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“We don’t know yet,” the man tells me, anxiety strangling his voice.
Shyla pulls the baby once the elbows are out, and then she turns it to face the floor as she rubs on his back.
“What are you doing?” I hear myself ask, though I most definitely don’t want the answer.
I don’t even want to watch.
She grins at me, then turns to the father. “Helping him breathe.”
“It’s a boy?” he inquires, shock and elation warring in his tone.
“Congratulations. You have your boy,” Shyla informs them.
“I’m going to pass out,” I mutter, stretching my hand out to find the wall.
“Ada?” Imryll asks, but he sounds so far away. “Ada?”
The baby cries softly, and that eases the pressure in my mind, if only a little. I still plead to Imy. “Distract me.”
“From what?” Imryll places his hands on my cheeks, bringing my focus to his glimmering, grass-green eyes. “It’s over.”
“Was she numbed?” I ask, though I’d rather have the answer to my earlier question than this one.
I have to stop being curious about things I don’t want to know. It’s like my sudden move to a new world has made me a masochist for this shi—
“Uhm, no?” Imryll says, cutting off my train of thought.
The baby drowns out all my errant worries as he wails for his mother. “She did that with no pain medicine?”
“Yes, Ada,” Shyla answers, placing the little guy in his mother’s arms. “That’s how we all give birth.”
“It’s not as bad as you let yourself believe,” the woman tells me quietly, helping her son satiate his hunger. “It looks troubling, but we’re okay.”
I try not to watch as she assists him in latching onto her breast. It feels too intimate a scene while being the stranger in the room.
“Congratulations,” I sincerely reply. “I’m so sorry to intrude and also freak out. I just wasn’t expecting to watch, and I get a little squeamish in certain situations.”
“It’s okay,” the woman says, tipping her head at her husband. “He normally hits the floor. That’s why there are so many chairs in here. This is the first time Shyla hasn’t needed to drag him out of her way.”
Imryll grins from her bedside. “Well, you both look fine to me, so I’ll let Shy take it from here. I’ll stop by tomorrow to check in, unless you need me before then.”
I tip my head to the beaming parents as we exit the room, and Imy walks me back through the front door. We don’t get far, though. I stop him on the stoop of their home.
“How do you watch that without feeling nauseated or panicking?”
“Not everyone can do this job, Ada,” he patiently replies. “I chose it with great care.”
I nod, having nothing left to say. Every time I watch him in the clinic, or even here, it’s plain to see that this is his calling. Helping others makes him feel whole and happy.
He tilts his head toward the Battlerains’ home, once again dragging me behind him. “Let’s grab some food.”
“I’m not hungry,” I retort. Not that my words change his mind or stop him from barging into a house that isn’t his. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
“Will?” Imy calls into the Battlerains’ home. “Will, are you home?”
“Yeah,” he yells. “In the kitchen.”
“Good,” Imryll whispers to him, tugging me along behind him. “Ada needs a snack. She was feeling lightheaded.”
