'I'll be right here, every minute,' she said, 'watching your every move.'
'Fine,' Mama said. 'You do that.'
Gladys folded her arms across her chest and dropped herself into the pink cushion chair across from me.
'You can make yourself useful if you're going to stay here all the time,' Mama told her. 'Get me a basin of warm water and some clean washcloths. I want to bathe Gabrielle.'
Gladys Tate stared at us as if she hadn't heard a word. In fact, it was more like she was looking through us. Her eyes had turned glassy and she didn't move a muscle. There was just a slight twitch under her right eye. Mama studied her for a moment and then looked at me and lifted her eyebrows. She patted my hand and went to the bathroom. herself to get what she wanted. I threw a glance at Gladys and saw she hadn't moved, hadn't shifted her eyes. They looked like they had turned to glass. It added chills to my already tense and shuddering body.
Mama washed me down and made me as comfortable as she could. All the while Gladys glared silently at us. She didn't change expression or move until Octavious returned. When he did, she spun on him as he approached.
'Well?' she said.
'They're all packed and gone. I gave them an extra week's wages so they wouldn't complain.' He turned to Mama. 'Your husband said to tell you he had to go,' Octavious said.
'To play
I nodded, smiling. A small pain had begun in my groin and traveled into my stomach and around to my back, but I didn't say anything about it because it wasn't as bad as the early ones were yet.
'Well,' Octavious said, looking from Gladys to Mama, 'maybe I should bring something up for you to eat and drink. This may take a while, eh?'
'Bring some ice tea,' Gladys ordered, 'and make sure the front door is locked. Draw all the curtains closed, too. And don't answer any phone calls or make any.'
Octavious closed his eyes as if he had a terrible headache and then opened them and turned to Mama.
'What can I get you?' he asked.
'Just cold water,' Mama told him. She had brought along what she wanted for herself and for me.
He nodded and left, and soon after, the pain began to build.
'Mama,' I said, 'it's starting again.'
'Okay, honey. Just squeeze my hand when you hurt. I want to know how bad it really is.'
She pulled Grandmere Landry's silver pocket watch out of her bag and put it beside me on the bed.
'What's that?' Gladys demanded, looking over Mama's shoulder.
'Just a watch to tell me how long her contractions last and how much time between them. That's how I know how close we are to the birth.'
'Oh,' Gladys said, and placed her palms over her fake stomach. 'It tightens, doesn't it? It gets as tight and as hard as a rock.'
Mama just looked at her, nonplussed, which caused something in Gladys Tate's eyes to snap. A crimson tint came into the crests of her cheeks.
'I've got to know every detail, don't I? People ask questions. I want to be able to describe the birth as if I really did have the baby.'
'Yes, it gets hard,' Mama said. 'In the beginning for a very short time and then longer and longer as you get closer to delivering the baby.'
'Yes,' Gladys said, and grimaced as if she really did suffer a contraction.
Mama sighed and turned back to me with a small smile on her lips. She rolled her eyes. I wanted to smile back, but the pain grew longer and more severe.
'Take deep breaths,' Mama advised.
'Is it coming? Is it coming?' Gladys asked, excitedly.
'Not yet, no,' Mama said. 'I told you. I'm not sure this is real labor yet, and besides, babies don't come busting into this world that fast, especially when a woman's giving birth for the first time.'
'Yes,' Gladys said, more to herself than to us. 'My first time.'
She waddled over to her own bed and sat down, her hands on her padded stomach. She closed her eyes and bit down on her lower lip. Mama wiped my face with a cold washcloth. I forced a smile and gazed at Gladys, who looked like she was breaking into a sweat herself. Watching her actions, her silent moans, her deep breaths, distracted me from my own. pain for the moment. Mama just shrugged and shook her head.
Mama said the contractions were a good five minutes apart and didn't last long enough to be that significant yet, but it went on for hours. All the while Gladys Tate lay in her bed beside mine. She ate nothing, drank a little ice tea, but for the most part, just watched me and mimicked my every action, my every groan.
As the sun began to go down and the room darkened, my labor pains grew longer and with shorter and shorter intervals. I saw from Mama's face that she thought something significant was happening now.
'I'm going to give birth soon, aren't 1, Mama?'
She nodded. 'I believe so, honey.'
'But it's too soon, isn't it, Mama? I'm barely eight months.'
