Read California Diaries #7: Dawn, Diary Two for Free Online Page A

only person I could think to call was Maggie. Luckily, she was home.
    “This is so exciting!” she yelled. “You have to go to the hospital. Reg and I will pick you up in fifteen minutes.”
    Twenty-five minutes later we pulled up in front of the hospital. Reg told Maggie that her father didn’t need him until ten o’clock, that he would wait for us in the parking lot.
    I knew my way around the hospital from all my visits to Mrs. Winslow, so I led the way to the maternity wing on the third floor. As we passed the nursery window, I looked in. The newborns were lined up in rows of little cribs. Two were in incubators.
    Was one of them my half brother or half sister?
    “We’re looking for Carol Olson,” I told an attendant standing at the nursing
    station.
    “Her family is in the waiting room at the end of the hall,” she said.
    My heart was pounding. It was hard not to run down the hall.
    Mrs. Bruen and Jeff were the only ones in the waiting room. Mrs. Bruen was
    pacing back and forth. Jeff was looking out the window.
    “What happened?” I asked. “Are they okay?”
    “Everything seems to be going according to schedule,” said Mrs. Bruen. “Poor
    thing. All she must be going through.”
    I hadn’t thought much about the actual birth of the baby, that it was going to be difficult for Carol.
    Mrs. Bruen put her hand on my shoulder. “But don’t worry, Dawn. Carol will be fine. So will the baby.”
    “You came in Maggie’s limo, didn’t you?” Jeff asked. He pointed to the parking lot. “That’s it down there. Can I go for a ride?” he begged. “Can I, Maggie?”
    “Not now, Jeff,” Maggie told him.
    “Where’s Dad?” I asked.
    “With Carol, of course,” Mrs. Bruen said.
    Of course.
    We hung out in the waiting room for two hours. Mrs. Bruen and Jeff worked on a jigsaw puzzle of a sailboat that some other nervous family had started. Maggie and I reviewed biology. Maggie had been smart enough to bring her book along. But it was hard to study and worry about Carol and the baby at the same time. I did my share of pacing.
    Finally, my father came bursting into the waiting room. He was beaming. “It’s—
    a girl!” he said in a choked voice. His eyes gleamed. I’ve never seen him look so happy.
    “She’s beautiful. She’s fine. Carol too. They came through with flying colors.” Tears spilled down his cheeks. I have never seen my father so happy that he cried. Never. Not even the day he and Carol were married.
    “A girl?!” Jeff exclaimed. “I thought it was going to be a boy. I didn’t think of any girl names.”
    Dad tousled Jeff’s hair and wrapped us both in a big hug. I cried too.
    But my tears of happiness were for Dad, not for myself.
    Dad suggested that the rest of us go home and have some dinner while Carol and the baby rested. Then we should come back to the hospital in a couple of hours. “I want you to meet your sister,” he said.
    Half sister, I thought.
    “Can I go with Maggie in the limo?” Jeff asked anyone who would listen. “Can
    I?”
    Mrs. Bruen said Jeff and I could both go with Maggie and that she would meet us at home. For the moment, Jeff was more excited about the limo than he was about our baby half sister, No Name.
    After Maggie dropped us off, I came up here to my room to write. I can see
    Sunny’s bedroom window from my desk. It is so weird not to call her with the news. I guess Dad will tell Mr. Winslow and he’ll tell Sunny. Weird and sad.
    11 p.m. 6/17
    We rushed through dinner so we could go right back to the hospital. I brought Carol her Discman and some of her favorite CDs. Mrs. Bruen picked flowers from the garden for her. And Jeff remembered to bring the baby name book. So we could pick out a girl’s name.
    As we walked through the maternity floor we stopped to look in at the newborns.
    Now one if them would be Baby Schafer-Olson. We read all of the names, even the ones on the incubators. None said “Schafer-Olson.” Mrs. Bruen and I exchanged a