Page 228 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"Your waters have broken," Lili said. "That means the baby is coming."

"I've got to clean myself up." Karolin stood up, then groaned. "I don't think I can make it to the bathroom," she said.

Lili heard the front door open, then shut. "Mother's home," she said. "Thank God!" A moment later Carla came into the kitchen. She took in the scene at a glance and said: "How often are the pains coming?"

"Every minute or two," Karolin replied.

"Goodness, we don't have much time," said Carla. "I'm not even going to try to get you upstairs." Briskly, she started putting towels on the floor. "Lie down right here," she said. "I gave birth to Walli on this floor," she added brightly, "so I expect it will do for you." Karolin lay down, and Carla pulled off the soaked underwear.

Lili was frightened, even though her competent mother was now here. Lili could not imagine how a whole baby could emerge through such a tiny opening. Her fear grew worse, not better, a few minutes later when she saw the opening begin to enlarge.

"This is nice and quick," said Carla calmly. "Lucky you."

Karolin's groans of agony seemed restrained: Lili felt she would have been screaming her head off.

Carla said to Lili: "Put your hand here, and hold the head when it comes out." Lili hesitated, and Carla said: "Go on, it will be all right."

The kitchen door opened, and Lili's father appeared. "Have you heard the news?" he said.

"This is no place for men," Carla said without looking at him. "Go to the bedroom, open the bottom drawer of the chest, and bring me the light-blue cashmere shawl."

"All right," Werner said. "But someone shot President Kennedy. He's dead."

"Tell me later," said Carla. "Bring me that shawl."

Werner disappeared.

"What did he say about Kennedy?" Carla asked a minute later.

"I think the baby's coming out," Lili said fearfully.

Karolin gave a huge wail of pain and effort, and the baby's head squeezed out. Lili supported it with one hand. It was wet and slimy and warm. "It's alive!" she said. She found herself overflowing with an emotion of love and protectiveness for the tiny scrap of new life.

And she was no longer frightened.

*

Jasper's newspaper was produced in a tiny office in the student union building. The room contained one desk, two phones, and three chairs. Jasper met Pete Donegan there half an hour after leaving the theater.

"There are five thousand students in this college and another twenty thousand or more at other London colleges, and a lot are American," Jasper said as soon as Pete walked in. "We need to call all our writers and get them working straightaway. They must talk to every American student they can think of, preferably tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest. If we do this right we can make a huge profit."

"What's the splash?"

"Probably HEARTBREAK OF U.S. STUDENTS. Get a mug shot of anyone who gives a good quote. I'll do the American teachers: Heslop in English, Rawlings in engineering . . . Cooper in philosophy will say something outrageous, he always does."

"We ought to have a biography of Kennedy as a sidebar," said Donegan. "And maybe a page of pictures of his life--Harvard, the navy, his w

edding to Jackie--"

"Wait a minute," said Jasper. "Didn't he study in London at one point? His father was American ambassador here--a right-wing Hitler-supporting bastard, apparently--but I seem to recall that the son went to the London School of Economics."

"That's right, it comes back to me now," said Donegan. "But his studies were cut short, after only a few weeks."

"It doesn't matter," said Jasper excitedly. "Someone there must have met him. It makes no difference if they spoke to him for less than five minutes. We just need one quote, I don't care if it's only: 'He was quite tall.' Our splash is THE STUDENT JFK I KNEW, BY LSE PROF."

"I'll get on it right away," said Donegan.

*

---