Page 14 of A War Apart

Anna was coming, wasn’t she? The boy had gone to get her.

Boy. There had been a boy. Hadn’t there?

“Mila, dear, can you hear me?”

Anna. Thank Otets. Her voice was a sip of cool water to my parched ears.

A splashing sound. Someone had stepped into a puddle. No, I was lying in a puddle. A puddle of what?

“Mila? Can you hear me?”

I nodded. My throat was raw, like I’d been screaming. Had I been screaming?

“Can you stand?”

I shook my head.

“Yakov has gone for Han, dear. He’ll be here soon.”

“No,” I rasped. He couldn’t see this. Why didn’t they understand? I cried out as another clenching pain took me.

A warm touch on my stomach. A hand?

“Mila, how frequent are your pains?”

What did she mean? The clenching? I gasped for air as the pain stopped, but another one started again.

“Mila, dear, the baby’s coming.”

I shook my head. The baby couldn’t be coming. Too early. It was too early. Wasn’t it? The baby wasn’t due for weeks. Months.

Another pain overtook me.

“Can you get onto your knees?”

I shook my head again.

“What about your back, dear?”

I let out a whimper as I slowly rolled onto my back. Anna propped up my legs so my feet were flat on the floor. “Now, Mila, when the next pain starts, you need to push with it. Can you do that?”

Push? That would bring the baby out. Why would she want me to do that? “Too early?” I whispered.

“Babes come when they will, dear.” Anna’s voice was calm. How could she be calm at a time like this? “Many babies are born early without a problem. Just push, and let Otets worry about the rest.”

I couldn’t do it.

The pain started again.

“Push,” Anna ordered.

I pushed. I was being torn apart from the inside.

A brief reprieve. I gasped for air.

“Again.”

Pain. Burning. Tearing.

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