A kind of whimpering. When I listened closely to the dark, I realized it was coming from Anika and Luca’s room.

At first I thought it was Drumlin—but it was too soon. I sprang out of bed and opened the door, and then I heard the crying more clearly.

Light spilled from underneath their door, and I was moving toward the thin strip of light when Sam’s door opened next to me, and he stood there with his curly hair sticking out in all directions, rubbing his glasses-less eyes.

“What . . . ?” he started to ask, his voice slurry from sleep.

Just then, Luca’s bedroom door burst open, and I squinted from the sudden bright light.

Anika was hunched over, cradling her stomach with both arms, and her legs wide apart. Luca had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and guided her out of the room. He was wearing a thick sweater over his pajamas, while Anika had one of Luca’s big work windbreakers on, clutched over her rounded belly and going just past her knees.

Luca gently closed the door behind them, cutting off all light until he flicked the hallway switch. Anika whimpered again—the sound that had woken us—and Luca looked up, right at me.

“We’re going to the hospital,” he said, and then he and Anika started walking.

“What?” Sam asked again, his voice sharper now. “What’s happening?”

“Take Samuel and go next door, tell Vi what’s happened. . . .” Luca said, while he and Anika shuffled down the hall.

“Mom? Mom!” Sam reached out to touch her as she passed him, but I pushed to keep him behind me, and he didn’t struggle.

“Fred, get the door!” Luca yelled.

I quickly looked to Sam, who had started crying. “Stay here, I’ll be right back!” I whispered.

And then I ran down the hall in my socked feet, moved around Luca to flick the locks and hold the door open for them while Luca half-carried Anika down the couple of stairs out the front.

He pressed his car keys into my hand, and I ran ahead to unlock the door and hold it open for her while she gently lowered herself in backward, her hands locked around Luca’s forearms. I gave him the keys back and he dashed around to the driver’s side.

I hung off Anika’s passenger door once Luca’s had slammed shut. The little interior light in the car was all there was in the darkness, and it let me see Anika’s face. It was wet from tears and sweat and looked so strange with her glasses all crooked. She just kept looking down at her belly, her arms wrapped around herself and kept crying while Luca spoke next to her.