Silver Linings by Millie Gray Page A

always appeared to be so self-assured, seemed to be in an even greater panic than Kitty. Gazing down on the woman, who was obviously in need of urgent medical attention, all she could do was mumble, ‘Oh. Oh. Oh.’
    ‘Mrs … I don’t know your name but I’m Kitty and this is Connie,’ Kitty stuttered whilst grabbing hold of Connie’s hand to make sure she didn’t run away and leave her. ‘We both live upstairs. Are you able to tell us what is wrong with you?’
    ‘I’m not due for another month …’ The woman gasped. ‘My man, Sergeant Fred Ferguson, is in the Air Force over in Pitreavie. No due leave until the weekend.’
    ‘And what’s your name?’ Kitty pleaded.
    ‘D-o-o-o-r-a …’ was the whimpered, stuttered reply.
    Overwhelmed by anxiety, Connie gulped before wriggling free from Kitty’s grip. Leaning backwards she then murmured, ‘Kitty, I don’t … No, I just don’t …’
    ‘Don’t what?’ Kitty hissed through gritted teeth.
    ‘Know how babies get themselves … born.’
    ‘But you must have some experience.’
    ‘No, I haven’t. You see, the only birth I was ever at was my own!’
    Kitty’s instinct was now to rise up off the floor and flee down Restalrig Road and get a midwife to come up and deliver the baby. But just then the tenement was shaken violently by more bombs exploding. These noises were still reverberating and terrifying everybody in the room, especially the children, when directly above them pandemonium in the form of several dogfighting aeroplanes added to everybody’s anxiety.
    Kitty reluctantly concluded that the only thing that should be done right now was for her to grab the children and flee to the probable safety of the shelters. She was just about to carry out her plan when a shriek from Dora stopped her dead in her tracks. It was then Kitty heard Connie say, ‘Come on, Kitty, we can’t leave her so we will just have to roll up our sleeves and do what we can.’
    All Kitty could say in reply was to mumble, ‘B-b-b-b-b-b,’ until Connie slapped her hard on the back. ‘Your mother had children so you must have an idea of how they get themselves into this world. And I’m told that, nowadays, you get a lesson on it before you leave school.’
    ‘A lesson on it before you leave school, Connie?’ Kitty sniggered. ‘Well let me tell you, the dried-up old spinster of a teacher who took the lesson began by saying, “When you bath a baby the two things that you must have are a bath and a baby!” And as to her knowing anything about the facts of life … it was all a mystery to her and always would be!’
    ‘Oh,’ was all Connie could say as Dora let out another howl.
    Kitty’s eyes were now bulging and her head was rocking slowly from side to side. She wanted to shout that the only birth she had anything to do with, forby her own, was Rosebud’s. Then a supposedly fully trained midwife had made such a mess of bringing her into the world that her mother had bled to death. Thinking of her mother and how she had been so badly let down had Kitty resolve there and then that, ignorant as she was, she could not leave this woman and therefore she would have to offer her any assistance she could.
    Springing immediately into action, Kitty firstly ordered Connie to get the kettle and pots filled with water and then to put them on the stove to boil. Kitty wasn’t sure why she would need hot water but it seemed that was one of the most important things you must have when someone was in labour. She then helped Dora to get up off the floor, and with the assistance of Connie, they placed her into a big easy chair.
    Dora Ferguson turned out to be a model patient but when Kitty had to kneel down in front of Dora to look between her legs she nearly fainted. There in front of her was a huge gaping hole like that of a large fish’s head. Like a fish it appeared to be gulping, dilating, contracting, and then, out of the blue, the hole was filled by a round hairy ball. How on