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much time to become aware of its environment and struggle to get out. Pushing without proper care
does tire out the mother, but better a fatigued woman than a fatally wounded body,” he choked out
a laugh, but the tone dissolved his amity like salt.
“Isn’t that as dangerous?” Athena asked, clambering onto her bed with a hand clamped onto
Dirk’s.
“It’s the only way, Ena. If I could have it different for you, I would.”
Prick. Prick. Pricked on her skin were thistle sized needles, rushed on and drawing unwant-
ed dots of blood. Her clothes piled up on the side as a loose hospital gown hung onto her; her legs
propped up onto the slots. Her fingers tightened onto one another, cursing the day she allowed the
father of the baby deliver instead of aiding away her crippling pain.
“Dirk,” she poised through her breaths. “What exactly did that shot you gave me do?”
“To put into the basics, it was a calcium supplement, meant to strengthen bones to almost the
strength of Tungsten and Titanium. Keeps the baby from shattering a rib and acts as an epidural,”
Dirk explained. He dragged on his second glove while returning to his position, straddling his seat.
“This is the last chance we have before the baby realizes it can’t breath. Please, Athena. I’m begging
you. I can’t live in this insufferable life without you, or let alone be the reason you’re gone…,” In a
voice laced with timid stuttering, he spoke. “Push.”
A livid scald burned within her core, indicating that Dirk was correct-- the baby would begin
to writhe. At the sensation, Athena grunted out at her introductory push, resisting the bob of the
baby created to stay in and destroy. Minutes of forcing progress fell flat.
“This baby is a fighter. You’re gonna have to push harder,” he instructed.
“Dirk, I can’t push any harder…”
“You have to try!”
Pressure traveled down her core meaning the infant was finally en route toward enlisting into
the world without any complications. All was right with the world.
That is, until the jellied shell of the fetus punctured from the other side; a small foot counted
with five toes darted up to the rib. Athena heaved out a shallow breath, but nothing above a triv-
ial pressure clamped onto her rib cage. The calcium supplement prototype worked-- not a bone
cracked. She waited for the pressure to lift and labor to sustain; however, the pressure only lodged to
a different focal point. The pressure buzzed while it moved little.
“Dirk, what’s the hold up?” Athena scowled out in a stitch of pants.
His lips blew out a breath, bordering between bounded worry and mourn. “This has never
happened before. The baby attempted to kick, and while the supplement protected the ribs from
breaking, it also created a sticky coat around it…The baby’s foot is stuck.”
Sydney Pomrening
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