Went to the water fountain and saw two managers and a security guard hovering around the restrooms, looking anxious. My first thought was that someone had died, but Mark told me (unasked) that “A woman’s in there and her water broke.”
Wow! How exciting! I went back to cashwrap and called people in other departments, telling them, “A woman’s in labor in the level one women’s room…No, it’s not a joke…No, it’s for real: Mark told me. Pass it on!”
I thought there might be a lot of commotion, but apparently, the paramedics arrived and left through the loading dock. In fact, I never actually saw the mother, but I saw a paramedic go in (yes, I went back; I’m a rubbernecker; I admit it). That kid’s gonna have quite a story to tell when s/he’s older!
Did she actually have the child in the restroom? If not, its really no big deal. Unlike on TV shows, ruptured membranes usually happen early in the process. It was probably hours before the actual birth. You have to start somewhere.
Unless it was one of those emergency births, no; she was only in there for about half an hour.
I just thought it was cool, that’s all. Today was the last day of a storewide sale. Everyone was weighing the costs of martini glasses and saucepans, asking why this wasn’t fifty percent off like the other stuff was, needing a price check on this, another size of that…One woman tore up her coupon in a snit after I told her we couldn’t combine offers. Meanwhile, just a few yards away, a life was getting started. Put things in perspective, at least for me.