Darejani Pt. 10

I touched her cheek with a gentle caress. Dar turned her head slightly to kiss my palm and I cupped her chin, bringing her lips to mine. "You are so beautiful, my love, inside and out. Normally, Jews don't repeat names; we just use the first letter of someone deceased to honor that person. Like my 'M' for Mickey comes from my grandfather, my father's father, Moshe. Plus Mickey Mantle." Dar smiled with me, knowing where my name came from. "But my parents will be so happy, especially my mother, to have another Lisa in the family. The other name should be something special to your family, if possible, or at least a pretty Persian name. We can start thinking about that over the summer." I kissed her again, a deeper, more powerful kiss. "Thank you, Darling Dar, for thinking of that. A new Lisa. My incredible wife."

"You don't have to thank me, Bunny. Not for something like this. Not for anything I do from my love for you and your family." She snuggled closer to me, yawning as the need for sleep

As Dar turned over so I could spoon her, she closed her eyes. "Dar, it's not MY family. We're all part of OUR family. One big Persian/Jewish family. My love."

"I love you, Bunny. And OUR family." I kissed her neck and she fell asleep with me joining her a few minutes later.

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July 15th, I stopped working full time in the offices of my company to focus on getting back into my studying habits and I started taking prep classes for the LSAT. I went into the office on Friday's but the other four days I was either in a class or I was with a study group of six, usually at my house since I had the space and, until September 1st, Dar was at work every day. (Sept. 1 was when Dar stopped working, not maternity leave, but actually left her job. She was going to be a full-time mother.)

We took five days and we went to a resort in the Catskill Mountains as our last vacation before the biggest change in our lives came. Most of the time we either went for a few hikes, lazed by the pool, ate well and even danced at night. It was a little hard to hold her close the way we enjoyed being when we danced, but we managed. And of course, we made love a couple of times a day. There was definitely no diminishing of our desire for each other, and we enjoyed the opportunities being away from our families afforded us. Besides, we knew it would be years before we'd be able to go away by ourselves again.

I should mention that Mehdi wasn't completely gone from our lives. He was staying with some distant cousins in Tehran, but it was a tense situation. They weren't from the wealthy side of the family, and he wasn't able to find a job. The Iranian economy was a shambles, unemployment was high, and any chances he had of getting a job were ruined because wherever he applied, the Revolutionary Guards told the potential employer of Mehdi's legal problems back in the US. No one wanted to hire someone with a criminal background or anyone who was on the wrong side of the government. He called Yasmin every week and he cried to her about his situation, the family was threatening to throw him out if he didn't pay them, etc. Yasmin would have gladly sent him money, but the situation between the US and Iran made that extremely difficult. You had to get special permission from the US Treasury Dept. to send money to Iran, a process that could take months, and then few American banks were willing to do any business with an Iranian bank. The solution was to send the money to France, where the Attar family still had connections, and then to send the money on to Tehran. It was complicated, difficult and however much money Yasmin sent, Mehdi said the family wanted more. She could only legally send a few thousand every few months. The situation was deeply upsetting for Yasmin and Darejani.

September 16th, a Saturday, Yasmin and my mother threw Dar a baby shower, with about 25 women at Yasmin and Jack's house. He got out of there, spent the day with my dad watching football, while I studied at home. I was taking the LSAT the following Saturday and was cramming every minute I could.

September 23 I took the LSAT and Dar and I celebrated that night by going out to a very nice dinner with some friends at Peter Lugar's in Great Neck. Poor Dar was eight months pregnant by then and huge. At the house, getting ready, I could see how uncomfortable she was, and I asked her if she wanted to cancel. Our friends would understand under the circumstances. "No chance, Mickey" she stated firmly. "You've been working so hard and I know you did very well on the test. We are going out and having fun with our friends. Besides, I'm starving!" She smiled with that glowing expression she always seemed to have.

"You're always starving" I teased her.

"Don't remind me! I don't know how I'll lose all this weight after she's born!" I hugged her from behind while she stood at the mirror, finishing her makeup.

"I love you just the way you are, my darling. You're gorgeous whether you're thin or very pregnant or whatever happens after." I nibbled on her shoulder and she giggled as she pulled away from my grasp.

"Not now, Bunny! You can attack me later!" Dar smiled and turned around to kiss me. "Although I am horny enough to attack YOU right now. But dinner first. Lust later!"

There were ten of us at dinner. My friend Gavin and his finance Dianne, Eric and Carrie, Dar's cousin Mahtab and her husband Reza, and her friend Doreen and her boyfriend Angelo. We were a little bit loud (four bottles of wine split between nine people), but we were hardly a problem for the other diner's. We ate well, Dar went to the bathroom twice as our daughter kept kicking her bladder, and we just had a fun, relaxing evening. Her due date was October 12, so this was probably our last big night out for the foreseeable future. After dessert and coffee/tea, we were all sober enough to drive home, and Dar and I had a quiet ride back to Malba. Quiet, but with a little teasing, as I kept resting my hand on her knee and creeping it up her bare leg. Dar chuckled as she brushed my hand away. "Wait until we get home, you naughty man. Behave until then!"

"Where's the fun in that? I'm feeling like I want to molest you for a few hours, even with a full belly."

"And I intend to let you, Bunny. I even think- OWWWW!" Dar cried out in unmistakable pain and I looked over at her quickly. Her expression changed from smiling playfulness to extreme discomfort as she held her belly.

"Dar? What's wrong?"

"I don't know, Mickey! I think I had a contraction. But I'm not due for 3 weeks yet!"

"Should I head to the hospital instead of home? We're only fifteen minutes away from here."

Neither of us knew what to do. It was likely false labor but we were so close to our hospital where Dr. Vargas was on staff. I drove a little longer in the general direction of home when she cried out again and that made my decision easy. I headed to the hospital, without any argument from Dar. She didn't want to take any chances either.

I pulled up to the ER and got someone to wheel her inside while I went to park the car, then I hurried inside to stay with Dar after giving our insurance information. I sat with her while she was attached to a fetal heart monitor and we tried to relax. Then I realized I needed to call our parents before it got late. I excused myself for five minutes, called my parents and they said they'd call Yasmin.

I hurried back in and Dar was both smiling and showing a little concern. "Mickey, baby, my water broke! I'm really having our baby!"

My heart was pounding and I hugged Dar as tight as I dared. "Darling, I can't believe it! It's actually happening! Oh, our parents are all on the way over. I'm glad I didn't make them come for nothing." We smiled and laughed a little, but mostly because of how excited we were. Then a nurse came over and told us they were taking Dar up to the maternity department, but it was going to be quite a while yet so I waited for our parents in the lobby while Dar went upstairs. After I gave her a big kiss, of course.

My parents lived closer and they arrived first, then fifteen minutes later Yasmin and Jack arrived, all excited, nervous, thrilled. We went up to maternity but only I could go in to be with her, after washing up thoroughly and getting into surgical scrubs. When I went into her room, Dar was sweating and moaning. "Mickey, where were you? I was getting worried!"

"Worried about what? You thought I was going to run away or something?" I said as I held her hand in mine and wiped her brow with a small towel. "That's kind of silly, you know. I had to wait for our parents. They're all in the waiting area. Probably going to be there for a while."

"I don't know about that, Bunny. The nurse said I'm already dilated 6 centimeters. And my contractions are only about 7 minutes apart."

"Good, then you won't have to suffer through all those hours of labor. I can't wait to meet our little girl!" Dar moaned in pain, but she held my hand and I could feel the love much more than the pain.

I kept coaching her through her breathing as we learned in our Lamaze classes. Dr. Vargas was there, looking after Darejani and another woman whose doctor couldn't get there in time. About three hours later, Dr. Vargas examined Dar again and said, with a big smile of her own, "It's time, Mr. and Mrs. Gold. You're fully dilated." She sat on a stool and put Dar's legs in the stirrups and, after some tough pushes, lots of breathing, and more than a little of Dar's nails digging into my hand, our little girl, Lisa Nasrin (Wild Rose) Gold came into the world at 4:48AM on Sunday, September 24, 1989. 6 pounds, 10 ounces. Ten fingers and toes, beautiful and perfect. Perfect. I carried her to Dar and we cried and we laughed, and we laughed and we cried as our little Lisa did her own crying fit. She had a real set of lungs on her already.

"Look, my Darling Dar! You did it! My two girls! I love you both so much!" I was crying like a baby and loved every second.

"She's so precious, Bunny! So tiny, so lovely! And she's all ours!" The nurses took her away for a few minutes to clean her up while other nurses helped clean up Dar. Then they brought her into a recovery room while I went out to give the big news to our families. I told them we had a new girl in the family, Lisa Nasrin, and there were more tears, more hugs and a lot of kisses. Then I took them back to Dar's room, back to see her and to meet their granddaughter.

Yasmin held her daughter first and they spoke in rapid Farsi for a moment, a mother-daughter message that was way too fast for me to pick up with my limited knowledge of the language, then she hugged me while my Mom and Dad congratulated Dar and told her how much they loved her. Yasmin whispered in my ear how I was her son, and how proud she was of me. Jack hugged me and shook my hand. And then my parents hugged me half to death.

My mom, through her joyous tears, kissed my cheek and said "Another Lisa. Thank you, Mickey. For remembering your sister. She lives on in our memories and now in your daughter. I love you, I love Darejani, and I love our new Lisa Nasrin. Such a beautiful name."

"It means Wild Rose. I think it fits her." Just then the nurse brought Lisa in to meet everyone. First Dar held her again, crying as I held her, kissing her cheek. "She's so beautiful, just like her mother" I said gently. She really did look like Dar. Same skin color, whisps of black hair but with the chubby cheeks of a baby, absolutely adorable. Then I held my daughter for the second time and I was in love. Absolutely head over heels in love, like I was with her mother, but different, of course. I rocked her gently, cooing softly to her and she calmed down as if she knew she was in the safest place she'd ever be.

"You're so natural with her, Bunny" Dar said with tired smile. "You're going to be such a wonderful daddy."

I handed Lisa to Yasmin, who was in her glory, and as she and the other grandparents (yes, that means Jack too) got to know her, I kissed Dar many times, on her lips and her face and her hands. "Thank you, my Darling Dar, for bringing this sweetness into our lives. You'll be an amazing mommy. And I love you more than ever. I didn't think that was possible."

Just then my father put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek, then he leaned over and kissed Dar on her cheek. "I don't think I've been this happy since you and your sister were born, Mick. And I know your mother is ecstatic. Naming her Lisa...it made her happier than I can remember seeing her, not for a long time. Remember, anything you need, anything, you call me. Though I expect your mother will be at your house every possible minute." He kissed me again, then went to take his turn holding his granddaughter.

While the grandparents were all making a fuss over the newest member of the family, Dar and I had a couple of minutes to ourselves. I kissed her again and said "You've made me very happy, the happiest day besides our wedding day. I love you more than I can say."

She smiled up at me, tired but also so happy. "I love you too, my Bunny. But I'm sorry about one thing."

"What can you possibly be sorry for, my love?"

"We were going to have a very passionate evening, but I think that's out of the question for a while."

I grinned and kissed her once more. "Well, under the circumstances, I think I'll give you a pass. But in about two months....you're all mine!" We laughed together, drawing some attention from the others.

Dar whispered "I'll mark it on my calendar. My sweet Bunny. My love."

"My Darling Dar. My everything."

Lisa Nasrin. The first in the next generation of Attars and Golds. There would be more to come.

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Thanks for reading this chapter. I've missed these two wonderful people. More will be coming. As always, your votes and comments are always appreciated.