As I neared the entrance to the chamber, Saul appeared. “Sadie!” he cried, too loudly. My heart warmed. I had missed him during my short absence and I hoped now that he might have felt the same. But as he raced toward me, his expression was one of alarm. “I’m so glad I found you! When I discovered that you weren’t here, I went looking, but I couldn’t find you. I was so worried.” In his relief, Saul’s words came out in a quick tumble. “I need to tell you that—” He abruptly stopped speaking, clearly taking in my new clothes. “What were you doing?”

I held up the potato sack proudly. “Getting these.” I handed it to him and he set it down by his feet.

“Thank God you are all right,” he said with relief. “And it’s wonderful that you found food. But, Sadie, you must come right away. Something’s happened.”

“What?” I asked apprehensively.

“You’re here!” a voice crackled, interrupting us before Saul could answer. We turned to find Saul’s grandmother standing behind us with her hands on her hips. I waited for her to berate me for having been out. “Your mother,” Bubbe said instead. “She’s in labor.”

“What?” A rock seemed to form in the pit of my stomach. “But she isn’t due for another month.”

“I was just about to tell you,” Saul said. “She slipped and fell.”

“When she was looking for you,” Bubbe said, not mincing words. “She fell in the tunnel and her labor began. The baby is coming.”

The baby is coming.

I prayed I had heard Bubbe wrong. The baby was not due for another month. We had done nothing to prepare for him or her, not that I was sure there was anything we could actually do to get ready for a baby in this horrific place.

Guilt and panic flooded me as I raced into the chamber. Mama was on the floor beside the bed, as if she had fallen. I knelt quickly beside her and tried to help her up, but she remained curled in a tight ball. “Mama, are you all right?” She did not answer. I put my arms around her once more and tried to lift her to the bed. But the pregnancy weighed her down and I could not. “Mama, please. You can’t stay here. You have to get up.” She seemed to rouse slightly and I put my arm around her waist, helping her to her feet.

She looked up, seeming to see me for the first time. “Sadele?”

“I’m here.” Her face was pale and covered in faint perspiration and her breathing labored.

Her face contorted and I thought she was having a contraction. “You went to see that girl again, didn’t you?” she panted, anger mixing with her pain.

I hesitated, not wanting to answer and cause her further distress. “I found food, Mama. I’m sorry I broke my promise. You can be mad at me later, but right now, let me help you.”