When he came to bed a little later, he put some wood in the porcelain stove in the bedroom, and then slid into bed next to her.
She stirred and woke. “Why are you so cold?” she murmured.
“I just went to the privy. It’s started to snow quite heavily. It’s blowing strongly. The snow is horizontal.”
I hope I don’t have the baby tonight, she thought. As she drifted into sleep, wrapped in Victor’s arms, she still felt the growing pressure, her belly cramping on and off.
~~~
Eva woke some time later. It was still dark. The flying heavy snowfall glowed white, casting a pale light in the room. The wind howled through the trees and around the cabin, making her glad she was not out in it. She could feel movement behind her on the bed. Victor was restless. As she became more conscious, it became clear just how restless he was. She could feel his erection poking her right buttock. She turned slightly towards him, feeling both annoyed and amused.
“I was hoping you would wake up,” he said.
“I thought you were poking me with a small piece of kindling. I guess I was mistaken,” she said.
“What would I be doing in bed with firewood?” he asked wryly.
“Do you want something, Victor?” She was almost loath to ask.
“What I have been really dreaming about is if you were suddenly ready to—”
Eva knew exactly what he wanted. He’d been obliging her orally for quite some time now, but she had not had the nerve to oblige him. Wouldn’t it be a surprise if I did it right now? she thought. She heaved herself onto her hands and knees, tolerating the continuing low back pain and the few mild contractions. She pushed the covers aside and crawled to him as best she could.
As she put her warm, wet mouth on him, he cried out, “Oh! My God, Eva! Are you sure you want to do this now?”
“You want me to stop?”
“No!!” He moaned and breathed in pleasure. “Your teeth …”
“Then lay back. I hope I do it right.”
She could tell that he was in complete, undeniable bliss. He moaned and groaned in a crescendo as her mouth did its ministrations.
“Like a peppermint stick?” she asked briefly.
“It’s just like …”
She started again.
“Oh my God … It’s so good … ahh … ahh …” He growled, then yelled, “Ahhh!”
His hips bucked wildly in his climax.
She lumbered back to her sleeping position when it was done and plopped down next to him. He lay in an obvious joy-filled heap, legs and knees spread apart.
“Did you swall—” he seemed too taken to finish his thought.
“Swallow? Yes. It’s rather bitter. Are you all right, or do I need to get you a drink of water?” She smiled in the dark, pleased that she had left him in such a breathless stupor. “I don’t think you can get up at the moment, can you?”
He mumbled incoherently again. This made her giggle.
She was on her back, pulling the covers over both of them, when he reached under her nightgown and proceeded to pleasure her in return. She spread for him and rubbed her belly, feeling another contraction. Her noises that came with it were obviously mistaken for pleasure sounds on Victor’s part. He knew exactly where the right spot to rub was.
“You make me feel good.” She soon climaxed. Victor kissed her. She was fully aware of the orgasm’s effect on her womb. It clutched with intensity, finally letting go.
Victor had dozed off. Eva's grunts and sharp exhales from the next contraction several minutes later didn’t wake him. The antique standing clock in the parlor struck four.
~~~
Victor woke at six-thirty. He was still in his delighted mood from the oral sex he had received from Eva only hours before. He thought he’d get the fires going in the kitchen and bedroom. He moved quietly, easily rekindling the bedroom fire, having plenty of embers to throw kindling on. He stopped to gaze at Eva as she slept, beautiful and hugely pregnant. He noticed a frown though. He began to feel aroused. I can’t ask her again, he thought. I don’t think she slept well last night, and I didn’t help. I must thank her later for what she did for me. It felt amazing. I’ll go make coffee and get a little breakfast going.
Before he started the coffee, he went to the kitchen and relieved himself of his erection. It was impossible, he discovered over the last several months, to let it wane on its own. He felt compelled every time to have the orgasm.
As he made a small breakfast he began to sing a bawdy sailor song.
“Victor,” Eva called from the bedroom. “What has you in such a fine mood this morning?”
He stuck his head around the doorjamb with the silliest, toothy grin he could muster. She began to laugh. As she did so, he began to sing his bawdy sailor song at an even louder volume.
He ended his song. “Some fairy girl visited me last night while you slept and the most wonderful thing happened.”
As he joked with her, he noticed something odd in her face. She wasn’t paying attention to him and her laughing stopped. Her attention seemed inward, she rolled from her side to her back, and her hands went to her belly. Her gaze came back to him filled with concern. “Ooooohhh,” she groaned rubbing her belly. Her knees came up. She rolled back to her side.
“What is it?” He joined her concern. “Is the baby coming?” he said quietly, growing nervous.
“I think so. What will we do?” Her voice got higher.
“Well, I don’t think anyone is going to be able to make it here any time soon.” He stood looking out at the bleak solid white through the bedroom window. The late winter snowstorm was still raging, and he couldn’t even see the lake fifty feet away. “I refuse to leave you if you are in labor. So, unless somebody happens to come, you and I are on our own.”
Her reaction was to hyperventilate.
“You can’t panic. It will serve nothing. I’m here with you.”
“All right then. You are right. We will do what we have to do. Your mother and mine told me what would be happening, so I have a good idea of what is in store.” She pushed the blankets aside, and got up. She had kept some old quilts in the storage chest and got them out. She stripped the bed and covered the mattress with the old quilts. Victor made sure there was enough firewood nearby to keep the heat in the bedroom.
“I lost the plug yesterday,” she said.
“You what?” he said with incredulity as they worked together. “Why didn’t you tell me the plug came out?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to hover. I need to go to the privy. Can you go with me?”
“Hover? I’m your husband. It’s what I’m supposed to do.” He was still upset.
“Don’t remind me.” She kissed him as he helped her get ready for the snow.
When they returned from the privy, she stopped in the pantry to get a jar of mehu.
“I’m thirsty and this makes me happy. It smells like summer,” she said.
“Do you think you should eat something, too?” He took the juice jar from her and opened the mason top, then fetched a glass.
“I’m not hungry. I probably will be when I’m done. Mamma said she ate like a pig after each of us was born.”
They both chuckled, but that was short lived. Nerves re-emerged.
“I don’t think I should go back outside to the privy. We will use a chamber pot from now on,” she said.
“Are you cold? Should I put more wood on the fire?”
“I think I am all right.”
Back in the bedroom, she put on an old flannel nightgown, wrapped herself in a shawl, and sat down in the wooden rocker. Victor put the mehu and glass on a side table. He saw her bare feet and fetched her slipper socks. He knelt down to put them on her.
“Victor, stop fussing—” she started to complain.
“Shut up. I’ll fuss if I want. You are going to have my child. This is serious.”
“Well then, why don’t you pour me some mehu?”
He went
to the kitchen and came back with a cup.
“You already had a glass here, on the table.”
“Don’t point out what I’m doing wrong,” he said as he poured from the jar.
“If you promise to stop being angry.”
“Here is your mehu. I need to have a quick meal. Call me if something happens. Do not keep me from anything. Do you hear me, Eva?”
“Yes, I hear you. I promise.” She drank from her glass. “I’m scared now.”
~~~
His bawdy sailor song long forgotten, Victor took Eva’s advice to do as much as they needed to for preparation. Luckily, they had gotten much done beforehand, at the advice of both their mothers and fathers.
After a few minutes, he returned from his quick breakfast of coffee and nisu with another rocker and some books and newspapers. This way they could bide their time waiting as the labor continued.
He sat down and smiled reassuringly at Eva. She smiled back from the other rocker, but the smile abruptly changed to a grimace. She clutched her belly and gave a grunt in response to the contraction. Then she stood up suddenly and a whoosh of water cascaded down her legs and onto the floor. She looked surprised.
“Victor!” she whined. “My slippers are soaked, and so much for the old nightgown.”
“All right, my love. Mother told me to expect that.” He had a brief flurry of chaotic thoughts, but recovered quickly and helped her take off the wet clothes. He put all their pillows at the head of the bed, and put a thick folded sheet on the old quilts to absorb fluids and blood. “Let’s get you in bed now, unless you want to sit more.”
“Let’s try lying down.” The fresh nightgown was forgotten.
Just as she was getting into bed, a strong contraction hit her.
“Victor, it hurts. It’s bigger than the other ones.”
“I’m here, Eva. It is what we were told, and I am right beside you, darling.”
An hour later, the contractions were coming at a seemingly alarming rate. Victor had bravely placed himself at the bottom of the bed, watching for any body parts of the baby to start emerging.
“Aaaa!!” Eva was beyond words now and fully in labor. Her tears were flowing, mingling with the streams of sweat coming from her hairline.
He grimaced each time she cried out in pain. He couldn’t stand seeing her hurt so much. His heart ached for her, but he knew he had to stay strong. He was torn between watching from the end of the bed, or holding her to protect her from the battle she seemed to be waging. He began to cry, but decided she didn’t need that.
He looked at her bulging vaginal area. He had an absurd thought that it was just like livestock calving or lambing. He suddenly felt quite at home with what was happening.
“Push next time you contract. I think you are near. The head will be coming.”
“I want to be done.” Her hair was plastered to her sweaty head, her face crimson with exertion. As she spoke, another huge contraction hit her. She screamed and pushed with all her might. The baby crowned.
“Oh! I see the baby’s head!” Victor felt some relief, but knew it was not over yet. “Next contraction, push hard and long again. We’re almost done. You’re so brave and strong, Eva. I love you so much.” He nearly started to cry again but he needed to attend to Eva, so he swiftly moved from the foot of the bed and wrung a cool wet cloth from the water basin. He used it to wipe her face. She seemed grateful. He saw the next contraction coming, his wife completely taken by the pain. She emitted a low, base, growl from deep within, pushing with all her might. The baby’s head and shoulders appeared after the next push. The last contraction brought their newborn daughter quietly squeaking and breathing into the world.
Eva collapsed onto the feather pillows behind her, crying when Victor said, “It’s a girl.” He followed this with, “It is one o’clock, twelve March, the year of our Lord, 1893. Here comes the afterbirth.”
~~~
Victor wiped the newborn gently with soft flannel cloths. He cut the umbilical cord and tied it off, just as he would’ve done with a new calf or lamb. He then swaddled her in a soft flannel smock, newly knit slippers and a baby blanket. As he brought her to Eva, he now felt he could cry. He sat for a moment with his wife and daughter, gazing in wonder at the two of them, and their survival. He knew that all too often these events could go badly. He absorbed as much as he could of the scene in front of him—his young wife sweaty and worn to the bone, his baby still wrinkly and fuzzy in her newness.
“Hello, my baby. Welcome. I’m your Mamma,” Eva cooed softly as the baby made little grunting noises and wrinkled her tiny nose. Eva put the baby to her breast, where she immediately latched on, giving the new mother quite a start.
“That is very strange. That rush of milk startled me.”
Victor was quietly busy with cleanup. He pulled the fluid-and-afterbirth filled sheet out from under Eva’s bottom and placed it in a galvanized bucket, leaving the dry quilts. They would do for the time being. He sat next to mother and daughter to gaze at them. He got his first good look at the baby, now asleep, full of mother’s milk. There were no sounds in the house other than a crackling, hissing fire in the ceramic stove, the tick-tocking of the standing clock, and the occasional “uff-uff” of the newborn. He found great peace in those homey sounds, relieved the birth was over.
“I think she looks like you,” Eva said quietly. She smiled at him.
“Maybe, I need to study her,” he answered. “How do you feel?”
“Like I probably look.” Eva's playful self was swiftly returning, much to Victor’s delight. She smiled in seeming utter joy at her husband. “Here, hold your daughter.” She handed him the baby.
As he stared at their child, he found himself amazed at what he had created with Eva. He stood up and walked around the room, showing his daughter her home. “…and here is a window. And look, Uncle Hannes is coming to see us. Won’t he be surprised? I wonder what he will have to say.”
He gave the baby a tiny kiss on the forehead and handed her back to Eva so he could unbolt the front door. At some point during the birth, the blizzard had stopped and the sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky. Victor said nothing to his brother as Hannes removed his skis and boots in the entryway, and came into the house.
“Jesus, it smells like a cow gave birth in here.”
“Why don’t you go into the bedroom and welcome your new niece, and offer the cow congratulations?” Victor took full advantage to embarrass his little brother.
“What?” Hannes said incredulously. As he walked in to see Eva in the bed, obviously in post-birth, his incredulity turned to complete and utter embarrassment. “Eva, I should’ve known. I didn’t mean to call you a cow, even though you were huge recently.”
“Hannes!” Victor admonished him, amused that his little brother was digging himself deeper into a hole.
Eva burst into fits of giggles. “Come here, you idiot, and see,” she said with affection. “I can say with all honesty, she is not a calf, even though it felt like I was giving birth to one.”
“You must never tell Aiti I said that. Do you promise?” Hannes addressed the new mother with worry in his eye. His attention then went to the sleeping baby. “She looks like Victor.” He looked directly at his older brother. “Poor thing will have to go through life with such a face. I’ll make her a cloth bag with eye holes.”
Hannes went into his own silent giggling fit, looking pleased that he had a sarcastic statement for his big brother. As he leaned over to give Eva a kiss on the cheek, he softly rubbed his tiny niece's cheek with his index finger.
“This means I get to relinquish the position of baby of the Mattson family. I happily give it to you …what is her name?” Hannes asked.
“I was thinking of using our mothers’ middle names: Ellen, from my mother, and Franciina from Victor’s. What do you think, Victor? Her name is Ellen Franciina Mattson.”
“I like the name very much,” Victor said, gazing at his new daughter. “W
ill you go back to the farm, Hannes, and let everyone know the baby is here? And, tell them that all is well. If they want to come, tell them in two hours, since everything is fine.”
“I’ll go right now, Victor. We’ll be back in two hours.”
~~~
Just after Hannes left, Eva started to feel more and more like she needed to get out of the bed. She felt sticky from dried sweat and birthing fluids. “I would like you to help me wash, and I’d like to stand for that,” she declared to Victor. “And then I would like something to eat. I’m starting to feel hungry.”
“Fine, I just need to get a sturdy chair for you to hold on to, and the basin full of hot water.”
After returning with a kitchen chair and the hot water in the ewer, Victor put the baby in her cradle and helped Eva from the bed. He laid down several linen towels for Eva to stand on, and he began to wash the sweat and birth fluids from her body.
“My knees are trembling, but the washing feels good. I can’t wait to get into a hot sauna, maybe tomorrow.” She was looking forward to relieving her aching muscles in the moist heat.
“I think we can arrange that.”
Over a second large basin of hot water, Victor managed to wash Eva’s voluminous head of hair. It took two rinses to get the lather out.
“I needed a clean head of hair, after that,” Eva declared. “It makes me feel so much better.
Once Eva's hair was wrung and in a towel, Victor helped her with a clean flannel nightgown and assisted her to the rocker so he could change the bedding.
“Will you put the rocker next to the baby, please?”
When the bed was changed, Victor got some bread and butter, fried eggs, and a glass of milk for Eva and himself.
Eva and the Irishman Page 18