“Yes,” Irene says, shaking her head. She hits the gas.

When they get to the Happy Hibiscus, it’s chaos. The front door is the only thing left unshuttered for now because people are still going in and out. Phil is on the front lawn on the phone with a doctor friend from Reykjavík, who is giving him advice. Sunny is guarding the bedroom where Ayers is. Nobody’s allowed in, not even Baker.

“Is Huck here?” Irene asks.

“Not yet,” Baker says. “Floyd fell asleep, thank God, The Dirty Cowboy does it every time. Someday I’m going to learn how that book ends. We filled both bathtubs and every pot we could find with water.” He looks at Irene. “You made a lot of food.”

“We have a lot of mouths to feed,” Irene says. “How’s she doing?”

“She’s working through the contractions on her own for now,” Baker says. “That’s what she wants, and who am I to argue?”

“Huck told me help is on the way,” Irene says.

Maia hears Ayers groaning in the bedroom.

Sunny says, “Make a knot and hang on, Freddy!”

“What should I do?” Maia asks.

“There’s nothing any of us can do but wait,” Irene says.

Phil comes inside as he finishes his call. “Anders says she needs to work with each contraction until it’s time to bear down.”

“That’s not helpful!” Ayers shouts.

“Does she want some fudge?” Maia says.

“No, sweetie, thank you,” Sunny says. “She already lost her dinner.”

“Is that Maia?” Ayers says.

“Yes,” Maia and Sunny say.

“Send her in,” Ayers says.

The room is dark but there’s an outline of light around the bathroom door. Ayers is sitting on the bed crying.

“Nut,” she says. “It hurts. They tell you it’s going to hurt but that doesn’t prepare you for how white-hot, teeth-crushingly painful it is.” She stand up, paces the room, then sits down again. “Here it comes, Nut. Hold my hand.”

Okay, okay. Maia sits next to Ayers on the bed and Ayers grips Maia’s hand so hard that Maia wants to cry out. Ayers is making a wheezing sound that turns to a whimper that turns to rapid breathing.

Finally, she relaxes. “Oh God,” she says. She turns to Maia. “Hi.”

“Hi. Is it over?”

“For now,” Ayers says. “I can’t recommend this. Promise me you’ll never have children.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the health center?”

“No,” Ayers says. “No way. There’s a storm coming, Nut.”

“There is?” Maia says, and they both laugh.

“I don’t want to be in a hospital filled with strangers when the power goes out. There are going to be emergencies that need to be addressed. And it sits up on that hill…I just don’t think it’s safe. Plus I can’t ask all of you to come up there with me. I just…don’t want to go.”

“But what about the good drugs?” Maia says. Any time the topic of Ayers’s delivery has come up in the past few weeks, all Ayers talked about were the good drugs. “Don’t you want the good drugs?”