The family had immediately gathered in the tent, and they’d been engaged in continual meditation ever since. It hadn’t been that long since we’d lost Willow. The soil on top of her grave was still fresh. We couldn’t lose anyone else. We’d hoped to have the baby here by sunset, but it had gone down hours ago, and there hadn’t been any progress.

“We have to do something,” I cried as Bekah arched her back and shuddered from the war going on inside her body.

“She needs a doctor,” Margo said. She hadn’t stopped saying it since two feet had peeked their way through Bekah’s vaginal opening instead of a head.

“That’s not going to happen, and you know that,” I hissed at her. We’d begged Abner to let us take her to the hospital, but he’d refused.

“We cannot get in the way of God’s will, no matter how difficult that might be,” he had said. I’d been angry with him before, but I’d never hated him as much as I had in that moment.

Bekah moaned as another contraction seized her. She instinctively pushed like she’d been doing all day, unable to hold back, and the feet pressed through again. I had tried grabbing and pulling them once and the sounds that had come out of her weren’t human. I wouldn’t put her through that again.

“It’s okay, Bekah. You’re almost there,” I said through my tears, but we both knew I was lying.

All the women had filed in to the birthing tent in the beginning, but they had started leaving almost immediately. Mothers were the only ones who stayed behind, since they’d been through it before, but they’d left as the intensity increased, until it was only me and Margo. There was no way I was leaving Margo alone. She was crying as hard as Bekah, her love for her as strong as mine for Willow.

I didn’t touch Bekah’s body during contractions. Touch only made it worse. We had learned that the hard way. I tried to breathe for her, willing my air into her lungs. Suddenly, her head rolled to the side and her eyes closed. Margo grabbed her head and lifted it up. “Bekah, don’t you go to sleep on me, honey. Don’t fall asleep.”

She’d already passed out from the pain twice. The second time we’d had to slap her to wake her up. We didn’t have any choice, because she was so unresponsive.

“Oh my God, Kate. She’s out again.”

I raced to the head of the bed and put my face against hers. She was barely breathing.

“Abner!” I screamed. “Abner!”

He flipped open the tent flap and rushed inside.

“She’s really struggling. We have to do something.” Margo and I talked on top of each other.