Page 107 of Circle of Days

As soon as he had spread the ferns, Pia lay down on her side. Han knelt beside her and said: “What can I do?”

“Just stay with me, and don’t worry if I yell.”

At first she just groaned at intervals. Han patted her arm in a consoling way, but felt foolish and stopped. She said: “Keep doing that, it helps.”

Thunder was agitated. He would come into the shelter, sniff Pia, and go out again, as if seeking an explanation.

Pia began to cry out instead of groaning. She was vaguely aware of time passing, the warmth of midday and the decline of the afternoon. When the pains became severe, she knew the baby was ready to be born. She rolled over and got onto her hands and knees. “Kneel down behind me,” she said to Han.

He did so. She heard his exclamation of shock. “Oh!” he said. “I can see the baby’s head—but it’s too big, much too big!”

“Don’t worry, just get ready to hold the baby when it comes,” she said, then she yelled in pain again.

She felt the head emerge, and she knew the worst pain was past, although the birth was not yet over.

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it,” Han said triumphantly.

She felt the shoulders pass through painfully, then the rest of the baby less so. She collapsed face down, breathing hard, as if she had been running. A moment later the baby wailed. She turned over, carefully lifting her leg over the cord that still connected her to her child. She smiled at Han, who was holding the tiny body in both arms and staring in wonderment.

“Well,” she said, “is it a boy or a girl?”

“I can’t tell,” he said. “Oh, of course I can. It’s a boy. How about that? A boy!”

Everything seemed like a miracle at this moment, she knew. She sat upright, and Han gave the boy into her arms.

He stopped wailing immediately, and his lips worked, as if sucking. Pia put his mouth to her nipple, and he began to suckle with surprising energy.

Pia said: “Get two long, thin shoots, and tie two knots around the cord. Then cut between the knots with a flint.”

Han looked glad to be able to do something useful. He stepped outside and quickly returned with suitable shoots. Pia said: “Tie them close to the belly.” He tied tight knots, then cut the cord.

The baby stopped sucking and fell asleep. Pia handed him to Han. “I’m so tired,” she said, and she lay down.

Han picked up one of the hare skins and wrapped it around the baby’s shoulders. “What shall we name him?” he said.

“I don’t know.”

“My father’s name was Olin.”

“I like that,” said Pia. “Olin.”

Han hugged the baby to his chest. Olin probably needed to be washed, but that could wait. He wiped the little face as gently as he could with his big hand. “Olin,” he said. “How do you like your name, Olin?” The child slept on. “Well, he doesn’t seem to object to it.”

Pia was thinking of a reply but fell asleep.

Olin changed a lot in the first few weeks of his life. He opened his eyes, and appeared to pay attention when he saw Pia’s face or Han’s. Sometimes he seemed to smile. He slept less in the day and longer at night. He cried angrily when hungry, he grizzled monotonously if he was uncomfortable, and he murmured contentedly as he closed his eyes to sleep. Each day he felt a little heavier in Pia’s arms.

Han sang to him. He told Pia that he had suddenly remembered dozens of ditties from his childhood, and he deduced that Ani must have sung them to him. They were simple tunes, often using nonsense words, and Olin would look at him as if marveling at the sound. Pia knew some of the songs and often joined in.

She wished she could show Olin to her mother. Yana would be so thrilled, and so proud of her daughter and her first grandchild. Yana would see Olin one day, but when? And in the meantime she was missing the thrill of watching him grow and learn.

The weather warmed toward summer, and there was no rain. One day while Pia was nursing Olin outside the house, and Hanwas sewing the skins of hares to make a baby blanket, she screwed up her nerve and said to Han: “I’d like to go to Riverbend before winter.”

He was startled. “I think it’s too soon,” he said. “Troon surely hasn’t forgotten you yet. When he hears that you’re back, he’ll try to kidnap you.”

“I know,” she said. “But if we stay here I’m afraid all three of us will starve.”

“We’ve managed so far.”