Page 49 of Christmas at the Movies
‘You and your sister were both late as well. In your sister’s case, that never changed.’
Sarah laughed. She pitied the patients at her sister’s dental practice, who were invariably kept waiting because Meg was so chatty. ‘I hope I don’t have to be induced like her.’ She wanted a natural birth, with minimal medical intervention.
‘I’ve just been reading a fascinating book about birthing traditions in Native American tribes,’ said Geraldine. She was on a work trip to Washington, doing research at the Smithsonian Institute. ‘When a Cherokee baby was due to be born, they would try to frighten it out of the womb – by telling it that something scary was coming and they had to get out.’
‘You want me to scare my baby into the world?’ The world was a terrifying enough place already. Sometimes Sarah wondered if she and James were being irresponsible, bringing a new human being into such turbulent times. Civil wars were raging in several countries. Global warming was melting the polar ice caps at an alarming rate. World financial markets were in freefall.
‘They also drank a tea made of wild cherry bark to speed labour along.’
Sarah looked at her selection of herbal teas. She plucked out a cherry-and-cinnamon tea bag and boiled the kettle – maybe that would work.
‘And Cherokee women didn’t eat raccoon meat after the birth,’ continued Geraldine. ‘They believed it would make the baby ill.’
‘The thought of eating raccoon makesmefeel ill,’ said Sarah.
‘Have you chosen names yet?’
‘We’re waiting to meet the baby,’ Sarah told her mother.
‘If it’s a boy, you should name him Barack, and if it’s a girl you can call her Michelle.’ Geraldine was a big fan of the handsome young Democrat, who was poised to become the US’s first Black president, and his lawyer wife.
Neither of those names were on Sarah’s shortlist.
‘I’m scared, Mum.’
‘Oh, childbirth is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be,’ said Geraldine breezily. ‘If it was, people wouldn’t have more than one, would they?’
‘Not just about the birth … about being a good mum.’
There was a long pause, broken only by the crackle of static. For a moment, Sarah wondered if they had been disconnected.
‘Well, I’m hardly an authority on the subject,’ came Geraldine’s voice down the line. ‘But I do know thatthe main thing a child needs is love – and you and James already love that baby with all your hearts.’
Sarah looked down at her bump. It was true. She would gladly sacrifice her own life for this baby that she’d never even met, whose diurnal rhythms she already knew as intimately as her own heartbeat, whose nocturnal gymnastics kept her company late at night, when she lay awake worrying. That connection would never be severed, not even once the umbilical cord had been cut.
Geraldine cleared her throat. ‘I know I wasn’t a perfect mother,’ she admitted. ‘But I hope I’ll make it up to you by being an excellent grandmother.’
For all her mother’s faults, Sarah had never doubted that Geraldine loved her and Meg. Even now, in her mid-thirties, Sarah turned to her mum for reassurance. It was true what the midwife had said – a mother’s job was never over.
‘Thanks, Mum.’ Geraldine was happier sharing arcane facts about remote tribes than sharing her feelings, so Sarah appreciated that she’d made the effort.
‘Now, if you want to get that baby out,’ Geraldine said briskly. ‘I’ll tell you what worked for me – having sex. Your father and I made love the day you were born, and my waters broke right after I climaxed. I found being pregnant deeply erotic …’
Oh, God.That made Sarah feel more ill than the thought of eating raccoon.
Fortunately, just then James came home brandishing a takeaway bag triumphantly.
‘Um, I’ve got to go, Mum. James just brought dinner home.’ With a quick goodbye, she ended the call.
‘I got chicken tikka masala, sag aloo and pilau rice,’ announced James, unpacking foil containers.
‘Yum,’ said Sarah, setting the table. Curry was another thing that supposedly induced labour. They’d had curry for dinner every night this week. So far all it had induced was wind.
‘Who were you on the phone with?’ James asked.
‘My mum. She was extolling the joys of pregnancy sex …’
‘Well, she’s right.’ James came up behind her, wrapping his arms under her bump and kissing her neck. ‘Ithasbeen pretty great.’
