Clash of Mountains

by Chloe Garner

  “She wouldn’t come earlier,” Peter said. “Too many patients to see.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “Figured.”

  She looked to Lise again as the woman kept walkin’, hips swayin’ as she tried to keep ‘em underneath the belly.

  “How far apart?” Sarah asked.

  No one answered. She looked at Jimmy and Peter, and Jimmy shrugged.

  “Pathetic,” she said. Kayla was pressed against a wall nearby and Sarah nodded to her.

  “You got a watch?”

  “Um,” Kayla said, takin’ out a pocket watch and glancin’ at it.

  “You’re takin’ time,” Sarah said. “You tell us how long between contractions.”

  “How am I supposed to know that?” Kayla asked.

  “You’ll know,” Sarah said, lookin’ at Rhoda.

  “Clean towels, and a place for her to deliver this baby.”

  “You aren’t touching me,” Lise growled, going to lean against the couch as she wrapped an arm ‘round her belly and groaned.

  “Who you want catchin’, then?” Sarah asked. “Don’t bother me none to go up, take a bath, and turn in early. But, like Rhoda just pointed out, that’s a Lawson you’re deliverin’ tonight, probably ‘round midnight or so, and you’re gonna want someone who knows which end’s which to make sure.”

  Lise hung her head for several more seconds, then looked up at Sarah with a vicious snarl.

  “You’re enjoying this.”

  Sarah blinked.

  “Not ‘specially,” she said. “Labor ain’t pretty and it ain’t fun. And first timers got a long, long road to go.”

  “Don’t talk about me like…” she said, standin’ and strugglin’ for a moment. Rhoda went to help her.

  “How long you been goin’?” Sarah asked.

  Lise gritted her teeth and went to walk her loop again, throwin’ off Rhoda.

  Sarah looked at Rhoda, who shrugged.

  “She didn’t tell anybody. Kayla just found her like this.”

  Sarah took several steps back to look for Jimmy and Little Peter, but they’d taken her invitation to get and got.

  “Dammit,” Sarah said. “Look, Lise. You know I don’t care for you more’n anyone else in the world, but you’ve got a long labor comin’, like as not, and you need someone who’s seen this before.”

  “You’ve delivered babies?” Lise asked.

  “Half a dozen, when Doc couldn’t get there in time,” Sarah said. “Like now.”

  “Shouldn’t she lay down?” Kayla asked. “I keep telling her to lay down.”

  Sarah shook her head.

  “She should be doin’ whatever feels right. Ain’t no call to lay down ‘less she’s so tired bein’ up is gonna keep her from pushin’ when the time comes.”

  “My doctor is coming,” Lise said, leanin’ against the coffee table and groanin’ again.

  “Time?” Sarah asked Kayla.

  “Oh,” Kayla said. “Um. Sorry.”

  Sarah tipped her head at the girl, then looked at Rhoda.

  “Towels. Bowl. Site. Get on it.”

  Rhoda scrammed, and Sarah turned back to Lise.

  “What’s it gonna be?”

  “My doctor is coming,” Lise said after several deep breaths.

  “Lady, we’re on an island in a river of what may as well be lava for how impossible it is to cross,” Sarah said. “You can do whatever you want, but I ain’t walkin’ away from you until I know you’re in hands gonna keep you from dyin’ and takin’ that baby with you.”

  “That can happen?” Lise asked, lookin’ up with wide eyes.

  “Childbirth is one of the top three causes of premature death in women,” Sarah said. It was probably true. “You got two lives in one body, and one of ‘em’s gotta come out. Ain’t simple, ain’t easy, and it sure as hell ain’t safe. How early are you?”

  “I’ll be thirty-seven weeks in two days,” Lise said.

  Sarah glanced at Kayla, but weren’t likely the girl knew any more about birthin’ a baby than she did buildin’ a rocket ship.

  “That’s only three weeks,” Kayla said. “That’s good. That’s okay.”

  Well, damn.

  “Shut up, Kayla,” Lise said. “Stop being so… you.”

  Sarah rolled her jaw to the side and motioned Kayla out of the room and into the dinin’ room.

  “You know about babies?” she asked. Kayla frowned.

  “I have eight nieces,” she said. “Why?”

  “You been there for any of ‘em?” Sarah asked. Kayla’s eyes went wide and she shook her head.

  “No. You go to the hospital, they whisk you away, and you come back with sweaty hair and a baby.”

  Sarah pursed her lips.

  Should have figured Kayla’d only be good for one useful fact.

  “Keep on that watch,” Sarah said, goin’ back to the front room and watching Lise a time more.

  She looked over at Kayla.

  “Keep everyone away from her. No one talks to her ‘less she asks for ‘em, and you keep the lights off in here.”

  “Why me?” Kayla asked. Rhoda came runnin’ down the stairs carryin’ a stack of towels fit to clean an army.

  “’Cause she hates you least,” Sarah said, followin’ Rhoda toward the kitchen by way of the dinin’ room.

  “I would have guessed she hates me least,” Rhoda observed quietly as she left the towels on the table and went through the door into the kitchen. Sarah nodded.

  “Probably, but I need to know some things before this gets real fast.”

  Rhoda squatted, goin’ through cupboards until one of the women came and extricated her, finding out what she wanted and goin’ to get it.

  “All right,” Rhoda said, standing.

  “You birthed calves?” Sarah asked. Rhoda nodded.

  “More than I can count.”

  “Good,” Sarah said. “I want you catchin’.”

  “What now?” Rhoda asked.

  “Somethin’ goes wrong, I’ll step in to help, but she does hate you least, and she’s only gonna fight with me.”

  Rhoda blinked.

  “I don’t know anything about babies.”

  “You think I do?” Sarah answered.

  “You just… lied,” Rhoda said, fillin’ in the blanks quickly.

  “Worst thing she can do is panic,” Sarah said. “Needs to be strong, confident, if she’s gonna be able to react if somethin’ goes wrong.”

  “You told me that babies happen naturally. And her…” Rhoda twisted her head to the side, and Sarah shrugged.

  “Most of ‘em pop out whether or not you’re ready, same as calves. Tricky ones, though… that’s how I lose most of my cows, is to bad calves.”

  “I’m not ready for this,” Rhoda said.

  “Neither is she,” Sarah said. “And yet, it’s gonna happen.”

  “A long, long time from now,” Rhoda said. Sarah nodded.

  “Like as not.”

  Rhoda twisted her mouth.

  “All right. All right. If that’s how it plays out, I’m not going to bail on you.”

  The door behind Sarah opened and she turned to see Jimmy comin’ into the kitchen.

  “How is she?” he asked.

  “Rhoda’s gonna be just fine,” Sarah said, turnin’ her back on him and takin’ the stack of bowls the cook offered her.

  “We’re gonna need three or four gallons of boilin’ water, when Lise gets ready for delivery,” she told the woman. “I can get you probably thirty minutes’ notice. Up to you if you put it on to heat now or then.”

  “How is Lise?” Jimmy asked.

  “Soap,” Sarah said to Rhoda. “Good, strong stuff. None of that pretty scented stuff y’all use.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Rhoda said with a frown, sliding past Jimmy, who didn’t budge as she left.

  He raised his eyebrows at Sarah.

  “What do you want me to tell you?” Sarah asked, dropping the accent for
now. Patching was one thing, but actually being responsible for the entrance of a tiny human life into the world… it wanted a more educated, more trustworthy tone. She should have switched with Lise, but her lack of generosity with the woman was evident everywhere.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Jimmy asked. “The baby.”

  Sarah pulled the corners of her mouth down.

  “Didn’t think you cared.”

  “That’s a Lawson out there,” he said. “More of a Lawson than Lise is ever going to be. Of course I care. She’s early.”

  Sarah shrugged.

  “There’s give to it. So long as she’s born screaming, Sid and Doc can put most anything else right, so long as we can get her to the end of the flood.”

  “Weeks,” Jimmy said.

  “My only concern is if she doesn’t take to nursing.”

  “I have formula,” Jimmy said. She frowned and he raised his eyebrows.

  “You think there was going to be a Lawson baby born in Lawrence and I wouldn’t be equipped to feed it?”

  “There aren’t any guarantees,” Sarah said after a moment. “Things could go wrong now. They could go wrong later. Lise is a new mom. They’re always less trustworthy to take care of a baby the right way…”

  “You’re talking about cows, aren’t you?” Jimmy asked.

  “Don’t tell her that,” Sarah said.

  He chewed his lower lip for a moment, then nodded.

  “I know she doesn’t want me there,” he said. “But I’ll be nearby. If you aren’t getting what you need, call me and I’ll make it happen.”

  There was a sense of relief there that she hadn’t anticipated.

  “Yeah.”

  He scratched behind his ear, looking like he had something else he might say, eyes… honest… maybe even afraid, when the door behind him opened again.

  “She says she can’t take the pain,” Kayla said. “She threw a book at me.”

  “Where’s Peter?” Sarah asked, and Jimmy raised his eyes to the ceiling.

  “He took a bottle of whiskey and went to bed.”

  “Of course,” Sarah said. “No reason he should be conscious to meet his daughter.”

  Jimmy flicked his eyebrows, and Sarah went past him, through the dining room and into the front room where Lise was leaning against the couch again.

  “Make it stop,” she said. “I don’t care what you have to do, just make it stop.”

  “Can’t do that,” Sarah answered, holding off her accent once more. “The only way to the other side is through it.”

  “Isn’t there anything you can do?” Kayla asked. Sarah shook her head.

  “I don’t know what drugs I’ve got I could give her. You don’t mess with pregnant. You just let it do its thing.”

  “Make it stop, Sarah Todd. You’re enjoying this. You are nothing compared to me, and you think you’ve finally got leverage…”

  She staggered back against the couch again, holding her belly and gasping.

  “Make it stop.”

  Sarah shook her head.

  “You’re far enough along I wouldn’t stop you if I could, and I can’t make the pain go away. Not without risking the baby.”

  “Then do it,” Lise said. “I don’t care. Just do it.”

  Sarah shook her head, hearing Rhoda come down the stairs again. She had a basket with her, and she handed it to Sarah. Sarah went through the soaps in it one by one, smelling them and feeling them on her fingers as Lise cursed at her in a language Sarah hadn’t ever heard before.

  “This’ll do,” Sarah said. “Go put on clean clothes, ones that have just been washed, with short sleeves, then come back down.”

  Rhoda hesitated, knowing why Sarah was asking, then turned and left again.

  “Is she getting close?” Kayla asked. Sarah shook her head.

  “I doubt it. But we’ll be ready, when it happens. How long between contractions?”

  “Oh,” Kayla said, looking at her watch again. “Sorry.”

  --------

  Lise went just like a heifer cow.

  She walked circles, lunging and tipping and leaning, moaning and complaining and crying, hour after hour, making no progress Sarah could see. By sunset, she was finally tired enough to let Sarah feel at her belly, and a few hours later she started bleeding.

  “That’s bad, right?” Kayla asked. Sarah shook her head.

  “Shouldn’t be. There’s a lot of blood involved in a thing like this.”

  They kept watch, they waited. Sarah heard Jimmy’s footsteps in the next room, sometimes, but mostly he sat at the dining room table and waited.

  Finally, just after midnight, Lise changed. She went from whiny and afraid and angry to just angry. Sarah and Rhoda carried the coffee table out of the front room and Rhoda put down towels, just so it wouldn’t look or feel like Lise was laying down on the carpet.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Lise demanded as Rhoda knelt in front of her.

  “Catching,” Sarah answered.

  “No,” Lise said, trying to get back to her feet. “No, no, no. I won’t.”

  “It’s either her or me, unless you want Kayla down there,” Sarah said.

  “I can’t do that,” Kayla protested, and Sarah ignored her.

  Lise held herself up on her palms, sticky blond hair plastered to the sides of her face.

  “I don’t want to do this,” she said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Sarah answered. “Door for that decision went by months ago.”

  Lise gritted her teeth and grunted loud, and Sarah put her hand on Lise’s belly once more, feeling the contraction, feeling the way the baby inside shifted.

  “Your water went,” Sarah said. “When?”

  “Over there,” Lise said without so much as motioning. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  “Don’t have to,” Sarah said, “but it would have been good for me to know.”

  “Why?” Lise asked bitterly. “All you’re planning on doing is catching.”

  “If you think that’s all there is to this, I’ve done too good a job keeping you calm,” Sarah said, finding limbs, looking for the head. “This baby is upside down.”

  Lise grunted again and her whole belly went hard. Sarah shook her head.

  “Need to turn her, Lise. She won’t come out like this. Not without breaking both of you.”

  Lise let her head drop back and Sarah put her hands behind the woman’s shoulders, taking her weight off her arms and then lowering her to the floor.

  “I hate all of you,” Lise said, putting her hands over her face as Sarah shifted along the towels to find the baby again.

  “Relax as much as you can,” Sarah said. “This is likely going to hurt.”

  Lise tried to roll away, but Sarah held her firm, finding the baby’s back and, inch by inch, rotating it. She waited through two more contractions, aware, as always, that if something went wrong, Lise was likely to bleed out long before Sarah could do anything about it.

  “Kayla,” Sarah said.

  Waited.

  “Kayla,” she said again.

  “Um,” Kayla answered. Sarah looked up to find Kayla standing against the wall, white as a sheet.

  “Jimmy,” Sarah called. “Tell the kitchen I need my water.”

  “Got it,” Jimmy answered, out of sight.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing, here, Sarah,” Rhoda said.

  “She starts bleeding like an open artery, you tell me,” Sarah said, feeling the baby’s head, body slide into place. “Wash up with the water when it gets here.”

  She couldn’t do a surgery here. Lise would die, and the baby was like to, as well. She needed that child to stay put. She held, hard, through the next contraction, feeling to make sure the baby didn’t try to shift around again, then she nodded.

  “All right,” she said, looking over at Lise. “Let’s get this done.”

  “What?” Lise asked.

  “Push,” Sarah said.

&
nbsp; She sat back, watching Lise work, motioning to Jimmy when he showed up with a big stew pot. He disappeared again and Sarah turned her attention back to Lise. She took the woman’s pulse, then she looked up at Kayla again.

  “Kayla,” she said. “Kayla, look at me.”

  Kayla finally blinked and registered Sarah.

  “I have a medical kit in my room, and a bunch of supplies up in Jimmy’s room. I need you to have him show you where they are, and then help him bring it all back here. All of it. Okay?”

  Kayla blinked again, and for a moment Sarah thought that the young woman might just pass out, but finally she staggered away from the wall and disappeared around the corner.

  “You guys still aren’t sharing a bedroom?” Rhoda asked.

  “Now is not the time,” Sarah said. “How is she?”

  “I can see the baby,” Rhoda said with a smile, looking up at Lise. “You’re almost there.”

  Sarah held Lise’s pulse.

  “Finish this,” she said to Lise. “One more breath, one more rest, then be done.”

  Lise twisted her head away, then struggled up onto her elbows, shouting.

  “Yes,” Rhoda said. “She’s coming. She’s coming. There. That’s your baby.”

  Lise fell back onto the towels, face turned away from Sarah, arms out.

  Rhoda held a squirming, red bit of squish in her arms that took just a second to work out the art of screaming.

  Sarah grabbed a towel and wrapped it, leaving the cord attached. She wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that, so she didn’t mess with it.

  “Lise,” Sarah said. “Your baby is here. Take her.”

  “I don’t care,” Lise said. “She doesn’t matter.”

  Sarah rolled up onto her toes in a squat.

  “You’re tired, and that’s fine, but you’re going to care for this child.”

  “If you try to make me take her, I’ll go throw her down the stairs,” Lise said, her voice faint.

  Sarah held her pulse, yet, but she seemed no weaker than she had been in the last hour.

  “That would require me letting you go up the stairs first, and right this minute, I don’t have any intention of such a thing,” Sarah said. “That baby has no one in the world that she knows but you. She has no one to trust but you, and she’s trusting that you’re going to figure out how to take care of her. Meet your daughter.”

  “No,” Lise said. “Jimmy doesn’t want her, and neither do I.”