The Midwives by Duncan Ralston

Author:Duncan Ralston [Ralston, Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Duncan Ralston

14

Women's Intuition

* * *

THE MIDWIVES ARRIVED at the Gingerbread House just before nine, a plump woman with a beehive hairdo and a delicate-looking woman wearing white silk gloves, holding a Tupperware container. Martin recognized them from the photographs in the box in his room. They were members of his mother's bowling league. What was it called? The Baby Splitters? The picture had looked pretty old but the women didn't appear to have aged a day.

Martin felt a vague sense of unease moments before he opened the door—Norma would have said someone must have walked over his grave—but he passed it off as an effect of the hangover. He hadn't gotten much sleep and his head still throbbed from too much drink at the Legion.

He held the door open but the women remained on the porch, the morning chill fogging their breath.

"Come in," Martin said, wondering if they needed an engraved invitation.

They stepped across the threshold together.

"Can I take your coats?"

"No, thanks," the woman with the beehive said gruffly. She looked around the foyer. "Place sure has changed."

"I'm Martin, by the way." He stuck out a hand.

She nodded brusquely, ignoring the hand as she kicked off her boots. "We know who you are. We delivered you."

Slipping off her coat, the woman with the gloves nodded and smiled. Her teeth were very small and close together. The smile itself seemed to contain all of the secrets a woman her age might carry with her to the grave.

Martin took her coat and hung it on the rack. He turned to watch as they headed for the stairs.

Norma stood in the kitchen doorway, eyeing their uninvited guests suspiciously as she worked a hand towel in a wet mug.

"Norma," the beehive woman said. "How are you, dear?"

"Been better."

The bitterness between them was unmistakable. The woman with the white gloves ignored them, already softly ascending the steps with the Tupperware.

"Can I get either of you something to drink?" Martin asked, since it didn't seem like Norma was about to offer any hospitality.

"We're fine. Pretend we're not here."

As the two women rose the stairs, Martin gave Norma an inquisitive look. She shook her head and returned to the sink. Martin followed the other women up the stairs.

The gloved woman knocked lightly on Ruby's door.

"She's sleeping," he said. "The doctor said not to disturb her."

"Doctor?" the beehive woman grunted. "Mother doesn't need a doctor, she needs good old-fashioned home remedies."

"Mother?"

The woman blinked. "Your mother. Ruby."

The gloved woman smiled her secret smile.

"What's in the container?" he asked, nodding at the Tupperware.

"Cure-all," the woman with the beehive said. "Old family recipe."

It looked like mush to Martin, similar to the pureed roast beef and mash Norma served Ruby their first night home, though more like turkey giblets and neck skin, as there were little bits of rubbery-looking pink and gooey fat and small grayish-brown lumps. Looking at it too long made the queasiness return, and he excused himself to go to the bathroom.

He stood in front of the sink, splashed water on his face and toweled himself off.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.