had the tiny body slightly rotated. Enough? It had to be. Her finger found the elbow, put her finger over the top, pressured gently, inexorably.
An arm. She’d delivered an arm. The dot-points were blurring, but she still had work to do. She was acting mostly on instinct, but thank God for the book. She’d write to the author. No, she’d send the author half her kingdom. All her kingdom.
She suddenly thought of the almost obscene amount of money she’d been earning these past years and thought...
And thought there was another arm to go and then the head, and the head was...
‘Jules. We’re doing great,’ Rob growled and she glanced up at him and thought he’d seen the shiver of panic and he was grounding her again.
He’d always grounded her. She needed him.
Her hands held the tiny body, took a grip, lifted as the book said, thirty degrees so the left arm was in position for delivery. She twisted as the next contraction eased. The baby rotated like magic.
She found the elbow and pushed gently down. The left arm slithered out.
Now the head. Please, God, the head. She didn’t have forceps. She wouldn’t have the first clue what to do with forceps if she had them.
‘Lift,’ Rob snapped and he was echoing the book too. ‘Come on, Jules, you know what the book says. Come on, Amina. Our baby’s so close. We can do this.’
Our baby...
It sounded good. It sounded right.
‘Next contraction, puff afterwards, ease off until Jules has the baby in position,’ Rob urged Amina, and magically she did.
Amina was working so hard. Surely she could do the same.
She steadied. Waited. The next contraction passed. Amina puffed, Rob held her hand and murmured gentle words. ‘Hold, Amina, hold, we’re so close...’
Do it.
She held the baby, resting it on her right hand. She manoeuvred her hand so two fingers were on the side of the tiny jaw. With her other hand she put her middle finger on the back of the baby’s head.
It sounded easy. It wasn’t. She lifted the baby as high as she could, remembering the pictures, remembering...
So much sweat. She needed...she needed...
‘You’re doing great, Jules,’ Rob said. ‘Amina, your baby’s so close. Maybe one more push. This is fantastic. Let’s do this, people. Okay, Jules?’
‘O...Okay.’ She nodded. She’d forgotten how to breathe. Please...
‘Okay, Amina, push,’ Rob ordered and Amina pushed—and the next second Julie had a healthy, lusty, slippery bundle of baby girl in her arms.
She gasped and staggered but she had her. She had Amina’s baby.
Safe. Delivered.
And seconds later a tiny girl was lying on her mother’s tummy. Amina was sobbing with joy, and a new little life had begun.
* * *
After that things happened in a blur. Waiting for the afterbirth and checking it as the book had shown. Clearing up. Watching one tiny girl find her mother’s breast. Ushering an awed and abashed Henry into the room, with Danny by his side.
Watching the happiness. Watching the little family cling. Watching the love and the pride, and then backing out into the night, their job done.
Julie reached the passage, leaned against the wall and sagged.
But she wasn’t allowed to sag for long. Her husband had her in his arms. He held her and held her and held her, and she felt his heart beat against hers and she thought: here is my home.
Here is my family.
Here is my heart.
‘Love, I need to check the boundaries again,’ he said at last, ruefully, and she thought with a jolt: fire. She hadn’t thought of the fire for hours. But of course he was right. There’d still be embers falling around them. They should have kept checking.
‘We should have told Henry to check,’ she managed.
‘Do you think he would have even seen an ember? You take a shower. I’ll be with you soon.’
‘Rob...’ she managed.
‘Mmm?’
‘I love you,’ she whispered.
‘I love you too, Dr McDowell.’ He kissed her on the tip of the nose and then put her away. ‘But then, I always have. All we need to do now is to figure some way forward. Think of it in the shower, my Jules. Think of me. Now, go get yourself clean again while I rid myself of my obstetric suit and put on my fireman’s clothes. Figuring roles for ourselves... This day’s thrown plenty at us. Think about it, Jules, love. What role do you want for the rest of your life?’
And he was gone, off to play fireman.
While Julie was left to think about it.
* * *
There was little to think about—and yet there was lots. She thought really fast while she let the water stream over her. Then she towelled dry, donned her robe and headed back out onto the veranda.
Rob was just finishing, heading up the steps with his bucket and mop.
‘Not a single ember,’ he announced triumphantly. ‘Not a spark. After today I doubt an ember would dare come close. Have I told you recently that we rock? If I didn’t think Amina might be asleep already I’d puff out my chest and do a yodel worthy of Tarzan.’
‘Riiiight...’
‘It’s true. In fact I feel a yodel coming on right this minute. But not here. Do you fancy wandering up the hill a little and yodelling with me?’
And it was such a crazy idea that she thought: why not? But then, she was in a robe and slippers and she should...
No. She shouldn’t think of reasons not to. Move forward.
‘That’s something I need to hear,’ she said and grinned. ‘A Tarzan yodel... Wow.’ She grabbed his mop, tossed it aside, took his hand and hauled him out into the night.
‘Jules! I didn’t mean...’
‘To yodel? Rob McDowell, if you think I’m going through what we’ve gone through without listening to you yodel, you’re very much mistaken.’
‘What have I done?’ But Rob was helpless in her hands as she hauled him round the back of the bunker, up through the rocks that formed the back of their property, along a burned out trail that led almost straight up—it was so rocky here that no trees grew, which made
