Roseflower Creek by Jackie Lee Miles

that morning.
        "Lori Jean! Wake up!" Lexie said, and yanked the pillow out from under my head.
        "Lori Jean, go on over to Mz. Hawkins! Tell her to call Doc Crawley and send somebody for me!" Lexie yelled.
        I jumped out of that bed. Lexie had her hand under her belly and was holding it in place like that baby would plumb fall out if she let go. I was so scared it would, I felt the floor ready to leave me. My head told me to get moving, but mostly I just stood there staring.
        "Lori Jean! Go! Go! Go!" Lexie yelled at me.
        I run out to the kitchen. I still had my clothes on from yesterday, except for my shoes. I couldn't rightly 'member where they was. I was looking around for 'em when Lexie let out a holler like I never heard a'fore in my life. I looked up and she was laying herself down on the floor flat on her back, moaning something terrible. Water was running out of her bottom all over the kitchen linoleum.
        "Lexie, I best not leave you!" I said. "I best not!"
        "Lori Jean, if you don't go get help right now, I'm gonna kill you, right after I die havin' this baby, hear?" she said.
        I run over to Mz. Hawkins in my bare feet, screaming bloody murder.
        "Mz. Hawkins! Mz. Hawkins! Call Doctor Crawley!" I run right on into her house without knocking or waiting polite like for her to answer.
        "Lexie's havin' her baby! She is! Right there on the kitchen floor!" I yelled. "Doc said it ain't time yet," I said, "but he musta forgot to tell that baby!"
        "Settle down. Settle down," Mz. Hawkins said, and she grabbed her phone to ring up the doctor. Lexie and Melvin didn't have enough money for a phone yet.
        Mz. Hawkins took care of everything. I don't know why Lexie didn't like her none. She run real fast for a fat woman and never even fell over—and her with those skinny little bird legs toting her whole body. She still had her nightdress on and her bosoms was heaving theirselves ever which way. I thought they was gonna knock her down for sure, but they didn't. She was already tending to Lexie when I caught up with her.
        "Lori Jean, get some bedsheets off the bed and bring 'em here," Maybelle said. I done like she said and Maybelle scooted them under Lexie.
        She had Lexie blowing air out of her mouth like she was blowin' up a balloon, or trying to. Mostly Lexie couldn't do it and was squawking real bad. Mz. Hawkins started yelling at her.
        "Pant, Lexie! Pant!" she said. Then she changed her mind, I guess, 'cause she told her to do something else.
        "Okay, push!" she said. "Push!" But Lexie just screamed.
        "Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" But she must of pushed, too, cause Mz. Hawkins said, "That's it! That's it!" Then she said, "Stop! Don't push no more! Don't push!" It was mighty confusing, it was, but Lexie was just following along as best she could. She was back to blowing air out her mouth again. Maybelle looked up and saw me stuck to the floor like a stickpin.
        "Lori Jean, go on now. Make yourself scarce. This here's woman's work," she said. She shooed me towards the bedroom.
        "Go on," she said. "Go watch out the window for Doc Crawley." Maybelle waved me off with the back of her hand. I stepped backwards towards the bedroom and inched my way to the doorway. When the frame smacked me in the back of the head I stopped and watched, even though she told me not to.
        "Okay, Lexie," Maybelle said. "Now, push again. Hard! Again!" And Lexie did. She pushed so hard her face didn't look like hers no more.
        "That's it! That's it!" Maybelle yelled.
        Lexie looked like somebody just pulled her from the creek. Her hair was plastered flat down to her head. It was still red, but if 'n you didn't know it, sure would of been hard to tell. It looked almost black and her face was so pale white she matched the chalk we cleaned off the board for Mz. Pence, if we was the lucky one got