Mort popped out of a trailer, trailing sheets. Another scream pierced the night. She saw steam rising from the pot. The water was about to boil.
****
Joan resisted the urge to wipe the sweat off of her forehead. She had never delivered a baby before. She was not an obstetrician. She was an E.R. doctor, much more comfortable with setting bones and stitching cuts. She knew the principles and had been taught about it at school, but she had no practical experience.
Katie reached over and wiped the sweat off her forehead with a towel. "Thank you," Joan muttered.
They were in a waiting game now. It was just time and a lot of talking and comforting. "You're gonna be ok. Everything is looking good," she assured Tammy.
Tammy didn't hear it. She was screaming.
"Did you scream this much when you had your baby?" Joan asked Katie. For all intents and purposes, Katie was probably the most qualified person to talk to about delivering babies in the compound. She was the only one who had actually given birth to a child.
"I don't think so… but I had an epidural so…" Katie left the words hanging.
There would be no epidural here. This was to be a natural birth. She hoped it would be smooth, but Tammy's screaming was getting to her.
"Talk to me, Tammy," Joan said.
"Oh, fuck. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die," she said, her eyes looking feverish.
"You're not going to die," Joan said. But she didn't know.
Mort came in with fresh sheets and towels, though they reeked of wood smoke from drying next to the fire. They slid Tammy onto her side and pushed the sheets under her, pulling them out the other side.
Tammy bellowed in pain once again, and Mort jumped.
"Jesus," he said amid the screaming. "Is she going to be ok?"
"She'll be fine."
Mort stepped up to Tammy's side and grabbed her by the hand, squeezing it. "When it hurts too bad," he said, "you grab my hand, and you take that pain and you squeeze it into me. I'll take some of yours. Ok?"
Tammy nodded her head. Katie wiped Tammy's forehead down with a towel. Tammy bit her lower lip, and tears came from her eyes.
"Have you thought of a name yet?" Joan asked, filling the time between contractions.
Tammy shook her head.
They took the time to come up with names, some comical, some too formal. But Joan knew they wouldn't be able to keep up the game for long.
****
Theresa flinched every time the screams came. They cut through the night like a knife. Then there was another sound, a small thump from outside the compound.
She stopped stirring a sheet in the boiling water and listened again. Tammy's scream had died down, and then she heard it again, the sound of something thumping against the sides of one of the metal trailers.
"I think we got dead," Theresa said.
Liz looked at her, her eyes big and round. "Should we take care of it?" she asked.
"It's only one, I think. We can let it be for now."
The snow fell harder now, adding to the water in the big pot. A snowflake caught in her eyelash, and she had to blink to make it go away.
"You think we're going to scream like that?" Liz asked.
"I don't know."
****
Mort didn't know what it would be like to give birth to a baby, but based upon how much pain Tammy was in, he wouldn't ever want to be pregnant if he was a woman. Tammy squeezed his hand with all of her might, but it wasn't as painful as it had been at first. She was tired now. Sweat pooled in the hollow between her collarbones.
Tammy wasn't there, not fully anyway. The pain was too great for her to concentrate on being who she really was. Right now, she was just a ball of pain, trying to catch her breath.
He tried to calm her down and let her know he was there for her. He didn't even know if she was listening, but he kept up a solid stream of positive thoughts and soothing words, hoping in his head that the whole thing would be over any second.
****
Katie watched the entire affair with an impassionate face. She remembered her own pregnancy and how hard it had been. She remembered the relief at delivering a living son into the world and her complete and total love for the being that had lived inside her for nine months.
She wondered if it would be the same with her next baby? Would she have that feeling again, or would it be like having a tumor removed? The baby stirred inside of her. It would be another month, maybe a month-and-a-half until she would be on that bed, Joan peeping at her cooter. At least she knew Joan. That made it better, she supposed.
She looked at Mort and suppressed a smile. She could see the anxiety on his face. He was trying so hard, but she could tell that he was terrified. He had a big heart, possibly the biggest out of all of them. She hoped that didn't come back to bite him— or get him bit.
Tammy screamed on the bed, the tendon in her wrist popping as she squeezed Mort's hand.
Katie wiped Joan's sweating forehead with the towel. Hours, they had been in this room for hours, and still, there was no sight of the
