Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 18 of 70

The first tightening hit her in the rocker at ten past eleven. Lymber sat up straight and waited for it to pass. She had felt tight bands all week and told no one. This one was different. It took her breath and did not let go for half a minute. She counted on her phone. When it ended she went across the hall and shook Paul's shoulder. She said, it's starting. He was up before she finished the sentence. He pulled on jeans and grabbed the bag by the crib. She went down the hall to her mother's room and knocked once and opened the door. Polly sat up in bed and turned on the lamp. She looked at Lymber's face and then at the clock. She said, how far apart. Lymber said she didn't know, one so far. Polly swung her legs out and reached for her sweater on the chair. She said, we go now. She said, midnight is good. Nobody sees us go in. Nobody posts anything. She pulled the sweater over her nightshirt and stepped into her jeans. She said, phones off in the car. No pictures. No check-in. Nothing for a week. She said, the countdown post goes up tomorrow morning like normal. Four more days on the number. Paul said, okay. Lymber said, okay. Another band pulled across her stomach on the stairs and she gripped the rail until it passed. Paul drove. Polly sat in the back with her hand on Lymber's shoulder through the gap in the seat. The streets were empty. Lymber watched the clock on the dash and told them when each one started and stopped. Seven minutes. Then six. Paul pulled up to the clinic's side door at ten to midnight. The front was dark. A nurse waited inside the glass with a wheelchair. Polly had called ahead from the driveway. Lymber walked in on her own feet and sat down in the chair once the door closed behind them. The nurse rolled her past the empty waiting room to intake. Paul carried the bag. Polly signed the forms. They put her in a room at the end of the hall with the blinds already down. A different nurse hooked her to a monitor and started the line in her hand. The doctor came in gowned and said the contractions were real and the baby was ready and they would move to the operating room within the hour. Lymber gave Paul her phone. She said, off. He held the power button until the screen went black and slid it into the bag. Polly did the same with hers and with her own. Polly said, nobody knows we are here except the people in this room. She said, we hold that for a week. Lymber nodded and lay back on the pillow. The next contraction came and she breathed through it and waited for them to come get her.