Narrative Drama

Scene- from Catherine Called Birdie

Replace Catherine with Alyce

 4^th Day of September

          My mother has labored for two days to birth her child, but it will not come.  The midwife is with her now.  She sent me after some stupid remedies, but I cannot concentrate on the mixtures while my mother suffers so.

          Her torment began Sunday morn when all were in church except my sleeping mother and me left to tend to her.  Suddenly, her pains began.  I panicked.  I tried to think about what the midwife would do.  I did a little dance around her.  I shouted at the child, “Hey you, come out of there!”  I even tried a magic charm that I figured out later that I said it wrong.  I think I actually said, “Baby, Baby, in the womb, come on out with a big boom.”  My mother looked at me as if I were crazy.  I finally gave up and went to fetch the midwife.  However, she was still in mass, so I couldn’t disrupt her.  Then, I thought of how I had seen Perkin deliver a baby pig.  He soothed it, spoke calmly to it, and stroked its head.  I figured I should at least try that. So I stood behind my mother and stroked her forehead.  I tried to sooth her by speaking calmly to her.  I said things like “its o.k.,”  “your doing fine,”  “everything’s almost over,” and “can’t wait to see my new sibling.”  Mother looked at me kind of funny at first, but then her eyes seemed to soften, and she relaxed somewhat.

          The midwife finally arrived and immediately demanded payment by saying, “how much you going to give me for this.”  I found that rather tacky.  She yelled at me for being there, calling me “dung beetle,” “brat,” and “good-for-nothing, low-down, dirty, little scrub.”  It thought that was rude, but I just ignored it.  Anyways, mother labored for two days straight, but finally had a little girl.  I like to think that the easiest time that she had was when I was comforting her.  That is what being a midwife should be about, and that’s what I plan to do.