Three Minute Fiction

(This was my entry last year for NPR's three minute fiction contest.  The first line had to be "she closed the book and walked through the door...")

     

     She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally decided to walk through the door.  She knew that birthing this baby would not be easy, but as a rural mid-wife in Mississippi, she realized that the powerful qualities of the herb clary sage would help ease the child out.

     The mother had already been in labor for 10 hours and had pushed for 5.  The baby’s heartbeat was starting to get more faint.   The mother was exhausted and the mid-wife feared for the safety of both mother and baby. 

       Confident that she held the answer to the woman’s agony in her hands, the mid-wife took a last look at the book “Clinical Aromatherapy for Pregnancy and Childbirth.”  Creating a potion of the ancient remedy, she carried it to the laboring woman, hopeful for a miracle.