“They’ve been gone for ages” Emma stated the obvious as she paced the room once more. She wanted to carry on the discussion they’d been having before Kevin and Kristen had been called out for an emergency. She was still furious with him for leaving Endwise without a care for the people, for not finding a way to go back and spread the word that life was possible on the outside. Was he that much of a coward? With enough men behind him to back up his story, Emma felt sure the people of Endwise would be forced to listen…if they could just get back in somehow and get through the Luminary’s guards.
“Should we go and find the Mayor?” Nick asked, hating that they were just sitting there waiting.
“That might be a good idea” AJ agreed. None of them were used to sitting around and doing nothing.
They left Kevin’s home and looked around to get their bearings, but before they had a chance to go any further, they spotted Kevin walking back towards his home, his head hung low.
“Is everything alright?” Emma asked. She was ready to carry on where they’d left off.
“No…no, it isn’t” he replied, looking up, his face solemn. “Kristen is still there, but it doesn’t look good…for either of them”
Confusion swept across the faces of the newcomers. Back in Endwise, child birth was something which was usually over in a couple of hours, with little fuss too; or at least that’s the way it was portrayed to citizens. But here, in New Oak Falls, there didn’t seem to be the technology or expertise which had been so readily accessible in Endwise. That was one of the good points Endwise had going for it, the medical center provided excellent care for all citizens.
Kevin noticed the confused looks on their faces and sighed. Of course they wouldn’t know what he was talking about, nothing like this ever happened in Endwise, they had the facilities to ensure that their pregnant women were properly monitored. And if anything did go wrong – which Kevin felt sure must happen once in a while - they had the ways and means to silence people. Kevin shuddered at the thought of Endwise. Leaving that place had been the best thing he’d ever done. He wouldn’t be alive now if he hadn’t.
Realising that he hadn’t given them an explanation, Kevin cleared his throat and began. “When we got there, it was clear that the baby was in distress and turned the wrong way. Kristen tried to move the baby to the correct position, but it didn’t seem to be working as planned and was taking too long. I know you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, and believe me, you’re better off not knowing. Anyway, the baby was starved of oxygen for a little while during the birth and we don’t know how that’s going to affect him. Mary lost a lot of blood and is having a transfusion right now, but Kristen isn’t very hopeful she’ll make a full recovery”
“I didn’t understand much of what you just said, but it sounds horrendous!” AJ exclaimed. A world where women died having a child seemed barbaric.
“It was” Kevin replied.
“Don’t you have proper medical equipment here?” Emma asked, but she’d seen for herself how basic and simple life was here. They didn’t have the kind of facilities which Endwise had.
“We have a medical center…but it isn’t anywhere near as advanced as the one in Endwise. But usually women give birth in their own homes, and there are a few women in the village who are experienced in delivering babies; Kristen being one of them” Kevin explained. “It’s not very often that things go wrong, but when we do have an emergency, we aren’t very well equipped to handle it”
Kevin thought about his own wife, Kristen, who was approximately five months pregnant with their first child. When they’d married five years ago, they’d talked of a large family, but with every passing month in which she failed to get pregnant, they had begun to lose hope. Then out of the blue, when they’d finally acknowledged the fact that they’d probably never be parents, a miracle happened. Kevin no longer wished for a large family. He just hoped that Kristen and the baby she was carrying would be safe.
Feeling that it was an inappropriate time to question Kevin about why he never returned to Endwise, Emma decided it could keep for another time.
Much later on in the day, Kristen finally came home. She was exhausted and her face was tear stained and puffy.
“Kristen?” Kevin pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.
“Mary…” she sobbed “Mary’s dead”
Kevin consoled his wife, tears also welling up in his own eyes. The village was quite a close-knit community and even though it was home to hundreds of people, everyone knew each other. Mary’s death would be a terrible shock for everyone.
“What happened?” Emma asked curiously. She didn’t understand how a person could just die. It didn’t happen in Endwise. You died when it was your time, when your timer began to flash, and not before (unless you broke one of the laws and were dealt the death penalty).
“We couldn’t stop the bleeding. She was bleeding out faster than we could get new blood into her. There wasn’t a thing we could do to save her, it was just so awful” Kristen buried her face in her husband’s chest and sobbed.
Nick, AJ and Emma couldn’t quite believe what they were hearing. Outside didn’t seem quite as idyllic as it had seemed yesterday.
