Part 26 (1/2)

”Does that feel all right?” she asked.

”It feels fine. Anyway, I don't hurt right now. I'm not an epileptic, and don't anyone call a helicopter.”

”The pain comes and goes?” Jill asked.

Amy nodded.

”For how long?”

Amy shrugged.

Jill was trying to keep her face calm, but inside she was in ER mode. ER mode was where she went when Matthew broke his leg up at Alta and they looked at the X-ray and said, Actually, it's a lot worse than we thought, and see this little spot on the bone? Actually, it's a lot worse than we thought, and see this little spot on the bone? ER mode was when Sam spiked a fever and got a stiff neck and then went limp in her arms; when Mark had chest pains, and they hooked him up to machines and wires and a counselor came and asked if he had a living will. She had always thought that ER mode was a place she only went when it involved her immediate family, but now she realized that was wrong. ER mode was when Sam spiked a fever and got a stiff neck and then went limp in her arms; when Mark had chest pains, and they hooked him up to machines and wires and a counselor came and asked if he had a living will. She had always thought that ER mode was a place she only went when it involved her immediate family, but now she realized that was wrong.

She thought she could deal with telling JT what was going on, and she even thought she could deal with telling Amy. But she didn't think she had it in her to deal with telling Susan-in whom she had confided so much on this trip-that her seventeen-year-old virgin daughter was going into labor on the Colorado River, miles from the nearest emergency room.

42.

Day Eleven Below Lava Jill stood up in the hot suns.h.i.+ne. Her knees were stiff from crouching and her mouth was dry. She touched Peter on the shoulder and motioned for him to join her out of Amy's earshot.

She'd noticed over the course of the trip an unlikely alliance between these two. She recalled meeting Peter back in Flagstaff the night before they left-noticing how he had a kind of snotty att.i.tude toward everyone, especially Amy. Jill had left the meeting wondering how she was going to hold her patience for two weeks with this frat boy who was obviously more interested in getting laid than enjoying his time on the river-she could read the disappointment in his face when he looked around and saw the likes of Amy and Evelyn, Susan and Jill, little Lena and ancient Ruth.

So she wouldn't have guessed that he'd have chosen Amy to spend so much time with. She wouldn't have guessed he'd had it in him, to develop a friends.h.i.+p with a woman with whom the possibility of a s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p was not the first thing, quite frankly, that leapt to mind.

Now Peter stood with his eyes cast downward, head c.o.c.ked toward her, waiting.

”Has Amy told you anything?” she asked him.

”She's had these stomachaches,” he said. ”I guess I should have said something, but she didn't want me to.”

Jill glanced around Peter's bulk to where Amy had rolled on her side again. And she wished suddenly that her wrist.w.a.tch wasn't buried at the bottom of her overnight bag. It would be helpful if she could time the contractions, and she would need a watch for that, because after ten days on the river, she didn't trust her sense of time in the least.

”It's not a stomachache,” she told him.

”What is it?”

”She's in labor.”

She waited, then, for it to sink in. And this frat boy, whom she expected would back away nervously, folded his arms across his chest and nodded gravely, as though he had expected nothing less bizarre.

She had to hand it to him.

”Are you sure?”

”I've gone through this twice. I'm sure.”

”I knew it wasn't just a stomachache,” he said. ”But I didn't think it was labor. Did you tell JT yet?”

They both looked over to where JT was listening to Mitch.e.l.l, who was speaking and gesturing with agitation.

”No,” said Jill. ”But I will in just a minute. I thought maybe you could explain to Amy what's going on.”

”She doesn't know?” know?”

”If she knew, she wouldn't be so terrified,” said Jill. Then she reconsidered. ”Fine, she'd be terrified, but she wouldn't-She's clueless, Peter. Trust me. She has no idea.”

Peter looked dumbfounded. ”How can this happen? Don't girls miss their periods? Don't they notice they're getting kind of big?”

”It's definitely bizarre, but it happens,” said Jill. ”When a girl's seventeen, she might not be keeping track of her cycle. And when you're as big as Amy, well, sometimes you just don't notice things. There was a girl in my high school twenty years ago. She was like Amy-really, really big. And she didn't know. Honest to G.o.d she didn't know. And then one day she went to the bathroom in between math and science and-”

”Okay,” said Peter. ”I get it.”

”So it can happen,” Jill finished.

”How close is she? To, you know, actually having the baby?”

”I don't know,” said Jill. ”I don't think she's that close, but she might be. I don't know.”

”So what do we do now?”

”JT's going to have to radio for help. Because we have to get her to a hospital. And in the meantime, we're going to keep her very very still and try and slow down the contractions. But I want you to tell her what's going on. She likes you.”

Peter scratched the back of his neck. ”Of all the gin joints in all the world,” he murmured. ”Fine. I'll tell her.”

”Just think of how it's going to be for Susan,” said Jill, by way of consolation.

Peter went back to where Amy lay propped up on her elbows again. Her legs were extended out in front of her, dimpled and thick, and he tried to look at her like nothing was different but found it impossible. He wished he had said something directly to JT about her stomachaches, but he also realized there was no good to come of him scolding himself, so whenever that thought came into his mind, he pinched a little fold of skin on the back of his hand. Hard. It was a trick he'd learned from his shrink when he was trying to get over Miss Ohio. The shrink told him to pinch himself whenever he thought of her, and it would decondition him.

”The whale surfaces,” Amy said, feigning drama as she tried to sit up.

”How do you feel?”

”c.r.a.ppy.”

Peter looked upriver to Lava Falls. It seemed small and far away and unimportant. This was going to be hard, and he could think of no better way than to just say it.

”Jill thinks you're having a baby,” he said.

Amy looked off, like she was remembering something that amused her.

”I'm sorry,” she finally said-and her voice was cheery-”but I thought you said that Jill thinks I'm, like, having a baby. What did you really say?”

”That's what I really said.” He waited. ”Are you?”

”Uh, no?” no?”