The birthing room

Sudden fiction

Quick, prepare the hole for what’ll soon come out. Make sure the basin is filled to the top. No introductions, no filler , no nothing. We’re going to see that the delivery of this “ baby” goes smoothly. Let’s make one thing clear: no quotation marks for speech, and no profanity. Okay, lower the color screen for the mother. We have three fans on economy speed, an aging woman crying into a mirror, and a middle-aged man standing at the other side of the birthing room, building up courage to ask who actually impregnated his “Love”.

The birth canal must be lubricated…. But we are all out, and the truck refuses, absolutely refuses to deliver until further notice, or at least until the war dies down. Anyway, my job is to oversee the “birth”. Our lovely lady on the ironing table, hair twisted and even slimy in areas, stubble dancing around her upper lip; her stache. Her upper lip sweats little crystals. She’s an actual woman, unlike the ones you’ve seen on screen, or blowup pictures framed or otherwise. She’s on her back, wearing an extra-large vacation shirt. As the overseer of this birth, I’m delighted to tell you that I see an arm poking through, and another. Its head is not far behind. It plopped on the plate and sang its song!

The middle-aged man was handed a pair of scissors and directed to snip the cord, which he then wrapped around his wrist and knelt by his woman.

He stared at her open vessel and spoke inside. I began to sob and ran out to find a recording device adequate for this occasion. I came back and sat by the mother with the device. Just my luck that the middle-aged man had left.

Asked her where he went, and she looked at me, really puzzled. She said he went out to panhandle at the lights. I sang a popular song and twisted my locks. Then she asked where the baby went. I said he’s in an incubator on the far side of the building. We left the hospital right then to go find the middle-aged man at the stoplight. I sat in the ditch and rolled up an Amsterdam shag blend. The mother took up a spot near her man, holding her sign. I couldn’t help but smile.