Chapter eight in the series.
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March had finally come and gone and April was upon us. The weather was letting up in the low country but we were still getting more snow up at Basington and Matt said we could now expect the road to be deep in snow until at least the middle of May. So we all more or less continued with life and waited to see what would happen with our little group when the spring thaw opened up a way out for all of us. What would happen then?
It was no small matter of discussion among all of us. Matt couldn't hide the fact that he was worried about his potential legal problems should one of the girls go to the authorities about his 'hobby' and he was mostly worried about what Karen and Rebekah had planned. Ashley and I were just about ready to pop and the thought of having Matt going off to jail just as we were having our babies was pretty scary. Beth had started to show just a little and Claire missed her period at the end of March and we were all fairly certain that she'd be needing our maternity clothes soon enough.
Matt was off hunting one day when Ashley, Beth, Claire, and myself had an impromptu meeting in the kitchen about our possible future circumstances should Karen and Rebekah turn Matt into the police. We all knew the two holdout girls quite well after a winter together and we knew they'd never be able to just leave things alone if they went back to the world. Ashley and I had the most to lose and it was strange that Claire was the one who broached the idea of killing them. I was really shocked that quiet little Claire would think of such a thing! She rationalized the whole thing by saying that we had five children to think about.
"Hitler had his reasons for killing the Jews.", said our only male voice.
We were ashamed to find Matt had been in the mud room off the kitchen listening to our conspiracy unfold.
"I'd rather just go to jail then kill them. It's not like I'm all Mister Goody-Goody or anything, but murder just isn't anything I'll tolerate. I hope I'm clear on that? Other than that, well, that's up to you."
We all four nodded in agreement as Matt headed upstairs to take a hot shower. He was funny; he didn't want us conspiring to murder anyone, but he didn't want to stop us from conspiring all together! We were just getting into one of Beth's elaborate ideas when...
"Aaahnnngh!"
Did I say that?
"Ah....ngh!...shit!"
I looked down at my feet as my water broke and splashed onto the tiled floor and recognized the familiar pain of contractions. The three girls helped me to the bathroom shower when I told them I wanted a warm shower to relax me for what was to come anytime now. Ashley, herself expecting at any moment, became flushed from the exertion and stress of getting me to the bathroom and she had helped me into the shower when we all had another surprise.
Ashley looked at me with surprise, shock, and joy as we all heard her own water break and splash out into the shower pan. I looked down and saw the mixture of blood, fluid, and mucus swirling around the drain and then I hugged my little sister.
"I guess we'll both be Aunties now!"
I was really surprised by Ashley and how easy she'd made it look. The four of us had stripped down naked and were crowded into the shower comforting each other and being comforted by the others. It was kind of funny when Ashley and I found ourselves comforting Claire and Beth when they were crying for us! What really set off the day was when, after just an hour of labor, Ashley grabbed hold of one of the rails in the shower and squatted down with a contraction.
"Claire," who was right behind Ashley, "better catch the baby."
With such precious little ceremony did I become an Aunt to my first nephew, Michael. It was eight painful hours later when Ashley became an Aunt to Melissa's new sister Lauren. I will say that I was thrilled to see that Lauren had her father's hair and eyes and would be a counterpoint to my beautiful Melissa. After the lengthy and very painful labor I was content to leave Lauren to the girls and go to bed for the night.
The morning came early and I was up before dawn to answer the demands of my hungry little girl. I pulled open my robe and drew her to my breast and thrilled to having her so close to me. I was pleasantly surprised when Karen came into the room and quietly sat next to me and caressed Lauren's soft back.