/> A TRUE STORY
'Everything is normal,' the doctor was saying. 'Just lie back and relax.' His voice was miles away in the distance and he seemed to be shouting at her. 'You have a son.'
'What?'
'You have a fine son. You understand that, don't you? A fine son. Did you hear him crying?'
'Is he all right, Doctor?'
'Of course he is all right.'
'Please let me see him.'
'You'll see him in a moment.'
'You are certain he is all right?'
'I am quite certain.'
'Is he still crying?'
'Try to rest. There is nothing to worry about.'
'Why has he stopped crying, Doctor? What happened?'
'Don't excite yourself, please. Everything is normal.'
'I want to see him. Please let me see him.'
'Dear lady,' the doctor said, patting her hand. 'You have a fine strong healthy child. Don't you believe me when I tell you that?'
'What is the woman over there doing to him?'
'Your baby is being made to look pretty for you,' the doctor said. 'We are giving him a little wash, that is all. You must spare us a moment or two for that.'
'You swear he is all right?'
'I swear it. Now lie back and relax. Close your eyes. Go on, close your eyes. That's right. That's better. Good girl...'
'I have prayed and prayed that he will live, Doctor.'
'Of course he will live. What are you talking about?'
'The others didn't.'
'What?'
'None of my other ones lived, Doctor.'
The doctor stood beside the bed looking down at the pale exhausted face of the young woman. He had never seen her before today. She and her husband were new people in the town. The innkeeper's wife, who had come up to assist in the delivery, had told him that the husband worked at the local customs-house on the border and that the two of them had arrived quite suddenly at the inn with one trunk and one suitcase about three months ago. The husband was a drunkard, the innkeeper's wife had said, an arrogant, overbearing, bullying little drunkard, but the young woman was gentle and religious. And she was very sad. She never smiled. In the few weeks that she had been here, the innkeeper's wife had never once seen her smile. Also there was a rumour that this was the husband's third marriage, that one wife had died and that the other had divorced him for unsavoury reasons. But that was only a rumour.
The doctor bent down and pulled the sheet up a little higher over the patient's chest. 'You have nothing to worry about,' he said gently. 'This is a perfectly normal baby.'
'That's exactly what they told me about the others. But I lost them all, Doctor. In the last eighteen months I have lost all three of my children, so you mustn't blame me for being anxious.'
'Three?'
'This is my fourth... in four years.'