strands
  • Home
  • Competitions
    • Strands International Flash Fiction Competition >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Submit
    • Water - Short Story (May 31, 2017) >
      • Results
      • Important Dates
      • Rules
    • Fire - Short Story (Nov 30, 2016) >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Important Dates
  • Contact
  • Call for Submissions
  • Lit Sphere
    • Novels >
      • Mrs. Saville by Ted Morrissey
      • Shueli's Star by Anna Sujatha Mathai
    • Poetry
    • Visual Art
    • Short Fiction
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
Strands Publishers

LIT SPHERE

Ezine

Vessel

3/5/2021

2 Comments

 
Short Fiction ~ Sudha Balagopal
Honourable Mention, Strands International Flash Fiction Competition - 11strandspublishers.weebly.com/results.html ​


When the baby's heartbeat revs from the regular glug-glug-glop to a brisk dum-dum-dum on the monitor, when your contractions ride from dip to crest, a flurry of nurses prop your feet up on the stirrups.
            You wiggle trembly toes, legs drug-deadened, while fraught nurses trot in and out, trundling trolleys and  trays. You interlock frozen fingers while they discourse about the alarming pace of the fetal heart.
            Earlier they pierced you and injected Pitocin when your contractions didn't progress.They followed that with the stab of an epidural. The numbness leaves you spiritless.  And now, you're tired.
             So, so tired.
            “How are we doing?” the doctor asks. He's only checking on the foetus. “All set to deliver?”
             You think of the couple waiting outside, perhaps pacing the lobby, perhaps crossing and uncrossing their legs, perhaps reciting prayers, perhaps rocking a tiny car-seat that rests on the floor, perhaps checking and re-checking a carry bag of frills and fluffy toys.
              The doctor urges, “Almost there! Push. . .Puush. . . .Puuush.”
              You fall back, spent, and the nurses urge, “Push. . . Puush. . . Puuush.”
              One more hard heave, a strong squeeze, and she slithers out.
              It's the wah, wah, wah, wails that send spasms into your uterus. Squalls that slice, sharp, in your chest while everyone flits about, removing vessels, papers, monitors, machines and in that blur of activity, you catch a flash of tiny, flailing arms and floppy legs before she sails into wide-open arms.                                                                                                 They sweep her away even as you secrete bodily fluids, the room surrounded by odors of afterbirth.
            You extend your limp hands; a wasted reach. No one notices. No one congratulates you.
            Your fingers droop.
            Someone―a no-one-special―asks a perfunctory, “Are you okay?”
            You straighten and straighten the crumpled sheet over the contours of your now-empty belly.


~

​
                                                                                      
Picture


​Sudha Balagopal
's recent short fiction appears in Matchbook, Smokelong Quarterly, Split Lip Magazine, Pidgeonholes and Milk Candy Review among other journals. She is the author of a novel, A New Dawn. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and the Pushcart Prize and is listed in the Wigleaf top 50. More at 
www.sudhabalagopal.com

2 Comments
renu
3/5/2021 04:35:03 pm

Awww... beautifully captured & told about them who face this behaviour !!

Reply
Elizabeth Kral
3/6/2021 10:22:58 am

I pinch myself every time — I admire you.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Strands

    Fiction~Poetry~Translations~Reviews~Interviews~Visual Arts

    Archives

    October 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Competitions
    • Strands International Flash Fiction Competition >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Submit
    • Water - Short Story (May 31, 2017) >
      • Results
      • Important Dates
      • Rules
    • Fire - Short Story (Nov 30, 2016) >
      • Results
      • Competition Judge
      • Important Dates
  • Contact
  • Call for Submissions
  • Lit Sphere
    • Novels >
      • Mrs. Saville by Ted Morrissey
      • Shueli's Star by Anna Sujatha Mathai
    • Poetry
    • Visual Art
    • Short Fiction
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Reviews
    • Interviews