‘I don’t know why you’re here anyway, walking a whale around the block on New Year’s Eve,’ she said as they approached the Otters Club side of the promenade. ‘Shouldn’t you be at a party somewhere? Getting drunk and trying to score with some girl or the other?’

‘There are no other girls. There’s only one girl.’ He smiled at her. ‘Besides, didn’t you get the memo? It’s “Be Kind to Whales” Week.’

Gehna whacked him on the arm. Then, almost six months to the date since she had played that prank on him at that very spot, her amniotic sac ruptured.

‘I think my water just broke.’

‘Oh ha ha,’ he said. ‘Not falling for that one again. I know I’m stupid, but I’m not that—’

‘No jokes, Rat. I’m sopping wet. Don’t freak out, okay? I can’t feel any contractions yet, so I think we have time.’

Never in the history of freaking out has anyone not freaked out by being told not to freak out. Eram pelted back along the promenade to his parked car and raced it to where Gehna was waiting, faster than he had ever done anything in his whole life. Over her objections that they could easily go home first, that the ob-gyn had told her exactly what to do once her water broke, he drove straight towards the clinic. In all the movies he had ever watched, the scene where the woman went into labour was always pure chaos, so this fit right in with what he knew to be true.

‘Bag? Who cares about a damn bag? Your mom can bring it.’ He honked furiously at a black-and-yellow cab that was cruising in front of them. ‘The hell outta my way, dude! There’s a baby on board.’

Gehna herself was faking a calm she didn’t feel. After all her impatience to be here, in this moment now, all she could think about was the coming pain.

Sure, there’ve been some promises made of epidurals and what-have-you, but the plain fact is this: in a few minutes or hours, but likely tonight, they are going to pull a human being out of my cooch. Oh god, oh god, oh god.

It was a huge comfort to her when they arrived at the clinic to find Nina and Ajay Rai already waiting at the gates. Especially Nina Rai. The way Gehna saw it, her mom had already lived through this same mind-consuming panic that she was feeling. Twice.

Which is super weird because I can see two of her. Why are there two Ninas? I’m probably just tired.

While Eram drove on to the car park, her parents whisked her away to the private room they had reserved for her three weeks ago in anticipation of this night. Gehna rubbed her eyes with both index fingers. When she opened them again, the two Ninas had collapsed into one, but now there was a partial haze over the world. As if someone had pulled a gossamer of milky skin across her retinas. It was irritating, like watching Netflix with a slow Wi-Fi connection, but that was all it was.