Deliver Me by Kate Jarvik Birch

Author:Kate Jarvik Birch
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-03-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Dorionne and her baby gazed into each other’s faces and I was suddenly reminded of a game I used to play when I was a little girl, back before we’d even begun training for our exams. We must have only been seven or eight years old, back when all of the little girls were still equal and Odessa and I were inseparable. We played the game at night after we were all supposed to be asleep. Odessa and I would round up a few other girls, the ones we trusted not to tattle on us in the morning to the keepers. We would push together a few of the beds so that we had enough space to sit in a small circle on the floor. Then we would all madly rub our hands against the stiff fabric of our pajamas, filling our hands with heat and electricity. On the count of three we would raise our hands until they almost touched and watched as tiny sparks jumped between our palms, like little bolts of lightening.

Now, as my eyes moved from Dorionne to her baby, I could almost see that same spark flying between the two of them. Electricity. In an instant, the life that had drained from Dorionne was suddenly restored, with a fever and intensity that radiated out into the room. The pulse of it strummed the air.

Etta must have felt it too. And she must have known, the way I did, that there was no turning back.

It had been a horrible mistake to let her hold that baby.

Slowly Dorionne raised her eyes to meet ours and Etta and I stepped back simultaneously.

“You both know I’m not giving up my daughter,” she said.

“What if we let you hold her a little longer,” Etta tried to reason. “We’re already late on her paperwork.”

Dorionne threw her head back and laughed, “Her paperwork, yes, you’ll be late with her paperwork. You think I’m going to let you take this child, the way I’ve let you take my others? No, there will be no paperwork. There will be no numbering. You will not mutilate her.” She squeezed the baby to her chest, her gaze flashing frantically around the room. She eyed the windows behind her as if she was actually considering jumping through them.

“Don’t be crazy,” I said. “You can’t take her. They won’t let you.”

Etta spoke up, “She’s right. You know she is. The Union will never let you keep your baby. It goes against the entire order of things.”

Dorionne paced the floor, like a caged animal, but Etta blocked the doorway.

“There is no order to things,” Dorionne yelled. “Do you think I enjoy my life: beautiful clothing, elegant meals, soft beds to sleep in? You think I’m lucky. No! I won’t let my body be used as a vessel anymore.”

“Please,” I begged, “please reconsider. We can tell you her number, after we take her to be marked. I promise we will. Then maybe you can find her when she’s older. Maybe things will change.

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