The house was quiet in the last hours of the summer sun. She was tired and hurting from the inside. This baby seemed to be struggling not to be born. She was already two weeks overdue and the doctor suggested she try walking two to three miles a day to try to encourage the birth.
She knew in her heart why this baby didn't want to be part of this world. He or she already knew what life was like here in this house, the pain, the yelling, and the disregard for anyone other than the king. Too bad abortion was illegal but she had considered it. Didn't know how or where she could terminate the kid and by the time she thought it was a good idea, it was way too late.
She thought about leaving both the kids at the church down the road but that would leave her alone with him. At least with two kids she might be more protected. He could take out his needs on them instead of her. Maybe it would even lessen the pressure on little one with a second babe around.
The oppressive silence and heat of the day captured all of her air. Just before she passed out on the couch she wondered where everybody was. The pains across her belly tightened into a cobra squeeze. Funny she didn't remember this kind of pain with little one. It starts under her breast; transverses along its course down through her swollen ankles, gripping, ripping, demanding attention pain that did not end in seconds but minutes, long slow minutes.
She floated above her swollen self looking down at the squalor she lived in. How had her life disintegrated into hell?