MrUnafraid

Deep Louisiana, in a house that was mostly porch. A child was born and did not cry.

The mother asked was he all right. She asked it again. Then she screamed it.

The midwife turned him over. Nothing in the throat. Nothing in the nose. She cut the cord, because sometimes that does it.

It did not do it.

“Give me my baby.”

He was warm. He was breathing. He opened his eyes and looked at her, and then at the midwife, and then at the lamp, the way no baby looks at anything. He blinked once and lay still.

“This one’s different,” his mother said, mostly to herself.