nina by Stacey Doss (list of e readers txt) 📕

nina

Everything was normal. She was just weeks from delivery, and Dr. Masterson was pleased with the baby’s development. Ana rubbed her stomach as the baby stretched, grimacing at the slight pain she felt.
“Baby, I don’t know if that’s an elbow or a knee, but buddy, it’s pokey!” she crooned to the unborn child. She caressed her belly, dreaming of the day she could hold this child in her arms. She heaved herself off the examination table and dressed. She waddled down the hall to the receptionist.
“Well, Ana, everything seems to be going well,” Katie stated as she flipped through the appointment book. “Doctor wants to see you every week now, so how does Thursday look?”
The baby kicked, hard, and Ana lost her breath. She hunched over, holding her stomach, and Katie leaned toward her, ready to call for help. “Oh, that hurt,” Ana sighed as she straightened. “Sorry. That kick was hard and sharp.”
Katie relaxed as she realized Ana was okay. “It’s getting tight in there for the little one, huh?”
“Yeah, I can’t wait until he’s born. He’s about to split me in half!”
“So, is it a boy?”
“No, the doctor couldn’t get a good picture. I just call it a him. Thursday afternoon would be good for me.”
Katie penciled Ana in, then handed her a card. “Well, you have a good afternoon. See you next week!”
On the way home, she hummed some lullabies and the baby seemed to settle. She rubbed her left side, where the pain still lingered, and noticed it was tender. “Baby, you are really tearing mommy up, aren’t you?” She chuckled. She remembered stories from her friends when they were pregnant, stories of bruising from the inside because the babies kicked so hard. She could relate now that she was so close to the end.
At home, she fixed dinner and lounged in the recliner with her feet up. She set the plate on her belly: the perfect table. Before she could take a bite of the sandwich, the baby kicked so hard the plate went flying and Ana cried out. She hunched forward, curling around her belly, the pain from the kick throbbing. She felt something tear, and she struggled out of the chair and hurried to the bathroom.
There was blood, not a lot, but enough to worry Ana. She grabbed her purse and drove herself to the hospital, the baby thrashing and tossing the full 15 minutes across town. The nurses immediately rushed her to a room and strapped a monitor across the churning belly. Labor started; intense, hard, painful labor that took her breath and transformed her from a human to a quivering mass of tortured flesh. Her water broke, and the doctor had no choice but to allow her to deliver early.
She pushed, and the head crowned. The doctor encouraged Ana to push again, and he helped ease the shoulders out. Ana was too focused on the delivery to catch the gasp of the doctor and nurses. She pushed again, and the baby was free.
“Oh my God!” a nurse exclaimed, and Ana immediately went on alert.
“What’s wrong? Is my baby okay? Is he okay?”
“Um, Ana, uh…it’s a girl…” The doctor seemed almost dumbstruck, and Ana struggled to look over the cloth covering her legs. She heard a cry, which let her know that her daughter was alive, but she saw the shock on everyone’s faces, and frantically reached to the baby.
“Is she okay? Let me see her! I want her!” she screamed. The nurse held the blanket-wrapped bundle and turned trance-like to hand to Ana. What Ana saw froze her blood. The baby had gray scaly skin over most of her face, down the left side of her chest, wrapping around her stomach to her right hip, ending in a scaly, lizard/dinosaur type leg and foot with three toes ending in sharp black claws. Ana didn’t see the perfectly formed hands and left foot; she was paralyzed with shock, focusing on the claws that she now realized was the cause of her pain.
The baby cried, turning her face toward Ana, and Ana instinctively pulled the child close. “Nina,” she whispered as she looked at her newborn.

Publication Date: 07-05-2011

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