Obstetrix(33)

It doesn’t, actually, but Joy needed extra rest for her own sake, and I’d trotted out the “it’s better for the baby” white lie a thousand times in my normal life, I could certainly do it here.

It was snowing, and all the teenagers, including Bethany, were outside with shovels when I went up to lunch. When we came out, most of their work had been undone by the ongoing snowfall. I stood outside the community building for a long minute when I came out after lunch, listening. I could hear one of the children shrieking (he’d just gotten a face full of snowball) and doors slamming and farther away, the rumbling buzz of one of the ATVs. I could hear birds.

If my father woke up this morning and saw the texts, and immediately called the police, it was still too early for them to be coming. This involved multiple states, so that would require the FBI, I was pretty sure, and they’d probably need time to figure out exactly where I was. The absolute soonest was probably tomorrow. It might be longer.

I looked up at the falling snow and told myself, Sleep when they let you sleep, eat when they let you eat, prepare any way you can, be ready.

Thursday afternoon was quiet. Word had made it back to me that the asthmatic boy was being given a task outside the chicken barn, so at least I probably wouldn’t be called on to handle a teenager in respiratory failure this week. Since not a lot of people were coming by, I started going through the drug stocks to check expiration dates, since I did not trust that Sarah was checking on this. In late afternoon we got a very timid knock at the door that turned out to be Bethany. She took a deep breath and said, “I’m not here for medical treatment, everything’s fine, I was just thinking.” She paused. I glanced at Sarah, a little worried that Bethany was going to bring up our fiction-based relationship, especially since Bethany was getting increasingly pink. “I would like to train as a midwife,” she said. “With Sister Sarah and Dr. Elizabeth. Would that be okay?”

Bethany, you are thirteen, I thought. That might not matter here; she might be considered fully old enough for professional training. I was fond of Bethany; if she was close to me, I could try to keep her safe when the rescue came—if it came. But this still struck me as a terrible idea.

Sarah was speaking. “Have you discussed this with your father, Bethany? Or Pastor?”

“I haven’t,” Bethany said. “Because I wanted to start by asking if it would be all right with both of you.”

“You never seemed interested before,” Sarah said, and her eyes flicked toward me, briefly.

“I brought dinner last night to Sister Holly, Sister Natalie, and Dr. Elizabeth, and when I left, I thought, ‘I should be staying,’ and I realized it was God, speaking in my heart.”

I was so relieved she had not stayed. A bright-eyed apprentice would have made it much harder to search for a phone. “Remind me how old you are?” I asked.

“I’ll be turning fourteen in March.”

“Bethany, let me tell you a little bit about the training I had. I’m a doctor, not a midwife. When I was your age, I was in middle school. After that, I went to high school. Then, I went to college, where I majored in chemistry, and after that I went to medical school for four years, after which I did a residency, which was my actual apprenticeship in obstetrics and gynecology. I’m not saying that you cannot learn useful skills at your age, but is there really nothing else your school can teach you?”

There was a long pause and I thought, Not without books, of course, that’s why her school is useless to her.

“Talk to your father and have him talk to Pastor John and Brother Ethan,” Sarah said. “With their permission, you may start sitting in with us as the opportunity presents itself. Probably you will mostly be sent on errands, for now.”

Bethany’s face split into a huge smile. “Thank you! I’ll let you get back to work!” And she darted off.

“Really?” I said, when she was gone. “You aren’t worrying about traumatizing that nice child with the blood, the screaming, all the rest?”

Another half glance. “My mother had her last four children at home, and I was there for all four. I didn’t wind up traumatized.”

I wondered how to even answer that. Maybe if you hadn’t been traumatized as a teenager you wouldn’t have grown up to join a cult and kidnap people. Though who knows. I went with, “Experiences vary.”

“She’ll be able to leave if she wants to.”

“I wanted to be a doctor starting when I was about the age Bethany is now. No one invited me to sit in on surgery, and that was good. I had time to mature before I was faced with the realities of my profession. If someone had invited me to sit in on a birth when I was thirteen…” I paused and tried to imagine it. “… I might have become a doctor still, but I’d have gone for a different specialty.”

“If it’s her calling, she’ll be fine.”

“Are you hoping to scare her off?”

“Of course not,” Sarah said.

“Are you worried that a well-trained apprentice will make you replaceable?”

“I brought you here,” Sarah said. “You’re more trained than I am.”

“I mean, yes,” I said, “but I didn’t make you replaceable, because for one thing, they want you keeping an eye on me.” Sarah looked down. “Bethany won’t be fully trained for years, but once she is, she could take over for you.”