Chapter 9: The Log Page

The nurse's house was a narrow brick duplex in Parma with a flag out front and a plastic deer in the flower bed.

She put a kettle on, though nobody wanted tea.

Polly sat in the front room with a bowl of grapes and a cartoon.

She was close enough to hear her name and far enough not to hear the rest.

Nathaniel stood in the kitchen doorway.

He had said nothing since we left the lake.

"I retired two years ago," the nurse said, gripping the back of a chair.

"I worked the maternity floor thirty-one years."

"I've seen forty thousand babies."

"I only ever lost sleep over one."

"Mine," I said.

"Yours."

She sat down.

"You came in at ten at night, thirty-nine weeks, no husband, no mother."

"You told me your name was Della and that you worked at a bakery."

"You said you were going to name her after a bird."

"Polly," I whispered.

"Is that what she's called?"

I could not speak.

Nathaniel said it for me.

"Yes."

The nurse looked at him for a long moment.

"I thought so," she said. "She has the chin."

She got up and fetched something from a drawer: a manila folder with a rubber band, soft with age.

"Everything went well until about five in the morning," she said.

"The baby came at 5:40."

"Eight pounds, two ounces."

"A good loud girl."

"I put her on your chest."

"You said hello to her, and then you started bleeding."

"I don't remember."

"You wouldn't."

"It was bad."

"Dr. Lyle came in fast and told me to take the baby to the nursery."

"I did."

"I wrapped her up and carried her down the hall."

"Down the hall to where?"

Keep reading free with an account. Start Caution! Cute Baby Alert! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.