Chapter 13 - Zoe
My heart is thumping as I run towards the edge of town. My head is spinning and I’m not sure if it’s because of what Katie was telling me about the fire and the Clarke brothers, or the thought that Mara McCoy will be giving birth any minute. I’ve only met her once, last night when I arrived, and her belly was bulging with the unborn baby.
Katie says a few words to a car but I don’t have the energy to look over. She reappears beside me and we jog alongside each other.
“I hope Mara is okay,” Katie breathes. Her face is drawn, with deep lines across her forehead. She shakes her head and speeds up.
“Is there no hospital to take her to?”
“The freeway is still blocked,” she says. “We’ll have to help her out as much as possible until we can find her a doctor.”
“Is there no other doctor nearby?”
Katie snorts. “I’m not sure you realize how isolated Lang Creek is,” she says. “Look around you.”
She’s right. Once I left Long Lake, it was nothing but wilderness until I saw the sign for Lang Creek.
We turn off the main road and down the long lane that leads to Mara’s house. We pass a building that looks like a workshop, and I follow Katie straight to the main house. We burst through the doors. Katie rushes into the bedroom and I follow.
“Got your text,” she says as we step through.
I immediately feel like I’m overstepping. I hardly know these women at all, and somehow I’ve been admitted into the most intimate of places. Mara McCoy looks up at me, her face crumpled in pain as she doubles over, clutching her belly with both hands.
She moans, and I can see her stomach shifting. It contracts and moves as she moans in pain, and my own hand flies to my stomach. I remember that feeling. I take a deep breath, stepping backwards towards the doorway.
Katie rushes to Mara’s side and grabs her arm, helping her back down onto the bed. Mara lays back, and I see the thin film of sweat all over her face and neck. I swallow, and Katie glances at me. I can see the whites of her eyes and can almost feel the fear emanating off her.
Mara’s eyes are closed and her chest is rising and falling gently. The contraction is over, and she’ll have a few minutes of rest before the next one.
I remember how that felt. I remember the fear, the terror of knowing what was about to come. All the jokes about ‘pushing a watermelon out’ suddenly became a lot more real. I barely remember the pain of the contractions. I was in a hospital when I gave birth, surrounded by nurses and doctors and loved ones, in a haze of pain and adrenaline and medication.
Katie’s mouth opens and closes again, and I watch her squeeze Mara’s hand.
Something shifts inside me, and I take a step forward.
“Is it your first?” I ask. Mara’s eyes flutter open and she seems to see me for the first time. Her chin dips down ever so slightly and a lump forms in my throat. I nod.
“Katie, go get as many towels as you can find. Get a bucket with cold water and we’ll bring her temperature down. Do you have your doctor’s phone number?”
“I have the hospital’s phone number,” Mara says. Her voice is weak, and she waves her arm towards a desk in the corner. Katie jumps up and mumbles something to Mara before rushing out the door. I head over to the desk and flick through a few papers.
“The post-it note,” she says weakly. I glance up at the wall and see a name and number scrawled on a faded post-it note.
“Doctor Bertrand?”
“Mmm” she says, closing her eyes and bringing her hand to her forehead. I grab the number and sit beside her on the bed. She’s rubbing her stomach back and forth, taking long breaths. I put my hand over her arm as I call the number and wait to be connected. When I explain the situation, I’m put on hold and I glance at Mara.
“I’m Zoe, by the way,” I say. “We met this morning. I hope I’m not intruding.”
Mara laughs, and then groans. “I don’t give a shit right now. I just want to get this baby out of me.”
“I know the feeling,” I say, almost to myself.
“You have kids?”
“Just one,” I say. My hand finds hers and she squeezes it. “It’s worth it, in the end.”
Mara chuckles again. “I fucking hope so,” she says. She takes another long breath. The phone clicks and an old, gravelly voice comes on.
“Doctor Bertrand speaking.”
“Hi, Doctor,” I say, shifting my weight and standing up. “My name is Zoe Randall and I’m with Mara McCoy. She’s started having contractions. They’re–Mara, how far apart are they?”
“I don’t know,” Mara groans, glancing at the clock. “Fifteen minutes? Maybe more?”
“They’re fifteen minutes apart,” I say into the phone.
Doctor Bertrand makes a noise and then sighs. “She’s a couple days early. Of course this would happen. I’ll get in touch with the midwife down in Glens Falls. I have her on standby for this reason. How is the patient?”
I glance at Mara, who’s turned onto her side, clutching her stomach. Her mouth is open and her face is contorted as she lays in bed.
“She’s… I mean, she’s about to give birth, so she’s not great.” Mara snorts and the corner of her mouth lifts up. “But she seems to be okay.”
“Put her on.”
I pass the phone over to Mara just as Katie reappears with a stack of towels and a small bucket of water. She motions to the bed with the stack of towels.
“What’s going on?”
“Doctor’s going to try to get a midwife over.”
She nods. “Good. Hey,” she turns to me after putting down the towels, and then glances over my shoulder at Mara. “Thanks. I kind of panicked when we got here.“
I shake my head. “I haven’t done anything. I just called the doctor.” Katie’s lips pinch together and she glances at Mara again, who’s still groaning over the phone to her doctor.
“Still,” she said. “It’s nice to have someone else here.”
I try to stretch my lips into a smile and turn back to Mara. She hangs up the phone and looks at us through hazy eyes. “He’s going to get a midwife,” she pants. “Be a couple hours before she’s here.”
Her sentences are short, spoken between labored breaths. I nod and soak one of the towels in water to put on Mara’s forehead. She sighs in contentment and starts to relax. I look at Katie, who readjusts the pillows and pats Mara’s hand.
“It’ll be okay,” she says to Mara. “We’re here.”
The silence in the room is only broken by Mara’s breaths. She breathes in deeply and forces the air out of her nostrils. I can see the pain etched on her face, and I try to keep her as cool as possible.
We have a few minutes of peace until the door flies open and the largest man I’ve ever seen barrels through. I jump up, eyes wide and heart thumping as he rushes towards the bed.
“Mara!” he says with a hoarse voice. “Are you okay? The fucking freeway is still blocked! Fuck!”
Mara’s eyes open and she grimaces at the man. “Zoe called the doctor and got the midwife to come. It’s okay.”
The man seems to notice me for the first time. He stands up, and even on the opposite side of the bed he seems to tower over me. He’s got the same piercing blue eyes as Ethan, but he’s taller and wider than the Clarke brother I know. This must be Dominic, Mara’s husband. I nod to him, and he looks at me almost suspiciously. It’s not until someone clears their throat behind him that I notice Ethan is here too.
“Zoe, this is my brother Dominic. Dominic, this is Zoe Randall. She’s the consultant I was telling you about.”
He was talking about me?
“I want her to stay,” Mara says. She’s staring at her husband fiercely, and he tenses. Dominic’s eyes narrow, and he looks me up and down. Finally, the tension in the room dissolves and he grunts. I’m guessing it roughly translates to ‘okay, fine’, because Mara lays back in bed.
Dominic sits down beside Mara, and the bed dips under his weight. He strokes her cheek more gently than I would expect from a man his size, and leans over to kiss her forehead. My chest squeezes and he finally looks at me again.
“Thank you, Zoe.”
“I haven’t done anything,” I say, waving my hand. “But we do need to get to work.”