The heavy groan sounded as though it were being dragged from inside the woman’s body involuntarily. Her pregnant belly heaved as guttural sounds enveloped the tiny bedroom. Keery dabbed the sweat from the woman’s forehead. The midwife, Luanne, examined the woman to check her dilation. A clock on the mantlepiece ticked away the minutes, piling them into hours.
“Illona, you’re doing so well, darling. Your baby’s head has engaged, and you’re going to really start pushing.”
Illona responded with only a nod and “uh-huh.”
“Keery, come here, girl,” Luanne ordered. Keery obeyed quickly. “Place your hand here. Feel that? That’s how you can tell the baby’s head is engaged. Illona, on your next contraction, you’re going to push.” Keery was nearing the end of her apprenticeship, so it was not the first time she had felt a baby’s head engaged. Still, she obeyed. Each experience was building Keery up, readying her for her practice.
The process went quickly. It was Illona’s sixth baby. Within a few pushes, the baby’s head was completely born.
“One more big push, Illona, and your baby will be born.” Illona’s contraction hit; she scrunched her face until it looked like a closed fist and pushed. Luanne’s hands grabbed ahold of the baby as he was suspended in the space between being born and not yet born. The elderly midwife’s eyes rolled back as a vision of the child’s destiny encompassed her mind. The moment was over as quickly as it had come. The little boy was born. For the briefest moment, Keery saw that Luanne’s features were grim. Before Illona could see her face, she wiped it clean of emotion.
“Is it a boy?” Illona asked, her voice breathy and rough from the effort of getting her child out into the world.
“Yes, it’s a boy,” was Luanne’s dry reply.
Keery looked at the tiny baby. He looked perfect. He balled his little hands into fists and kicked with both his legs. She wondered what Luanne had seen. Keery had not yet experienced the second sight, but she knew she would when her turn
