“The head is out!” the doctor shouted. He held his hands down low and moved them around, but she could not see what he was doing. She felt ripped open. Exposed. She wondered if she would ever feel whole again. Half the baby was inside of her, and the other half was out. She was ready to give up, but her baby deserved better than to be stuck between two worlds, so she clenched her jaw shut and squeezed as hard as she could. Suddenly, she felt a release, as if a cork had popped and everything inside gushed out, like an exploding bottle of champagne. Her hips sunk into the mattress and she cried as each muscle in her body collapsed from exhaustion. The doctor lifted the baby into the air. “Here she is!”

The baby let out one long scream. It took several big breaths to create and it sounded like the noise a car engine makes in the winter when it refuses to turn over. The nurse swaddled her in a blanket so that all that was exposed was her face. Then, the nurse laid her onto Therese’s belly and she quieted immediately. Therese brought her close. A spark ran through her as her daughter turned her head. They locked eyes and Therese sighed and wondered why everything in her life could not be this simple.

That night she dreamt of feathers, and when she woke Leah was sitting beside her. Therese stretched out her arms and pulled herself out of her dream. Tim. The pain. The baby. Her johnny was twisted, leaving her entire backside exposed. She tried to adjust it, gave up, and then turned to look into the bassinette. Matilda was wrapped in a pink blanket and looked like a cone of delicately spun cotton candy.

Therese lifted herself up and searched for a comfortable position in the hospital bed. Leah walked over to the baby and cradled the tightly wrapped bundle in her arms. It was quiet in the room except for the song that Leah was humming into Matilda’s ear. She sang so softly that Therese could not make out the words, but Matilda cooed back as if she understood. Leah stopped singing, kissed the top of Matilda’s head, and put her back in the bassinette. She sat back down in the chair, but without the baby, her arms hung down awkwardly on either side of her body. For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Even though Leah was smiling, Therese could feel her sadness.

“Thanks for coming,” Therese said, ignoring the throbbing pain that had just begun above her eyebrow.

“How are you?” Leah asked, rummaging in her pocketbook and looking more like her normal self.

“I’m glad it’s over.”

“I think it’s only just begun,” Leah said as she tossed something onto Therese’s lap. “I brought you these.”

Therese looked down at the package of Hershey’s kisses.