I'll cut you off. No father, no son."

And with that, he slammed the phone down.

Alfred and Tristan heard it and got to their feet at once.

"Come on, come on, forget the cards. Get to the hospital, we'll go with you."

They didn't wait for me to refuse. One on each side, they hauled me up out of my seat and pushed me into the car.

Alfred drove hard the whole way, and we reached the maternity hospital fast.

The second I walked into Myrtle's room, I saw my parents and my in-laws gathered around her bed.

Beside it was a bassinet, and inside it lay a tiny baby.

The instant I saw the child, I froze for a moment.

His face looked almost exactly like mine as a boy.

While I was staring at the baby, lost in it, Myrtle's mother came up to me, her eyes red.

"Jim, what did any of us ever do to you, that you'd torment Myrtle like this?"

I looked at my mother-in-law's stricken face.

Then I looked at Myrtle on the bed, pale and weak.

And I asked, not understanding,

"Mom, how exactly have I tormented her?"

She stared at me as if I'd lost my mind.

"When her water broke, you left her there alone and went out to play cards, and you still have the nerve to ask how you tormented her?"

"Jim, do you have any conscience at all?"

The whole thing baffled me.

"Mom, Myrtle was the one with no money for the fare. That's the only reason I left."

"How is that my fault?"

At that, Myrtle's father rushed over, grabbed me by the collar, and bellowed, beside himself,

"You've got the nerve to bring up the fare?"

"Jim, the child in my daughter's belly was your own flesh and blood!"

"You're her husband, the baby's father. This is how you take responsibility for them?"

I felt worn down by it.

"Dad, it isn't like that."

"Myrtle and I agreed long ago, we split every expense down the middle. She had no money for the cab herself. I couldn't just cover it for her, could I?"

I thought I'd explained it clearly enough, but hearing that only made him angrier.

"You split expenses with your pregnant wife?"

"Jim, back when you were chasing Myrtle every way you could think of, why didn't you mention splitting things then?"

"When your business failed and you were drowning in debt, and she handed you every cent of her savings, why didn't you mention splitting things then?"

"Now she can't work because she's pregnant, money's needed everywhere, and you split it with her? Are you even human?"

Myrtle's mother looked at me with grief and fury both.

"When you married Myrtle, what did you promise us?"

"You said you'd love her well your whole life, that you'd cherish her with your life. And look at what you did."

"Over a bit of cab fare, you nearly killed Myrtle and the baby both!"

"Look at how worn down she is. How much have you made her suffer?"

I looked at Myrtle, at that pale, wasted face, and I couldn't help remembering the last ten months of her life.

Early in the pregnancy, the morning sickness was brutal. Whatever she ate came back up. She couldn't work, so she quit.

By then every cent of her savings had already gone to paying off my debt. Nothing left.

After she quit she had no income. Nauseous and miserable, she wanted a sour plum to settle her stomach and asked me for twenty dollars. I didn't give it to her.

In the end she dragged her weak body down to the convenience store at the entrance of the complex and used the last few coins she had to buy a bottle of sour plum drink.

In the middle of the pregnancy her legs swelled up badly, and even walking was hard. She'd heard that soaking her feet in salt water would bring the swelling down, so she wanted me to pick up a bag of salt on my way home from work.

But she hadn't transferred me the money for the salt ahead of time, and by our agreement I had no obligation to pay for anything out of my own pocket.

So instead I turned around and went out drinking with friends.

That day she waited for me all night. In the end, no bag of salt ever came.

She had no money for a single prenatal checkup, so she borrowed from one online payday loan platform after another.

In the end she couldn't repay any of it, got blacklisted by all of them, and had collectors after her every single day.

Every one of these things, I kept in my heart.

"I know it wasn't easy for her."

"But splitting every expense down the middle was something we agreed on. That's not on me."

Myrtle's mother was shaking with rage.

"Agreed on?"

"Setting up a split-the-bills arrangement when your own wife is pregnant and can't work. Is that something a human being does?"

I said, helpless, "But she agreed to it herself, with her own mouth."

Slap!

My father couldn't take any more. He struck me hard across the face.

"You worthless bastard!"

"Myrtle agreed back then because she trusted you, because she loved you, because she thought you had some sense of limits."

"Who could have guessed you were this cold-hearted, that you'd gamble with your own wife and child's lives over some verbal agreement!"

The blow came out of nowhere, and my vision went black.

I held my cheek and stared at my father, stunned.

He was beside himself, his eyes fixed on me, red as if they were bleeding.

The whole room fell dead silent.

The next second, I heard Myrtle's voice, weak and full of worry.

"Dad, don't hit Jim."

"I don't blame him."

I turned to look and saw Myrtle force herself up and walk slowly over until she stood in front of me.

She looked at my parents and her own, and said faintly,

"Dad, Mom, stop yelling at Jim."

"It's my fault. I agreed to split the bills. I'm the one with no ability, the one who couldn't earn any money..."

"Myrtle!"

Her mother stamped her foot, aching for her.

"Even now you're still speaking up for him?"

"Open your eyes and take a good look at how he treats you."

"Ten months carrying his child and he nickel-and-dimed you the whole way. Your water broke and he ignored it. How much longer are you going to suffer for an animal like this?"

Her father pointed at me too, indignant.

"Jim, I'm putting it plainly right here."

"The moment Myrtle recovers, we're filing for divorce."

"We're taking the child. From now on, don't ever dream of seeing Myrtle or the baby again."

I glanced instinctively toward the crib.

The little one, as if he sensed something, lay there with a pair of round dark eyes, gazing at me in innocent bewilderment.

Looking at that tiny face, nine parts the image of my own, something deep in me softened for a moment.

Just then a nurse came out with the paperwork and spoke up.

"Family, please note. The mother's follow-up anti-inflammatory medication, the postpartum recovery program, plus the newborn's formula and checkup fees all need to be paid as soon as possible."

I frowned and snapped back to my senses at once.

"Divorce is fine. But the cost of this hospital stay and the delivery, and the ambulance she called tonight, those need to be settled clearly. Don't try to pin them on me."

The moment I said it, the whole room went silent.

Every one of them stared at me like I'd said something against all decency.

Several seconds passed before my mother finally looked at me, her voice trembling.

"Jim, what on earth is wrong with you?"

"Myrtle just clawed her way back from death's door. You haven't said one kind word to her, you haven't held the baby once, and all you can think about is settling the medical bills?"

"Do you really mean it? You'd rather divorce her, give up your wife and child, than pay a single cent more?"

I looked at my mother and answered evenly.

"Mom, it's not that I won't pay. It's that we settle it the way we agreed. Splitting everything down the middle."

"Whoever spent the money covers it themselves."

"I'm not going to play the fool and eat the cost just because she gave me a child."

Myrtle's father's eyes went red with rage. He lunged forward and grabbed me by the collar.

"Jim, you animal!"

"I'll beat you to death today, I swear it!"

He drew back his fist to swing at me.

Alfred saw it and hurried over to break it up, pulling my father-in-law back.

Then he turned to me, pleading, frantic.

"Jim, look where we are. How can you still be spouting this cruel nonsense?"

"This is no time to be talking about rules and accounts. Apologize to Myrtle, now."

Tristan was watching me too, baffled.

"We've known you for over twenty years. We know you're not some man who loves money more than his own life."

"What is going on with you? Why have you suddenly turned so cold-blooded?"

I straightened my collar and spoke without hurry.

"The divorce was her family's idea. If we're separating, then naturally every expense should be settled clean, so there's no squabbling down the line."

Hearing money in my every word, Myrtle's mother looked at her daughter with unbearable pity and broke into sobbing wails.

"My poor, foolish girl. You nearly died giving him this child, and in the end he's counting out the medical bills to the last cent."

"What is there about a man like this worth holding on to?"

Myrtle's body, already so weak, swayed as if she might collapse right then.

Her face was white as she looked at me, the grief in her so heavy she seemed on the verge of breaking apart.

She was silent a long time before she finally spoke, her voice catching.

"Jim, at first I thought you asking for us to split everything was just a moment of confusion."

"So no matter how you treated me, I endured it."

"I kept thinking, once the baby was born, once you saw our child, you'd come to your senses."

"I thought the birth of this child could bring us back to how we were."

"Now I only want to ask you one thing. In your heart, are the baby and I really worth nothing at all?"

Looking at that face full of disappointment and grief, I was silent for two seconds.

In the end I only said,

"Rules can't be broken."

Five words, and the last light went out of Myrtle's eyes.

She let out a bitter laugh.

"I understand now."

I couldn't be bothered to argue with them anymore.

"I have things to do, so I'll go first."

"If you need me to cooperate with the divorce paperwork, you can reach me anytime."

With that, I turned and walked out of the room.

I'd barely stepped out when I heard a huge crash behind me.

Right after, Alfred came running up to me, frantic.

"It's bad, Myrtle jumped!"