'You can pick her up,' Marion said. 'Just be careful with her head, support it with your hand.' Ruby was squirming in the hospital basinet, just 22 hours old. I'd rushed to the hospital after school, as soon as I'd heard the news. I'd felt nervous reaching down and putting my hands around Ruby. When I picked her up she felt floppy and light. I moved my right hand, supporting her neck while I cradled her in my arms, like I'd seen in the movies.
Her eyes were only open slightly, and both of her hands were curled up beside her ears. Her face looked squishy, she had a crease at either side of her head and she had a little blue-purple mark above one of her eyelids, like a tiny bruise. She poked her little tongue out and boxed her hands back and forth, twice, three times.
'She's amazing,' I said, almost breathless.
My sister was hooked up to a drip. She'd had an emergency cesarean. She looked worn out.
Ruby made faint noises, a cross between a cat meowing to come inside and seagulls at the beach squawking for leftovers.
'She has hair,' I said. I didn't expect her to have hair. It was dark and straight and flat.
Ruby blinked her eyes, slowly, like she was about to fall asleep, or was just about to wake up. She was somewhere in between.
'She can't see much yet,' my sister said, 'her vision is fuzzy.'
'Really?' I wondered what she saw of me.
'Sylvie, I haven't really slept. Would you mind staying for a bit, while I see if I can have a rest? Lachlan will probably be here in an hour or so.'
'Absolutely.' I was pleased I could be of some help.
'You can watch the television,' Marion said.
'That's okay, I think I will just sit here.'
Marion pushed a button and lowered her hospital bed and closed her eyes. Ruby licked her lips and thrust her hands around again. Her movements were jerky and random. She yawned, squeezing her eyes together. I pulled her yellow blanket up to her chin, to keep her warm.
Her 'meows' slowly faded away and her face relaxed, her eyes closed and her lips pursed together. She fell asleep slowly. I didn't move a muscle. Even when my arm felt numb and tingly, I remained perfectly still.
I watched Ruby as she slept. She wasn't even a day old. The day before, she'd been in Marion's tummy. Now she was out in the world. Amazing how our bodies are designed to create more little bodies. Whoever designed us, surely was the greatest designer of all.
Ruby was so fresh, she didn't even have a microchip yet. Her chest was rising and falling as she breathed. She didn't have any eyelashes yet, but she had faint blonde eyebrows and her fingernails were perfectly shaped.
'I'm Aunty Sylvie,' I thought to myself, feeling grown up. I thought about my own aunties and uncles and how they seemed so old to me when I was a kid. And there I was now, an aunty to Ruby.
My sister fell asleep too. I felt privileged to be there, to have an hour of my niece's first day, holding her. Gentle, happy tears painted streaks down my cheeks.