The midwife placed a cool rag on the fevered brow of the young gypsy woman. The labour had already taken too long and all the women in the room had fearful, knowing looks in their eyes.

“Breathe Anna, you must breathe. Now push. Push hard! Your life and the child’s depend on it. Push now!”

The midwife squatted low between the young woman’s legs and waited. With one hand on her belly, she massaged the baby within, trying to coax it out from its mother’s womb. She shook her head as she watched the young woman struggle with labour pains.

The young gypsy woman had been beautiful once. Anna’s hair was the colour of chocolate and her eyes were as dark as pitch. Her once fair skin was mottled and swollen with hot tears and rampant infection. The figure that had once attracted a thousand men to watch her sway and dance to gypsy music was now bulky and uneven.

“I can’t! God help I can’t do this.” Anna cried as she tried to take in a deep breath. The pain was too much to bear. For a full day, she had tried to will her pregnant body to expel the child. Infection and fever had set in and was turning to her lifeblood to death.

The midwife grabbed one of the young gypsy girls and sent her out for a pot of boiled water and the sharpest knife she could find. She could tell the young mother’s body would no longer support her and the life of the child and one had to take precedent over the other.

Anna stared directly into the worried face of the midwife and nodded. She knew the child’s life was now more important than her own was. Her final act as a loving mother would be to give up her breath so that the baby would survive.

The midwife watched Anna struggle for breath. “Where is the father Anna? Does he not have family for this child?”

“No!” Anna shrieked. “Do not leave my child to him. He must not know. He is a man of God. It would destroy him and his family. My child will be strong. You will see to it that my baby finds a good home.”

The old midwife sighed but assured Anna that she would find a home for the child. Among gypsy caravans, they took care of their own. Anna had been such beautiful a creature and she could not curse even a man of God for taking notice of her. She said a silent pray that the child’s soul would not be damned for its parents actions and patted Anna’s belly once more.

Copyright mcalendin 2008