When she told them she didn't want children, Pauline said, "You'll change your mind." The other mothers had nodded knowingly, like members of a secret club.

Is that why they invited me? To convince me this is what I really want?

She wondered how they would have reacted if she told them about her abortion. They probably would have kicked her out of the house. Definitely wouldn't have invited her to stay for the birthing.

Double-D stood by the pool and helped out whenever Mavis barked an order at them. As Laura's best friend, Pauline stood as close to her as the midwives would allow, hands clasped in prayer, whispering words of encouragement.

"Push, Mama!" Mavis shouted.

"Push!" the others echoed.

"You can do it, Lala," Pauline said.

With an enormous cry of animal rage, Laura bore down once more.

"She's out!" Helen cried, her thick arms in the water up to her elbows.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, including Sheila. Her guts unknotted and she let her hands relax. She must have been clenching her fists ever since she'd been relegated to the kitchen. Her knuckles went from bone-white to red as the blood returned.

Laura gasped and slumped over the springy edge of the pool as Helen pulled the baby from the water.

Geraldine swaddled the wrinkled, purple thing, its limbs hanging limply, its head lolling. The umbilical cord looping down into the pool made Sheila think of power cords. The little baby was still running on Mommy power. Geraldine wiped the vernix caseosa from the baby's scalp and face but still the child made no movements of her own, no plaintive wail. She needed to be able to run on her own but her battery didn't appear to have a charge.

Then she cried.

Sheila didn't see it. Somehow the visual didn't match the auditory. But she would swear in court she'd heard her cry. No one else reacted. The faces were wooden, waxy, as if they were all still holding their breath. Waiting for word.

Why do they all look so glum?

Geraldine turned to the other midwives, who each nodded ominously.

"I'm afraid she's gone, child," Ethel said.

But I heard her cry, Sheila thought. I heard it.

"No!" Laura wailed, reaching out for her baby. "No, I could feel it! I could feel her heartbeat inside me!"

"See for yourself, sweetie," Helen said.

"Yes," Laura said, holding out her hands. "Give her to me. Give me my baby!"

Dutifully, Geraldine handed over the baby in its swaddling. Laura held the child to her bosom and only after she'd looked down at it for what felt like an eternity, rocking in the sloshing water, only then did her face finally crumple and she began to weep.

"No. No, it's not fair. It's not fair!"

"Late-thirties pregnancy," Mavis said, taking a step toward the pool. Something metallic glinted in her hand. "We warned you of the risks."

Laura pulled away from the midwives, protecting a child who no longer needed protection. "Stay away from me, you witch!"