A Selkie Story

Chapter Seventeen: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Mom and Dad decided to take an impromptu trip to Hawaii with Dad's Christmas bonus, and swung Evelyn and Grandpa right along with them, so I was stuck in Maine and, as Molly so wittingly put it,

"All alone with your wittle boyfwiend~!"

Thank heavens we were no longer in the same state as each other.

Andrei's klan had hosted the evening festivities at one of their homes, and we were just getting back to my place and I was complaining how brutally cold it was, when we encountered Frankie slinking her way through our ankles on the way in.

"What's up, girl? We haven't seen you since Thanksgiving, you're lookin' nice and big--" I dropped down to run my hand over her back, when I noticed Andrei frowning at the alley cat,

"Andrei, what's wrong?"

He hunched down and leaned over the cat, too, sniffing.

"Sammy, I think we're going to see little Frankies very soon."

I dropped my keys.

"What?!"

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It was almost midnight, and I was running around the kitchen like a chicken with its head chopped off.

Appetizing, I know.

We'd called the vet, but it had been almost eleven, and it was closed for the holidays. Andrei rattled off things to grab as he held a surprisingly calm Frankie in his lap, crisscross on the linoleum kitchen floor. Frankie, apparently, had deemed him a better midwife than myself. Thinking about it, rightfully so. I'd barely passed Anatomy 101.

Grabbing a big, shallow Amazon box from the recycling, a heating pad, old t-shirts from the rag closet, and a bunch of paper towels, I lined the box, laying the heating pad below the shirts and the paper towels on top of those, with a few extras on the side. Just in case.

He laid Frankie down in the box and turned the pad on low.

He searched something up on his phone, then read off another list of things for me to grab, and I ran to it.

Large plastic bag—I grabbed extras in case, dental floss, and scissors in hand, I laid them on a towel next to the box and sat crisscross next to him on the floor.

And promptly began to sneeze.

"Sammy, go take your medicine." He urged.

"But I don't want to fall asleep! I don't want you to help all by yourself!" I whined, a bit of wheedling in my tone.

He grinned, and pinched my cheek.

I scowled at him.

"We bought soda at the store this week, remember? Have one of those, too."

I sighed, nodded, and grabbed a Coke from the fridge. Popping a benadryl out of the package, I knocked it back with a swig of the Coke and almost choked.

Coughing, I leaned over the sink and held my palm over my nose and mouth. Soda burned going up the nose.

"Sammy?"

I waved my hand at him, gesturing I was fine, and took another sip, this time a bit more careful.

Sitting back down, I leaned against the cabinetry, soda in hand.

"The contractions have started." I heard Andrei whisper.

I looked down and saw a heaving Frankie, laying down on the heated section of the box.