PODs (14 page)

“Head,” Jai Li said with a smile.

That’s what I was afraid she’d say. I groaned silently. Sweat ran down my back and my hands trembled. The main POD still hadn’t answered our calls for help, and the baby was coming now—with or without a doctor. It was just me, a thirteen-year-old kid, and a teenager who barely spoke English but who somehow seemed to know the basics of labor and delivery. We made an odd team, but that was who was going to deliver Tiffany’s baby, because even though I was silently willing it to stay put until a doctor came, the head kept sliding forward.

“Tiffany, your baby has lots of hair. It’s blonde, the same color as yours. Push hard, it’s almost over.”

A sickening suction sound filled the room. I watched as the head slipped through the birth canal. Jai Li gestured at the aspirator in my hand, and I did my best to clear the baby’s airways like the book showed. I said a prayer that I had done a good job of it. The rest of the baby’s wet, slippery body slid into my hands.

It was perfect. A miniature person… with a huge set of lungs. It didn’t take long for it to take its first breath and scream. It was loud, robust and healthy. I quickly wiped as much goo and blood off as I could before laying the baby on Tiffany’s chest like I’d seen in movies. And, like in most movies, the four of us were crying.

“Someone write down the date and time,” I yelled to the guys standing in the hallway.

I checked the book for the next steps. After waiting for the umbilical cord to stop pulsing, I tied the string around it in two places, like in the illustration. Using scissors, I tried to cut through the cord; it was tough and rubbery and I had to work at cutting through with the dull blades.

Once the final cut had been made, I lifted the baby and wrapped it in a blanket before placing it back in Tiffany’s arms. “The book says you should nurse now, Tiffany, that it’ll help expel the placenta.”
Eew
.

With the help of Jai Li, Tiffany turned the baby into position, its little mouth already searching for its first meal. Katie tucked a blanket around Tiffany’s legs.

I gathered up the bloody towels and bedding in one of the garbage bags. “Guys, did you write down the time and date? Tiffany will want to know.”

“I wrote it down. Is Tiffany all right?” George asked.

I looked up. Tiffany gazed down at her newborn baby nursing, a wide smile on her sweat-soaked face, her hair matted to her head, her cheeks rosy.

“She’s great, George.”

“Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“Oh! I didn’t look. Just a second.” I lifted the blanket and looked. Leaning over, I whispered in Tiffany’s ear. She was the mom. It seemed only fair for her to be the first to know.

Grabbing a towel, I wiped more blood and gelatinous goo from my hands and arms. In the hall, I smiled at the guys lining the wall. “It’s a girl.”

“They’re okay?” George asked, looking at the stuff on my shirt.

“Yes, they’re great. Everything is picked up and she’s covered, if you want to go in.”

“Okay,” George said.
Are George and Tiffany the only people in the POD unaware of his crush on her?

“Eva, you did—”

“Give me a minute.” I rushed to the bathroom. I didn’t even get a chance to close the door before I puked. Everything had moved so fast, I hadn’t had time to think about it. But the baby was born and healthy, Tiffany was out of pain… and my hands were covered in goo and blood.

David ducked his head in. “You okay?”

“I don’t do well with blood.”

He laughed. I slammed the door.

“You did a great job, Evangelina.” I heard him say from the other side.

A
fter getting sick again, I climbed in the shower and watched as Tiffany’s blood mixed with the water, turning it from bright red to pink before disappearing down the drain. The automatic shut-off kicked in after four minutes, the system’s way of conserving water. I slid the handle back to “on”—I didn’t feel anywhere near clean enough.

I’d never seen a baby born before, and I’d definitely never delivered a baby. It’d scared me. She’d been in a lot of pain, her body convulsing and face distorting from the force of it. What if something had gone wrong? There was no doctor, no medication, no hospital. Was this how it would be from now on—our only medical care coming from clueless teenagers following diagrams in books?

I thought of my parents, my friends. What kind of care were they receiving? Were they getting medication to keep them comfortable? Or were they suffering?

So many emotions bombarded me at once—I felt as if I’d suffocate under their force. There was too much to think about, too much to worry about. I slid down the white-tiled wall and cried as I watched the pink, bloody water circle down the drain. My tears disappeared in the shower spray. The shut-off kicked in again. I turned the water back on.

I heard David call to me, asking if I was okay. Still I cried. Katie knocked on the door and said Tiffany was asking for me. I sat in the shower and cried under the prickly spray until the water pressure dropped to a trickle and was so cold my teeth chattered. Unable to stand the cold, I heaved myself up from the floor, dried the tears from my face and took a deep breath.

I won’t cry again. I’m one of the few lucky ones—no one said it’d be easy
.

“Geez, I didn’t think you’d ever get out of there. I gotta take a leak.” Josh knocked me into the wall as he rushed into the bathroom.

“Excuse me,” I muttered.

“What are you going to name her?” I’d pulled Katie’s cot up next to Tiffany’s, and I lay there watching the baby sleep between us. With her perfect little fingers wrapped around one of mine, I rubbed across her hand with my thumb. Her skin was so soft and pale, I could see little blue veins just underneath.

By the time I’d had my shower and dried my hair, Tiffany had already cleaned up the baby, dressed her in a tiny yellow onesie, changed her own clothes, and gotten George to put a sheet on the crib. Jai Li had finished changing the sheets on Tiffany’s bed, so she was able to rest and recover without having to deal with all the grossness.

“I don’t know. I have a few ideas, but I was sure she’d be a boy. I had a boy’s name picked out. I was going to name her after my grandfather.”

“So what are your favorite choices?”

“I was thinking… Evangelina Faith. That’s my favorite. I think it’s only fitting that she be named after the person who delivered her and, I hope, will be her godmother. As for Faith, we all need a little faith right now, so it seems appropriate.”

I looked down at the baby’s pudgy face. She was perfect. A little tuft of curly blonde hair, rosy cheeks—I could hear her soft sighs as she slept.

“I don’t know what to say, Tiffany. Of course I’ll be her godmother. But you really don’t need to name her after me. I mean, wouldn’t you rather name her after your mother or someone in your family?”

“Nah, my mom’s name is Kitty. I’m just not feeling that. My grandmother’s name is Maude. I was never going to name the baby after any of the women in my family, and her… father,” she swallowed hard and her eyes glimmered. “His family wouldn’t acknowledge her. They don’t deserve any part of her,” she said through clenched teeth.

I felt little Evangelina’s body squirm. Her fingers tightened around mine and I heard her sucking in her sleep, her little pink lips moving in and out.

“You know she’ll be in kindergarten before she can say her own name, right? Probably fifth grade before she can spell it.” I smiled.

Tiffany laughed. “Yeah, it’s a mouthful. I was thinking of calling her Faith.”

I nodded. “She’s beautiful.”

“Thank you, Eva. For everything.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek.

Month Five

Study. Sleep. Eat. Study some more. Repeat.

Sometimes we’d find time to actually do something fun, like play a videogame or watch a movie, but for the most part our books and computers—and the never-ending assignments—became our daily routine.

For our five-month anniversary in the POD, we’d decided to declare a “no study” day. We were going to make some popcorn and watch movies and play videogames all day long. They even were going to let me play again.

Tiffany lounged on the couch holding the baby, George next to her in a beanbag. I sat on the floor next to George, Katie on my other side. Everyone else flopped around the television on the chocolate-colored rug.

David walked into the living area from the hallway and looked around. His eyes fell on Katie. “Hey, kid, scoot over.”

“Why? There’s a whole room.”

“Because I have dibs.”

“Dibs? On what?”

“Eva. Now move.”

Katie stood, stomped to an open beanbag, and plopped down so hard I thought it would burst, spewing whatever was inside across the room. David sat down next to me, stretching his long legs out in front of him. He folded his hands behind his head, propping them against the couch.

I tried really hard not to look at him. To keep my eyes from darting in his direction, I focused them on a small white piece of lint. It shone bright against the brown carpeting. I concentrated on the lint, telling my eyes not to look to my left. They didn’t listen. I took a quick peek at him from under my lashes. He was looking at me and grinned.

I quickly looked away, wondering what he’d meant when he’d told Katie to move because he
had dibs
on me. I spent the entire first half of the movie dissecting what he’d said and done. The second half of the movie I spent worrying what I’d say or do when the movie was over. As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry. As soon as the movie was over, the guys started playing a videogame, their little mini-me avatars running here and there on the screen. What they were supposed to do I still hadn’t figured out.

Katie and I moved to the table. I was playing Tetris, the one videogame installed on the laptop I was actually pretty good at. Katie was videochatting with Cam again, something that happened several times a day.

Katie screamed.

I jumped up, knocking my chair over. “What’s wrong?”

“Something’s wrong with Cam!”

I went around the table to see. On the laptop screen, panicked people ran to the door of their POD. One guy fell to his knees; a girl my age covered her mouth with her hand. They grew silent, listening. I strained to hear…the crunching, crushing sounds.

“Cam?” David yelled. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Cam came back to the screen. Tears ran down his stricken face. “There’s a loud crunching outside. It sounds like it’s in the corridor.”

“Take the computer over there so we can hear,” David said.

The picture on the screen bounced as Cam carried the computer to the door of the POD. At the first loud crack, I jumped, and Katie let out a little scream and grabbed my hand. It sounded like someone had let off a pack of firecrackers just inches from us.

“What is it?” I whispered.

David shook his head.

“Cam! What’s happening?” Katie screamed, tears running down her face. The video picture froze. “Cam!”

“The air’s stopped.” His whisper came through a second before the picture started moving again.