Page 119 (2/2)

The rooht it was for hi away, then helped Mausa" Her face was pale with fear "It shouldn’t hurt like this"

"What should I do, Maus?"

"I don’t know!"

Theo raced down stairs, Conroy following at his heels The baby, the baby was coether in one place, but of course he never had The house was freezing, the fire had burned down; the baby would need to be kept wars into the cradle, then knelt before it, blowing on the es and a pail from the kitchen He’d intended to boil water, to sterilize it, but it didn’t seem like there was time for that now

"Theo, where are you!"

He filled the pail and got a sharp knife and carried it all up to the bedroo over her face, looking afraid

"I’m sorry about the floor," she said

"Any more contractions?"

She shook her head

Conroy was back at the ot down on his hands and knees to clean it up, holding his breath How ridiculous She was about to have a baby, and here he was, flinching at the smell of vomit

"Uh-oh," Maus said

By the time he’d risen, the contraction was upon her She’d pulled her legs upward, drawing her heels toward her buttocks Tears were squeezing from the corners of her eyes

"It hurts! It hurts!" She rolled suddenly onto her side "Pressabout this "Where? How should I press it?"

She was shouting into the pillow "Anywhere!"

He gave an uncertain push

"Lower! For godsakes!"

He curled his hand into a ball and pressed his knuckles into her; he felt her pushing back He counted the seconds: Ten, twenty, thirty

"Back labor" She was panting for breath "The baby’s head is shoving against my spine It’ll make me want to push I can’t push yet, Theo Don’t let me push"

She drew up onto her hands and knees She earing only a T-shirt The sheets beneath her were soaked with fluid, giving off a warm, sweet smell, like olden sunlight

Another contraction; Mausaroaned and dropped her face into the ot on the bed beside her, positioning his fist on the ridge of her spine, and leaned in, pushing with all his ht

Hours and hours The contractions continued, hard and deep, through the length of the day Theo stayed with her on the bed, pressing her spine until his hands were nuue But co to Mausa He left her side only twice, to call Conroy in fro and he heard hiain Always by the ti his name

He wondered if it was always like this He didn’t really know It was horrible, endless, like nothing he’d ever experienced He wondered if Mausay, when the time came, to push the baby out Between contractions she see herherself for the next wave of pain to h her All he could do was press her back, but this see very little It didn’t see the lantern-a second night, he thought with despair, how could this go on a second night?-when Maus gave a sharp cry He turned to see watery blood pour frohs

"Maus, you’re bleeding"

She had rolled onto her back, pulling her thighs upward She was breathing very quickly, her face drenched with sweat "Hold My legs," she gasped

"Hold the To push Theo"

He positioned hiainst her knees As the next contraction caht toward him

"Oh, God I can see hi a disk of pink skin covered in wet black hair Then, in the next instant, this vision was gone, the flower’s petals folding over it, drawing the baby back inside her

Three, four, five more times she bore down; each time the baby appeared and, just as quickly, vanished For the first tiht it: this baby doesn’t want to be born This baby wants to stay just where it is

"Help one "Pull him out, pull him out, please, just pull him out"

"You have to push one more time, Maus" She seee of final collapse "Are you listening? You have to push!"

"I can’t, I can’t!"

The next contraction took her; she lifted her head and released an animal cry of pain

"Push, Maus, push!"

She did; she pushed As the top of the baby’s head appeared, Theo reached down and slipped his index finger inside her, into her heat and dampness He felt the orbital curve of an eye socket, the delicate bulge of a nose He couldn’t pull the baby, there was nothing to hold on to, the baby would have to come to hi his shoulder against her legs to brace the force of her effort

"We’re almost there! Don’t stop!"

Then, as if the touch of his hand had given it the will to be born, the baby’s face appeared, sliding froeness, with ears and a nose and a like eyes Theo cupped his hand below the smooth, wet curve of its skull The cord, a translucent, blood-filled tube, was looped around its neck Though no one had told hi it away Then he reached inside Mausaer under the baby’s ar Theo’s hands with his slippery, blue-skinned warmth A boy The baby was a boy Still he had not breathed, or htest sound His arrival in the world was incoh Theo rolled the baby in his hands, bracing his skinny body lengthith his forearan to rub the baby’s back, ers of his free hand in a circularin his chest, but he felt no panic; his ht to bear on this one task Co you just went through, how can that be so hard? The baby had only just been born, but already Theo felt his hold upon hi in his arht live Cos and breathe