“George!” Margaret shouted with little hope of him hearing her. George walked the promenade at this time every day, but it was too long to see the end of either side. If she ran one way, he might very well be on the other side. So she stood here in the middle. At some point, he would be within earshot.

“George!” she shouted again.

It took four attempts, but before too long, she saw a figure coming toward her from far down on the right, silhouetted like an eclipse. He had the right gait for George, and as he approached, she saw with relief that it was him. She ran so fast toward him that he had to put his arms out to stop her.

“Margaret? Is everything okay with Dottie?”

She stopped and laughed incongruously. And that made her laugh even more. How charming that Dottie was always his first concern.

“Yes! No. I mean—”

“Margaret—is Dottie okay?” he asked again, with the first strain of impatience she’d ever seen in him.

“The baby is coming!”

His eyes widened. “Why didn’t you say so? I’ll go get my car!”

George ran ahead, and then looked back. “See if she can manage to walk to the parking lot. I’ll drive up as close as I can. And tell her—”

“What?”

“Tell her that everything will be all right.”

*  *  *

Dottie squealed in pain as she sat in the back of George’s car with her legs slung over Margaret’s lap.

“Can’t you go any faster?” Margaret asked.

“It’s not the car,” George said, stretching his head up to see better and adjusting his glasses as if that might help. “It’s the traffic.”

“We could walk there with as long as this is taking!”

“Of course we could, but I don’t think between you and me, we could carry a woman in her condition.”

Margaret slunk back, feeling helpless.

“It’s never like this on Navy Street. Can we cut over to St. Edward?”

George looked to his left, but in every direction, cars were stopped, either trying to find alternate routes or stuck behind whatever was keeping things from moving.

Margaret rolled the window down and stuck her head out. She pushed herself up until she could see beyond everything. She’d never encountered a backup like this and wouldn’t have thought there were this many people in all of Brooklyn. But up ahead, she saw that four cars had collided. She squinted her eyes and shaded them from the sun. None of the emergency vehicles had pulled out gurneys as far as she could tell. Surely that would indicate the seriousness of it.

On the other hand, they had an emergency of their own right here.

She sat back down and looked at where Dottie was sprawled across the seat.