Eduardo's Arc

Chapter 111 of 115

The midwife arrived within the week, as she had promised. She was a broad woman with gray hair and steady hands, come from two valleys over. She set her bag by the hearth and took one look at Kiersten and nodded. "Bed rest," she said. "Starting now." Eduardo moved to help Kiersten up the stairs, but the midwife blocked him with a flat palm. "You go to work. I'll sit with her." So the days split in two. Eduardo rose before dawn and hauled flour and feed for wages. The midwife stayed in the house, boiling herbs, watching Kiersten's color, counting the baby's movements with her ear to Kiersten's belly. When Eduardo came home at noon, he found the kitchen warm and the midwife at the table, unhurried. She told him what was true each day, no more. But the worry gnawed at him between loads. His old self would have stayed, hovering, taking over, calling it love. He did not. He trusted the woman with the steady hands. Still, each noon he walked through the door afraid of what he'd find. One afternoon he found Kiersten awake, propped against pillows, the locket open on her chest. She watched him climb the stairs. "You look tired," she said. "I'm fine." "That's my line." A small smile. "You hauled grain all morning. Sit." He sat on the edge of the bed. The midwife had gone down to the hearth, giving them the room. For a moment there was only the lamp and the two of them. "The pain's quiet today," Kiersten said. "She says the baby's strong." She paused. "She also says it won't be easy." "I know." He took her hand. "I'm not leaving." "I know." She looked at him, direct as always. "That's new. The old you would've found a reason to be gone." The words should have stung. They didn't. He had earned them by staying. That night the midwife pulled Eduardo aside at the door. "She's holding," she said. "But the hard part comes near her time. When it does, I'll need you here, not at the store. You'll have to be the one who doesn't break." Eduardo thought of his father, who broke everything he touched. He thought of the house he and Kiersten had built board by board. "I'll be here," he said. The midwife studied him, then nodded once, the way the feed store owner used to nod. "Good. Most men run. You married one who won't." She picked up her bag. "Rest. The real work's coming." She went up to sit the night watch. Eduardo climbed the stairs and lay beside Kiersten, listening to her breathe. The danger had a name now, and a woman to meet it, and a husband who would not leave the room. The care was handled. What came next, he would face standing in this house, not running from it.