Maxence and Father Booker triaged the patients while Batsa translated.
Isaak had followed them into the clinic today instead of going with Alfonso, and he was doing whatever the others told him to. Alfonso had gone on to evaluate NICU sites even though Isaak had told him again that it was a waste of time. Father Booker tagged along with Alfonso because going off on one’s own seemed like a bad idea, and Father Booker was the only one with whom Alfonso was not having an active argument.
Dree was bandaging a little girl’s arm and telling Batsa to translate to the mother that she needed to apply the anti-fungal ointment twice per day and keep it covered, and the ringworm would go away. She stripped off her gloves and chucked them in their med waste bag.
Shouting rang outside the door.
Batsa said, “I heard the words for ‘woman’ and ‘bleeding.’” He ran to the door, calling for Maxence and Isaak.
Two women were standing at the door, yelling and pointing.
Batsa talked to them for a minute, his voice rising as he understood more. He turned and said, “Dree, they said there’s a woman giving birth, but it’s not her time yet. They said they didn’t expect the baby until spring.”
Dree grabbed her backpack and swept all the supplies she could grab back into it. She yelled to Batsa, “Take Isaak. Go on ahead and find out what’s going on so you can tell me when I get there.”
Maxence was beside her. “What can I do?”
“Carry this.” She shoved her backpack in his arms. “Do we have more antiseptic anywhere? We’re running out of everything.”
“I think Isaak has seventy-percent alcohol in that flask of his.”
“Good. I didn’t think of vodka as being seventy percent alcohol, but you’re absolutely right. That should sterilize instruments for when we need them. Come on, let’s go find those guys.”
As they ran out of the makeshift clinic, Isaak was roaring up on his motorcycle and sprayed gravel as he stopped. He flipped up the visor of his helmet, and his blue eyes were wild. “I came back to get you. The house isn’t far. She’s in labor, and I think it’s any minute!”
They mounted Dree’s motorcycle and followed Isaak. The house was just a little way down the dirt street, but riding the bikes was faster than running.
Isaak halted his bike in front of a small, neatly kept cottage. Dree shoved her heel against the motorcycle’s kickstand and waited for just a second for Maxence to get off the bike first because he was behind her. As she started to swing her leg over, Max already had his gloved hand out to steady her, and she grabbed hold of his hand with hers.
An older woman was gesturing at the door, motioning for them to hurry, and they all ran inside.
Batsa was sitting beside the bed. “Thank God you’re here. I think this is happening now.”
Dree dropped her backpack on the floor and snagged two sterile gloves out of the packet in the front pocket. “How do you know it’s time? Did you examine her?”
“I have five children. I don’t need to look. The mother is nearing the end of stage two, transitional labor. She is beginning to push instinctively. The child’s head should crown any moment now.”
Behind her, Maxence said, “I can find clean towels.”
Dree said, “Good. Yes.” She took a peek between the woman’s legs, but she didn’t see the crown of the baby’s head.
Batsa asked her, “Have you delivered a baby before?”
“Twice. How about you?”
“I delivered the last two of mine. I did the last one just eight months ago.”
“You left your wife home alone with an eight-month-old baby and four other little kids for amonth?”
“Nepali families are very close.” He gestured to the women standing beside the new mother’s bed. “With each of our children, my wife’s parents came and did all the cooking and cleaning for the first six months, and my parents came and did it for the second six months. It has been eight months since the birth, so I think my wife is all right to go to the grocery store and drive them to church once a week now.”
With a deal like that, no wonder they kept having kids. “Do you want to catch this one?” she asked.
The mother yelled something at Batsa and waved at him, and then the two other women beside the bed began haranguing him in Nepali.
Batsa said, “They are concerned for her modesty. If I stay up here near her head, they might let me stay in the room. You’ll have to catch the baby.”
The woman strained and screamed, her teeth bared and her face turning dark red.
