Chapter 55
She rode fast through the blazing sunset to reach the farm and ran straight to the barn. While a terrible low groan came from the far stall, Melissa was shrieking in rage as she kicked viciously at the barn wall in the suffocating heat.
“Melissa?”
“Anna. Thank god.” Melissa turned, panting, her shoulders slumping, the rage gone.
“I’ve moved the others out. It was too upsetting for them.
” She was slick with sweat and looked like she’d been crying as she went back to the stall.
“It’s okay, Jezebel, it’ll be okay.” The cow dropped to its knees then stood up again, head lowering and rising, struggling to find a position she could settle in.
Anna joined them in the stall, ignoring the stench of blood and shit soaked up by the straw, and gently stroked the distressed animal.
“It’s gone on too long,” Melissa said. “I think she’s breech.”
“Shit.” Anna didn’t know much about giving birth, but a baby the wrong way around was never a good thing. “Where’s the vet? Is he coming?”
“Dad owes him money.” Melissa looked younger with no heavy kohl around her eyes. She didn’t have her plastic bangles on either, and her arms were filthy. The cow wasn’t the only one exhausted by this labor. “He won’t come out to us until the bill’s paid.”
“I thought the farm was making money.”
“It was.” Melissa shrugged. “I guess good luck doesn’t last.”
“How’s your dad doing?” The careful swallow from the bottle. Was Melissa aware of that?
“He feels things hard, you know? Takes things to heart. And the anniversary this week. He can’t even go into the fields because of the memory of Bonnie.
” She leaned forward and kissed Jezebel’s head as the cow grunted.
“I can’t wait for this week to be over. Constantly thinking I’ll be next or some shit. And now this.”
“What do you need me to do? Go fetch Doc Burdett? Can’t you call him?”
“I tried. He’s with a patient who’s having some chemo complications.” She straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “You’re going to have to help me get this calf out.”
Anna stared at her. She’d seen movies where this had happened. Normally on the Hallmark Channel with Mom where the new vet in town met the set-in-his-ways farmer and it was all enemies-to-lovers by breakfast. Somehow, she figured, in reality, delivering a calf was going to be a whole lot messier.
“Okay.” She nodded, happy that she sounded calm when in fact she was terrified. This was life and death. This was too much trust. “So you want me to stroke her head and talk to her or something?”
“I brought Jezebel into this world. She can be feisty but she trusts me. She’ll need to see me to stay calm.” Anna stared at her. Oh hell no. “Don’t freak out,” Melissa continued, “but you’ve got the business end. I can talk you through it, but you’re going to have to do the work.”
For a long moment, Anna said nothing, dumb with disbelief. There was no way. It would go wrong. She’d do more harm than good. She wasn’t built for it. It was too much responsibility. A tornado of thoughts in her mind.
Outside, the sky streaked bloodred, the dying throes of the day, and shone back at her, reflected in Jezebel’s dark, pained eyes.
She touched the rough hide of the exhausted animal, the body heat carrying her pungent scent until it filled Anna’s lungs, and thought of the life struggling to get out and how whether she liked it or not that was on her now.
It made everything else in the day so meaningless.
A life desperate to come into the world. Maybe something she could save.
“I mean, I’ll show you a couple of YouTube videos, if that helps?” Melissa said, holding up her phone. “I’ve got one ready.”
They stared at each other and both grinned at the absurdity, Anna’s heart racing.
“Okay,” she said, planting her Converse firmly on the filthy floor. “Show me what I’ve got to do and then let’s get this baby out.”
It was hard and hot work, but as Jezebel, maybe realizing she was no longer alone in the task, pushed harder, it became clear that thankfully the calf wasn’t in full breech but only one front leg was in the wrong position.
When the sun set, Melissa turned on the pale barn lights and added the beam of her heavy flashlight, but by then Anna was stronger in her push-and-pull, trusting the mother and calf to work with her.
She’d taken her T-shirt off to scrub herself clean before she’d started and her skin was now slick with sweat, her bra soaking as she once more reached her greased arm into the soft, hot wetness of the cow.
Jezebel’s moans and grunts had faded, exhaustion overwhelming her, and just when Anna had thought they were nearly there, the cow had chosen to lie down, her legs no longer able to hold her up.
Anna hadn’t needed Melissa to tell her they were running out of time.
Anna concentrated harder as her hand worked to manipulate the calf.
She knew what she was feeling inside now, the baby taking shape in her mind’s eye as her fingers sketched it out.
She talked Melissa through everything she was touching and then carefully pushed the calf, eager to get out, farther back into the cow so she could grip the leg that wasn’t in the right position and pull it alongside the other.
She swore and grunted and battled on her knees in the mucus and blood and shit but didn’t once think about the thing or dead girls or anything other than what she was doing in that moment.
Mindfulness could go fuck itself, she thought as she felt the leg finally and carefully ease into position. Birthing cows was where it was at.
She twisted her head to look and gasped.
She could see the feet or hooves, or whatever they were called, glistening.
“It’s coming!” she said. “I think we’ve done it!
” As if in agreement, Jezebel’s abdomen contracted, and the feet pulsed a little farther out.
There was something else. Her heart leaped.
“I can see its tongue and nose! Right between the legs where it should be!” She started to laugh, the sound coming in joyful fits as tears pricked her eyes. “Come on, Jezebel. You can do it. We can do it!”
Melissa started laughing too, hurrying alongside Anna, and they grabbed one small hoof each, and as Jezebel contracted, they pulled, the three working in unison.
Within two or three pulls the hardest was done, and nature and gravity took over.
The calf, slick and wet, slid out, slopping onto the stall floor.
As Jezebel turned herself around to lick her baby clean, Anna and Melissa sat back on their hands, panting. It was good. For the first time in a long time, Anna felt really fucking good.