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She doubled over and cried out.
“Oh!”
She panted desperately at the pain in her abdomen that had come and gone so suddenly. Now what the hell was that? She thought. She sat on the arm of the sofa, breathing carefully. Bang. She felt wet between her legs. She picked up the phone and quietly dialled an ambulance.
*
She sat in the birthing chair taking lungfuls from the plastic mask. Around her hospital people fussed and yapped at each other. The contractions were quite close now and it wouldn’t be long before she was holding her baby. A nurse spoke quietly to her.
“Elizabeth,” she said. “Your husband’s here.” Elizabeth had a fit of giggles that intensified at the sight of the nurse’s astonished face. She felt a strong familiar hand in hers and then concentrated on giving birth.
*
Uri sat beside her in the recovery room as they cuddled their baby. She studied him as he watched the child’s sleeping face. He didn’t seem nearly so big, now. His hair was more of a sandy colour and his eyes more grey. She touched a red mark on his chin. He smiled his familiar smile.
“I cut myself shaving.” He said. “The price of mortality.”
“Reward or punishment?” she asked.
“The cut?”
“Mortality.”
“God knows.” He said.