'This won't hurt, Mrs Chissolm,' the girl assured her. 'I'm going to take a picture of your baby--the very first picture. You'll be able to start your photograph album today!'
Karen could not respond to the girl's smile. The minutes ticked by. The girl chattered on for a few minutes, then her small talk dWindled off and she frowned with concentration. 'Sorry to keep you, Mrs Chissolm. I'm having trouble with the angles, getting a clear image. Won't be long now.'
'What's wrong?' Karen cried in panic.
'Nothing wrong, Mrs Chissolm. Just a question of angles.'
It was nearly an hour before the technician was satisfied. 'You said I could have a picture of my baby,' Karen reminded her, every instinct screaming for a confirmation that nothing was wrong.
'I'm sorry, Mrs Chissolm, but I'll have to leave that up to your obstetrician. That's standard procedure in these cases,' she said sweetly.
Karen could not speak again. She felt sick and faint. The girl led her back to Hal, and Karen heard him questioning the girl. His voice held a strident tone, but the young technician could not be moved from her stance.
'It's not my position to comment, Mr Chissolm. You have to see your wife's obstetrician.'
The next few days were absolute anguish. Hal tried to ease Karen's fears, but she sensed that he shared them. Owen came charging around to see her.
'Karen, there's a man at Sydney University who's the leader of his field. If you don't get satisfaction from this Dr Grayson you're going to see, I'll get Professor Bellamy to sort it out. He's the man. Don't you worry.'
But Owen was worried. Karen thanked him for his concern, but she had the terrible feeling that whateer was happening inside her body was irrevocable. Without Hal's reassuring support she could not have kept going in any sensible fashion. He was so good to her that she sometimes fantasised that he really did love her. Even on the morning of her appointment with the obstetrician, Hal cajoled her into a light bteakfast and a large glass of milk, saying it was good for the baby and everything was going to be all right.
But she could feel his tension as he drove her to Macquarie Street where all the top specialists resided. It was an early appointment, nine-thirty in the morning, and there were no other patients in the waiting room of Dr Grayson's offices. Hal held her paused in the doorway and spoke with a low urgency that touched her deeply.
'Karen, no matter what happens, this is our baby. And we'll love it.'
How could she have ever called him a monster? Karen wondered, loving him fiercely in that anguished moment of sharing. He was a good man, a good, loving man whom she was proud to have as her husband.
A white-uniformed woman rose from behind a desk and ushered them into the consulting room. Dr Grayson was a tall, thin, distinguished-looking man, somewhere in his fifties, and he beamed delight at them through his gold-rimmed spectacles. His wide smile eased a little of Karen's tension. Surely a doctor of any sensitivity would not be smiling if he had bad news for them.
'Mr and Mrs Chissolm, it's a great pleasure to meet you,' he boomed, taking Hal's hand and shaking it vigorously. Karen felt faint. She sank into the nearest chair as the doctor turned to her. 'Is that chair comfortable enough for you, Mrs Chissolm? We'll have to be taking the greatest care of you now.'
'It's fine, thank you,' she croaked.
Dr Gryson rubbed his hands together gleefully. 'Well, before we go any further, I'd like your permission to invite one of my colleagues to join this meeting. His name is Professor Martin Bellamy, and he's one of the top four or five obstetricians in Australia. In his specialty he's regarded as a world expert.'
'Why do we need him?' Hal demanded curtly.
'I'd like him to tell you that himself,' Dr Grayson replied, still beaming delight.
'As you wish,' conceded Hal, exchanging anxious looks with Karen.
The doctor opened a side-door and called in a man who was somewhat older than himself but who carried an air of immense authority, despite his highdomed bald head. He also exuded a barely suppressed excitement as he was introduced to Hal and Karen. He took a chair to the side of the doctor's desk. Hal and Dr Grayson sat down.
'If I could start, Professor?' the doctor demurred indulgently.
'By all means,' was the eager reply.
'Mr and Mrs Chissolm, you are going to be the parents of twins.'
Is that all? Karen thought dazedly. Just twins? She glanced at Hal to see his reaction.
His jaw tightened. 'And what's the bad news?' he demanded.
The doctor gave a rueful smile. 'Well, the umbilical cord of one of the twins is caught around the neck of the other, but ..'
'If I might interrupt,' Professor Bellamy put in, 'there's nothing to be alarmed about, Mr Chissolm. This has happened before. We've handled births like that many, many times, and never lost a baby. The finest medical team in Australia has already volunteered, free of charge, to be at the birth of your twins, because we suspect--only suspect, mind you--that you're in the process of making medical history.'
'What are you talking about?' Hal fired at him irritably. 'What the devil is going on?'
The mention of the medical team had upset Karen too. Precisely what medical history was going to be made? Owen had told her that Professor Bellamy was the leader in his field.
The Professor smiled reassurance. 'I shall explain--just a moment of your patience, Mr Chissolm. You mayor may not be aware that there are different types of twins. Most sets are what we call fraternal twins, who come from two different eggs which happen to have been fertilised at the same time. Then we have identical twins, which are not so common. Such twins are born from a single egg that separated into two parts early in its development, and each part becomes one of the twins. Sometimes, and it's very rare, that separation of the egg does not occur until the egg has begun to develop right and lefthanded characteristics.'
He paused, his forehead puckered irito a frown. 'If separation occurs too late, we get Siamese twins. The timing is critical, a matter of a few days. However, if the egg has separated just prior to this critical period, we get a case of mirror image identical twins.'
He breathed a sigh of satisfaction before continuing. 'I'm recognised as a world expert on mirror image identical twins, yet in over forty years of specialisation I've only seen two cases in the last over twenty years ago. The babies your wife is carrying could very well be such a case. We're not sure, but from the ultra-sound scan there's every indication that it is so; and if they are mirror image identical twins, Mr Chissolm, both you and your wife need to be psychologically prepared.'
Karen breathed a silent prayer of thanks. That was all it was! Something they didn't understand and wanted to know. Something she already knew. The loneliness she had felt from the loss of Kirsty was somehow appeased with the knowledge that a cycle was being reborn.