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"Will Ma be okay?" the boy says, turning to ood care of her," I hedge

"Will she be okay?" he asks again

A cloud, like a hand, has moved over the sun

Blood

When I step into the s on her side, crossways on the sagging iron bed, folding clean laundry, and singing to herself "Happy days are here again The skies above are clear again So let’s sing a song of cheer Happy days are here again"

"Thelma, I want to check the baby’s heartbeat Can you roll on your back?" Patience asks sweetly, though by her expression anyone--but Thelry "Do you knohen you last felt the baby kick?"

"Probably last night No, maybe yesterday It’s been quiet today"

The midwife holds out her hand and I knohat she wants: the ht For all we know this baby could already be dead Mrs Booth is so clueless, it’s possible

"It’s okay, Thelma It’s okay," I whisper in her ear as Patienceets thicker as the o by, and I remember that the last time I went to a delivery with Patience she only had a Pinard stethoscope, a wooden hornlike tube She must have inherited this new metal one from the late Mrs Potts, the colored midho in years past delivered half of Union County

Finally, Patience pushes her drooping wire-rier in the air while staring at the gold timepiece she wears on a ribbon around her neck, and I knoatching her that the fetal heart rate is normal We both take a deep breath and Patience breaks into a s But why are you bleeding?" She turns to ht just be bloody show"

"That’s a lot of blood," I note Thethe laundry, as if our conversation doesn’t concern her

I study our patient "Happy days are here again" She has a pensive, faraway look in her eyes, and Patience and I each place our hands on Thelma’s abdomen at the sa to stop and the uterus relaxes

"She’s singing through the contractions," Patience whispers, then she nods her head toward the door

"What do you think?" she asks me as we stand in the narrow dark hallway

I hesitate, not sure if Patience knows the medical terms, but then remember she’s studied the whole of Delee’s Principles and Practice of Obstetrics, a medical text that herassistant, had also studied it when they used to attend births together