Page 121 of Midnight

Nora was well past ten hours in labor, and Asher had never left her side.

When they first found out it was a boy, they remembered their wedding cake and laughed, but she was long past laughter. Riding wave after wave of pain of every contraction, her hair soaked from the sweat, her face wet from the tears.

She’d barely caught her breath before the next contraction hit, and then the delivery nurse was giving orders, and her doctor suddenly appeared.

“Looks like that little boy is finally ready to meet the world,” he said.

“About damn time,” Asher muttered. “My God… Why must there be pain?”

Nora was gripping his hand so tight her nails were digging into his palm, but he wouldn’t have let her go if they’d been bleeding.

“I’m here, darlin’. I’m here. Scream if it helps. I’m standing here trying not to cry.”

“Oh God… I don’t have the breath. Cry for me,” she mumbled, and then arched back against the next push.

She heard a nurse say, “The baby’s crowning,” and thought,Thank God, thank God. Let it soon be over.

The doctor was talking fast now, giving orders almost impossible to obey.

“Push harder, Nora. A little more. A little more. Yes, that’s it! That’s it!”

And between one heartbeat and the next, she felt the weight of him suddenly gone. The room was spinning, and Asher was patting her shoulder and praising her, and all she felt was suddenly empty. The baby she’d been sheltering had just been introduced to a whole new world.

“Is he okay?” she asked, and got an ear-shattering cry for an answer.

“He’s okay, and I do believe he’s also mad,” the doctor said.

Then Nora heard the nurse.

“Doctor, the official time of birth was midnight, but he didn’t take a breath until two seconds after.”

“It will be recorded as 12:01 a.m., on August 28th,” the doctor said.

They were still dealing with Nora, and she was trying to get a glimpse of her son, but there were too many people in the way. Then the crowd parted, and Asher was standing at the foot of the bed, holding their baby, swaddled with blankets.

He had tears on his face, but he was smiling, and then he walked to where she was lying, and laid him in her arms.

“He’s beautiful, Mama. You did good. All his fingers and toes.”

Nora looked into the face of the child that they had made and smiled, then looked up at Asher, and saw her child’s face in the man he would become, then kissed her baby’s tiny cheek.

“Welcome to the world, Jacob Thomas. You carry your grandaddies’ names, but I pray you become as strong and wonderful as the man who gave you to me.”