So We Look to the Sky

by Misumi Kubo

  Dear gods, please protect this child if you possibly can.

  With her due date now very close, Miss Nomura’s bump had grown very big.

  I could hear her voice coming from the tatami room.

  “Takumi, if you don’t hand this in on time, you’re going to fail the year. Do you understand that?”

  “I can do it for him. I’m a genius, remember? I’ll have it done in five minutes.”

  “Ryota, if you do it for him, it’s totally meaningless. I’m supposed to be on maternity leave, but I’m so worried about whether or not Takumi’s going to hand in his report I can barely get a moment’s rest!”

  I heard Takumi and Ryota laughing. When I went into the room with a tray of tea and snacks, Miss Nomura looked up at me and said, “Ah, it did it again. It keeps moving around.” She ran her hand gently over the pale lavender tunic containing her hugely swollen stomach.

  “It’s reacting to everyone’s voices,” I said, placing my hand on her bump as I spoke. “Feel this hard part that’s poking out? That’s the ankle. Here, touch it and see.” At my instigation, Ryota and Takuma both reached out their hands to touch Miss Nomura’s stomach.

  “Whoa, it’s moving around like crazy. Like that thing in Alien. It’s gonna eat through Notchy’s stomach lining and come bursting out!” Ryota was grinning. “Wah! It just kicked me, like, really hard!”

  “My God, you’re so dumb! You’re dumber than Notchy’s unborn baby!” Ryota grabbed Takumi’s head and mussed his hair.

  “Stop fooling around like that in front of your teacher!” I shouted, and Miss Nomura, still with a smile on her face, looked up at me.

  “My back has been very sore since I woke up this morning.”

  “Yes, well, when that pain starts happening at regular intervals, it means the contractions are starting.” As I watched, the smile disappeared from Miss Nomura’s face and was replaced by a look of anxiety.

  “So this is finally it, eh? Good luck, Notchy!” said Ryota.

  Miss Nomura thanked him, darting him a smile that looked like it could give way to tears any second.

  “Come on! Hurry up and come out!” Takumi said in the direction of Miss Nomura’s stomach.

  Without warning, tears welled up in my eyes. To make sure nobody saw, I went flapping down the hall with deliberate haste, and began preparing the room for her to give birth in. I opened the windows to let in some air. The line of cherry trees spanning the bicycle path had taken on a delicate pink color—they were just about to blossom.

  Staring at them, I tried snapping my fingers, as Dr. Liu had done in front of me. I couldn’t make as satisfying a sound as Dr. Liu had, just a muffled kind of click, but as the sound faded into nothing, I had a thought. Even if I knew they’d be gone in just an instant, like this scene outside the window would be, I would still do all I could to help the babies that came into this world.

  So come, I said to myself. Come and be born.

  “Doctor!” I heard Mitchan calling.

  “Yep!” I replied, slapping both my cheeks with my hands. Mitchan’s habit for pepping herself up when the occasion called had caught on. From the open window I heard the wavering call of a bush warbler, very out of practice. It seemed like spring had come around again.