2014-362 Arts - Compass Center for Women and Families for Spring 2014 Arts Grant Agreement $1,500

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Ap1 k Lea_ nt, gavylo 26n3 Napalm Butterflies railroad tracks trying to catch a freight car as the trains whooshed by you,making your bones quake with their power. I called my sister. Her husband answered, "Hello?' "It's Leanne. I need you." I panted into the phone,breathless from the last contraction. "Oh shit!"Tom said, and I heard my sister in the background say something,"We'll be right there." He hung up then and I lay back against the couch cushions, wiping sweat off my forehead with the back of my arm. Pat put Star Wars into the VCR. When my Sarah and Tom arrived,my contractions were only minutes apart. Pat was slumped over on the stairs, nodding out. I was laying on the couch, doubled around a small pillow,growing ever more resentful of Ewoks and Droids as the minutes passed. "Sarah,please,"I looked to my sister,who stood in the doorway, backlit by the early morning sun, "turn this stupid movie off- I cannot have this baby with that song in my head." She came to sit by me, and I gripped her hand whispering, "please don't leave." Sarah murmured kind words and stroked my arms through another contraction. She had a little watch out and was timing them,her wide eyes growing ever bigger. Finally, she called the midwife back. Maureen asked to speak to me. "Come on in," she relented, "but you'll probably have to go home again- you sound too calm and well put-together to be very far along in the process." She had me lay down,to check my dilation. I clutched Sarah's hand still,holding it against my cheek as another contraction crashed over me. I liked the way her cool, rough knuckles felt against my skin.Please don't leave. "Oh,wow!"Maureen chuckled in that calm, gentle way that years of delivering babies had lent her voice, "You really are ready to go-ten inches!" "What does that mean?"I asked, panting between contractions. "It's time,he's on his way."