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"Your girl coine

"She isn’thostile "Bitsy is my birth assistant She comes to all my deliveries"

The ride into town is uneventful; no traffic, no other autos As we cross the bridge over the Hope, I note that the ice is breaking up Below us, huge chunks pile up, then fall apart and race each other around rocks that stick up like teeth

Fruit Flies

The Otts’ two-story brick hoerbread house, looks inside about how I re: the arms of the chairs, the back of the sofa, and all the shiny h I know the couple has a four-year-old daughter, I don’t see a sign of a child or a toy anywhere, and I irand, and I don’t wait for an invitation I take the stairs in the front hall two at a time

"Hi," I say pleasantly to Prudy and the other women huddled with her in the master bedroom Mrs Wade, who attended one of the births I did with Mrs Kelly, fancies herself useful but only gets in the way Priscilla Blum, the town doctor’s wife, tells us she’s Mrs Ott’s best friend I’ chair in the corner, twisting her handkerchief I smile, but her face is creased orry and she doesn’t s! This baby won’t coht!" exhorts the Wade wo first to get the lay of the land Mrs Wade rolls her eyes

"How are you doing?" I ask Prudy She is wearing a blue chenille bathrobe, and her shoulder-length dark hair is disheveled and stringy

"Oh, not good Not good at all, Patience I don’t knohat to do! There’s never a break! When I lie down, my back hurts When I stand up, the pains come closerOh, what should I do? Helpday

All afternoon, the feet Prudy to lie down for an abdoets or deteret up If I suggest she try rocking in the rocking chair, Mrs Wade and Mrs Blum want her to lie down on her side If I show her how to bounce up and down to shake the baby into the best position, they want her to kneel and pray The heartbeat, from my brief check, is steady, and the contractions are every six et very involved, and I’m not sure what her role is, maybe just moral support, since she saw Prudy at her clinic I’ot roped into this Bitsy too, stays out of the way, sitting in the corner by the fireplace, keeping a low profile, reading her book, Up from Slavery, one of my favorites Now and then we catch each other’s eyes without expression We both know that the scene is out of control, but we don’t knohat to do about it

I’h the dark without instruerated, she could be close to delivery or two days away Now that I think of it, I don’t even know for sure if the baby’s head is down

Finally I decide I’d better do a vaginal exalance at Becky, knowing she’s aware of theit is essential