BIRTH
The labor began at dawn, sixteen hours of escalating pain that Sophia managed with Rosa's guidance and the breathing techniques they had practiced in the weeks of bed rest. The converted garage had been transformed into a makeshift delivery room, medical equipment borrowed or acquired through channels Rosa didn't explain, the space warm and dim and smelling of herbal preparations that Sophia had learned to associate with safety.
She had not called her mother. Maggie's condition had worsened in the final weeks of the pregnancy, the experimental treatment losing efficacy, her body failing in ways that the doctors could slow but not reverse. Sophia had visited once, traveling by bus for six hours, spending two days at her mother's bedside before returning to Rosa's care, the separatio
