Page 60 of Coming Home to Inishbeg Cove

‘Sarah, my God, are you okay, girl?’ she asked as her eyes adjusted to the light.

I shook my head in despair. ‘I think my waters have broken and now I’m getting contractions.’

Jim explained to her what had happened and said that I couldn’t find Greg.

‘Sit down there a minute,’ she said, showing me into her living room. ‘Hang on until I put a few towels under you.’

Jim looked mortified.

Maureen turned to her husband. ‘Jim, call the ambulance. Sarah needs to get to the hospital now. Tell them she’s only six months pregnant with twins, and it’s urgent.’ She didn’t need to spell it out to me: a twin birth was high risk at the best of times, but if the babies were born this early, they would definitely need special care. To give birth to them outside a hospital would be catastrophic.

Jim returned a few minutes later. ‘They’ve dispatched one, but with the storm, it could take a while.’

‘Oh God,’ I wailed as I was hit by another vicious pain. They were coming closer together and getting more painful each time. They seemed to have ratcheted up a level since I had entered the B&B, and Maureen began to coach me through my breathing.

‘Can you call ... Greg ... please?’ I asked, trying to catch my breath between contractions. I needed my husband; I knew he would sort this out.

‘I’ve already done that, love, but his phone seems to be off, I’m afraid.’

I realised then that Greg’s phone was probably dead like mine. Why hadn’t we thought to charge them? We had thought of everything else in preparation for the storm: we had bought new candles and matches and had stocked the cupboards with food, yet we’d forgotten to charge our mobile phones.

‘Can you ring ... Mrs Manning ... he might ... be there.’ I tried to get the words out between contractions.

‘I’ll do it right now.’ Jim hurried out of the room again. He seemed to be relieved to have a job to do. Maureen squeezed my hand. ‘Don’t worry, love, we’ll find him. He won’t be too far away in this weather.’

Jim came back a few minutes later, a worried expression on his face. ‘Mrs Manning said he called over to check on her but that he left to go home to you two hours ago, and she doesn’t know where he is.’