She walked me around the house, slowly, as we waited to see what was happening.

She got me cold water to drink.

She took me to the bathroom to pee, standing outside the door the whole time to ask if I was okay. More of the jellyfish stuff had come out, and I told her so, and she announced what we were all suspecting.

The baby was coming. Not yet, but she was coming.

Cass-watch was officially on.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six

It is a truth universally accepted by New Englanders that whenever is the least convenient time for New England to dump a bunch of snow on your head, it will do so. We’d had a season of nothing up to that point, only dustings and cold weather, but God had a sense of humor and decided what my pregnancy needed at the zero hour was a gosh-darned blizzard.

Eff snow.

Eff snow forever.

Eight inches in three hours happened right off the bat, with more accumulation expected over the course of the night. It messed up a lot of things, namely Devi and Leaf coming to see me at Mormor’s. I was okay, my grandmother and mother were there to see to my needs, but I would have liked my boyfriend and my bestie. I would have liked Leaf’s soft words and Devi’s reassurances, like she’d learned in our online classes.

I got... Mormor squawking in panicked Swedish before going out to ride her snowblower around the driveway every hour.

“She’s like the Wicked Witch out there,” Mom said. “Just substitute the broom for a snowblower and turn her green and you’ve got an eerie likeness.”

“She’s making sure we can get out of the driveway,” I said. I was tired. I was in pain. My contractions were about six minutes apart. I didn’t have a lot of good humor to throw Mom’s way. “God, my back is killing me.”

“I’m sorry, baby girl. I know it sucks. But the good news is, the hormones will kick in soon and all of this will seem like a distant dream afterward.” Mom came over to sit on the ottoman, pulling my socked feet into her lap and rubbing my soles. “That’s true, you know. Labor is unpleasant, but our brains do chemical whammies on us so we’re willing to go through it again in the name of the species not dying out.”

“I’m never going to forget this,” I promised.

“You say that now, but who knows.”

Mom winked.