Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics

Author:Amy Lukavics
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

Hannah was blue when she was born. Emily, Joanna and Charles had all been a grayish pink color, but when Hannah tore her way into this world I knew instantly that something was very wrong. There was no weak or startled cry from the still, blue baby, just a horrible wet slapping sound as she slipped out, feet first, from Ma’s torn womanhood and into Pa’s arms.

There was no midwife, like there had been for all my other siblings and myself. The snow had been too deep to reach the village on the other side of the mountain for close to four months straight, and our tiny home in the sky was transformed into an icy prison.

By then, we were all a little strange.

When the baby finally came out, Ma’s guttural howls were silenced for the first time in hours.

Emily covered her mouth and began to cry at the sight of Hannah. I stood in dumb shock, still holding Ma’s right leg up in a sort of daze. How long had it been? It felt like years since the labor had started, and I had no inkling if it was early or late. Ma’s face and hair were soaked with perspiration. There was a heavy stink in the air.

“Please, Lord,” Pa begged under his breath, hitting the slimy, blue baby on the back with one hand while Emily and I watched. “Please, Lord.”

Once Ma had gotten the illness four months earlier, it wouldn’t stop for anything, not desperate prayers, not a pregnancy and certainly not a snowstorm that kept us stranded without any help or extra supplies. Nobody else ever caught it; Pa said it was because her body was especially prone when with child.

“Amanda,” Pa snapped, accusatory, as if he could sense that I hated Hannah already for what she’d done to my mother. “Help me.”

I gently set Ma’s trembling leg down on the bed, the sheets and mattress clotted with blood and birth fluid and stinking waste. Joanna and Charles were still sitting in the opposite corner of our family’s log cabin, facing the wall and playing a game of jacks with each other like we’d told them to do when things started looking bad. They never turned, as commanded. They had no idea what was behind them. And at six and five, they shouldn’t have had to know.

I only just got to Pa when Hannah started moving. Her tiny arms and legs flailed around like those of an overturned mountain beetle. She took sharp, violent little breaths for a few moments, and her color warmed a shade. She wasn’t crying.

“Is my baby all right?” Ma slurred from the soaking bed as Emily wiped her face. “What’s happening?”

“I think she’s all right,” Pa said, his voice deep and breaking apart under the stress, and that’s how Ma found out the baby was a girl.

But I could see Pa’s face as he looked down at Hannah, whose eyelids were pulled into half-open slits as she took in those noisy little breaths.

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.