The Birth Yard by Mallory Tater

Author:Mallory Tater
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2019-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

FOR AN HOUR, WE DRIVE DOWN A LONG DIRT ROAD THAT leads out of our Trail. The sun is slowly stretching over the blank horizon and the valley hills, all brown ground but for small patches of ice and snow. I reach over Mamie and clutch Dinah’s arm. “Are Birth Yards a test?”

“Of course they are, Sable.” Dinah turns away.

The driver meets my eyes in her mirror. “You look like you’re strong. Why question that?”

Her eyes are soft. She turns them back toward the road. The road bumps and creates a deep craving in my bladder. I get up to use the toilet at the back of the bus, waking Mamie. She bends her head toward her knees and closes her eyes again. I rub her back and stare down the aisle. Jade and Flora sit near each other in the middle, but not together. I smile at them and they each nod in return. Flora’s long black hair curves over her belly. The dark circles around her eyes tell me she’s anemic. I feel sorry for her. Flora barely looks pregnant. She was always one of the smallest in Lessons and she still has a severely girlish look to her. Her eyes are very close together and her lips are pursed and I sense she’s not new to loneliness.

I sit on the seat of the toilet and move the curtain for privacy. I cough while I pee so no one can hear the tinkling hit the bowl. Then I return. I decide to sit beside Flora because Mamie is making me feel too dark. Maybe I am a bad friend.

“How was your first time?” Flora asks me.

She takes off a bulky sweater and rests her back against it. I see her stomach now. Mine is way bigger.

“First was fine. And my baby seems well.”

“Mine kicks already, I swear.”

“Really?”

Flora asks about my Match and says she’s always thought Ambrose is good.

“He is,” I say. “I think He’s good.”

She tells me hers is a Man named Angus.

“I don’t know Him.”

“He’s a descendant, you know. And He’s the only one I Matched with. I have anemia.”

I don’t tell her that I am also a descendant. I don’t tell her I can see anemia in her face. “I like your sweater,” I say instead.

“It was my mum’s. Nicer than these stupid brown coats,” she says.

I nod. “I know, they’re not warm enough.”

Flora laughs. Jade leans over. “Could you two be quiet? I am so bloody nauseous. My head’s pounding.”

“Sorry. Morning sickness?”

“I don’t know. This feels different. Shuttle bus sickness.”

Flora chews her lips and we sit in silence for a while. Mamie is still head-in-her-hands asleep at the front of the shuttle bus. “Will you miss your family?” Flora whispers.

I lie. “No, I’m ready for this. My Gram and mother taught me everything.”

I know more about Flora than she knows I do. I know her Father works collecting waste with Mamie’s Father, that they aren’t really in good favour. I know her family never let her attend the Arrival parties.

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