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he'd check and I left town to drive up the east shore, knocking on doors.  
    It was sleepy mid-afternoon time. The trees were buzzing with cicadas and the heat was enough to soften the bones, sending most vacationing adults for a siesta.  
    I called at a dozen or so houses, talking to the occasional group of swimming children but getting no help and causing a little embarrassment at some places where guys came to the door yawning hugely and explaining that their wives were lying down at the moment. Nobody had heard anything the night before.  
    Sam was on the verandah at my place and he bounded down to the car to greet me, wagging his tail and keening low in his throat. I took a moment to fuss him, then went in. Freda met me at the door.  
    'Time to go, old sport,' she said. 'My water broke about an hour ago. I called the doctor and he said I should head up to the hospital.' Her face was a little pale but she seemed confident and I put my arm around her.  
    'I'll get your bag.'
    'It's in the kitchen, behind the door, ready for a flying start.' She sounded as cheerful as ever, but she doesn't panic easily so I didn't waste any time. I just grabbed her bag and led her out to the police car.  
    'Really? You're taking me in that?' she laughed. 'The nurses'll think I'm a charity case.'
    'Not a chance.' I didn't feel much like joking. All I had to do was stand around while she did the work. 'This thing's got a siren. If the stork picks up speed, I can still get you there on time.'  
    I tossed her bag in the rear seat and put her in front, handing her the seat-belt which she put on carefully. Then I told Sam 'Keep' and left him in charge.  
    The same bunch of kids on Main Street saw us together and instantly worked out what was happening. Some of the noisier girls called out good wishes and Fred waved. Now we were on our way I asked her about the pains and she told me there weren't any. 'But my water's broken. That's why he wants me up there.'  
    'Is that normal?' I had been to Lamaze classes with her through the winter but I was too close to this birth to be objective.
    'Later is better but it's no cause for alarm.'
    She sounded relaxed and I reached out my hand to squeeze hers. 'Hang in there, have you there in half an hour. Just keep me posted on the pains.'  
    'It's a bit like your tooth stopping aching when you head for the dentist. Nothing's happening.'
    'That's a comfort. I like leaving tricky jobs to the experts.'
    She didn't say much and I concentrated on my driving, pushing the speed to the limits of safety, overtaking everything in front of me. One doddery old guy didn't look in his mirror to check my flashing lights behind him and I gave him a quick squirt of the siren which scared him out of his coma. He pulled right on to the shoulder in a cloud of dust and sat there while I accelerated over the top of the hill in front and lost him.  
    We came into Parry Sound twenty minutes later and I eased into the last space in front of the Emergency door at the hospital. Fred wouldn't let me get a wheelchair and we walked in arm in arm. The nurse on duty glanced at us oddly, wondering if a mercy call had turned into a romance. 'My wife's water has broken, Dr Rosen is her doctor, he said to come in.'  
    She pushed a form at me. 'Fill this out, please.'
    'Not until she's taken care of,' I said and the nurse shook her head pityingly and said, 'Fathers,' but she got a wheelchair and whisked Fred away. 'Your husband can come and see you when he's been a good boy and filled out the form.'  
    I squeezed Fred's shoulder and waited until the nurse came back, then filled in the form, thanking my stars that I'd moved back to Ontario after my service in the US Marines. I love the States but hospitals there cost an arm and leg. Here it's all paid for.  
    Twenty minutes later I was up in an examination room with Fred, waiting for her doctor to get in from the golf course, it was Wednesday after all, his