The technicians face paled.
She called in a doctor, and another, and another.
By
Updated 7 years ago,February 13, 2018
Pregnancy sucked.
Unsplash / Daiga Ellaby
I peed every five minutes.
Had trouble falling asleep every night and woke up sore every morning.
Never hated her for abandoning me until I realized how quickly the connection between mommy and daughter formed.
I wasnt so sure.
Because of my ultrasound.
The second one, from seven months back.
Unsplash / Daiga Ellaby
I kept my hopes high until the technicians face paled.
She called in another doctor, and another, and another.
Fed up, I finally asked, What is it?
If my baby is dead, just tell me.
I can take it.
No… the woman said, eyes darting between me and the screen.
No, your baby looks healthy.
But theres a strange… A glitch.
The machine must be malfunctioning.
All three doctors followed, and all three doctors shared glances as the same results appeared.
What is it you see?
Can I at least look?
The baby looked like a solid, oval blob.
It was also hard for them to find the spine.
Or an outline of the legs.
Or the outline of any punch in of body.
But they could hear the heartbeat, so…it must be fine.
Keep taking your supplements.
Schedule another appointment for next week just to be safe.
I heard the others talking about your baby.
Ive seen this happen once before.
How old are you?
She nodded, like she had expected that answer, and pointed toward another room.
Let me look for the file.
Meet me in my office.
I never saw a photograph of my mother.
Never learned her name.
Right now, your baby has no defined features, she said.
It looks like a lump of clay.
Because it doesnt have a face yet.
She should have a face by now though.
Its been nineteen weeks.
Her thumbs played with the edge of the manila folder.
Do you believe in reincarnation?
Too farfetched to me.
That was the truth.
I never set foot in a temple or church.
Do you believe in those?
Was that a fucking joke?
I doubted she could help me.
Maybe she had been a proper doctor twenty years back, but she had clearly gone senile since then.
As I stood up, she flopped opened up the envelop.
The first thing I saw, paper clipped to the folders edge, was a photograph of a woman.
This was the only other case Ive seen similar to yours, the woman said.
I was in the room as she gave birth.
The baby came out without a face, without a nose or eyes or lips.
No legs or arms, either.
Just a lump of skin with a heartbeat hidden inside.
It must have died.
Right after the baby came out, the woman flat lined.
The moment she passed the exact moment of her death the babys features formed.
Ended up looking like any other little girl.
That was twenty-two years ago.
So what, you think, you think… What exactly?
That shes my mother?
That this runs in the family?
She sounded like a lunatic.
Even so, I sunk back into my seat, considering the implications of her idea.
She meant: I think youre going to die on the operating table while giving birth to your daughter.
I think youre going to berebornas your daughter.
I think the reason you never had a mother is because youareyour mother.
Because her soul went into you and soon it will go into your daughter.
She meant: You are never going to meet your little girl.
