Caeli Widger - Mother of Invention

The improvement was striking. Now, for example, Gwen had been asleep for almost two hours, getting the rest she desperately needed, while Tessa and Viv held and fed her babies.

The boy in Viv’s arms, whose name was Daniel, made a small mewling noise and opened his eyes.

“Hello, Danny boy,” said Viv, smiling down at him. The baby began a sputtering cry.

“Hungry again, already?” she said, and expertly maneuvered the Mammarina back into his mouth. Tessa watched him stretch his jaw and squirm before clamping onto the prosthetic nipple. After a few seconds, he relaxed and his body quieted again as he settled into nursing.

Viv turned her head to Tessa. “Amazes me, every time,” she said.

“Me, too,” said Tessa. From her lap, Gwen’s daughter, Alexis, gazed up at her. The baby’s bright brown eyes fastened on Tessa’s, roved away, and returned again. In the moments of eye contact, Tessa felt she alone was anchoring the tiny girl to the world. It gave her an expansive, giddy feeling in her chest, as if something were flowering inside her.

Then she caught sight of Gwen sleeping across the room and remembered: the baby was hers , not Tessa’s. And the flowering vanished.

Alexis wore matching socks and a hat striped with yellow and blue. Tessa gently lifted the hat off her head.

Viv caught her. “Are you checking again ?”

“Yes,” said Tessa, abashed.

“I don’t think it works that way,” said Viv. “I was born with mine. It didn’t suddenly appear.”

“I know that,” said Tessa. “It’s just heartening to see.” She appraised the baby’s head, ran her fingers lightly over the downy tufts of dark hair, then replaced the hat. Viv was right, of course: there was nothing beneath Alexis’s hair but smooth scalp and a standard fontanel, which Tessa had seen pulsing a few times, like a heartbeat, and she had irrationally worried the spot was going to cave inward. But it did not.

Daniel’s head was the same as his sister’s.

Rationally, Tessa understood the absence of clefts in the babies did not guarantee the normalcy of their development in the future. But it also wasn’t meaningless.

“I don’t want to go home,” said Viv softly.

“You don’t have to,” said Tessa. “You can stay here.”

“Without you? Really? That just seems strange.”

“Bonding Camp doesn’t end for another month. The Cohort will be there. They’d love to have you. You’d be so helpful.”

“I don’t know. The other two seem so… capable.”

Kate and LaTonya had each given birth to healthy babies five days ago, a girl and a boy, just hours apart. Both weighed nearly eight pounds; neither had a cleft.

“Trust me,” said Tessa, turning the baby around to the other side of her Mammarina. She was surprised at how easily she’d caught on to the delicate mechanics of handling a baby. The fragility of their bird-necks, their soft heads, the tiny, slippery bullets of their bodies, had always secretly repelled her. But now that she’d spent hours holding Alexis and Daniel, the little creatures seemed much sturdier than she’d imagined. Adjusting them in her arms felt less precarious every time. “There’ll be plenty for you to do. Think about it.”

Viv sighed. “Well, my parents already hate me for skipping my college graduation. Might as well let them keep on hating me.”

“They don’t hate you,” said Tessa. After Luke returned from the desert with Viv, she hadn’t wanted to return either to Weldon for graduation or to her parents’ house in Orange County. She wouldn’t tell Tessa where she’d been, only that she wished to remain within the secure confines of the Seahorse Center for a time. Please don’t ask me to talk about it, she’d said to Tessa of her time in the desert. Tessa agreed. She also agreed to let Weldon and Viv’s parents know that Viv had been hired by Seahorse to assist with an intensive new project.

In the meantime, Viv moved into a spare residential room in East Lobe. She allowed Dr. Gupta to conduct lengthy examinations. She allowed every sort of testing and analysis of her body: her vitals, bone density, muscle tone, reflexes… the list went on. During the day, she was Tessa’s shadow. Tessa introduced her to the staff as her summer intern. Viv went to meetings and helped with the Cohort and their babies: holding, rocking, feeding, swaddling. Despite her wrinkles and her limp, her energy was boundless. Gently, Tessa asked her if she’d like to dye her hair. Viv said yes, and Tessa invited her personal colorist to the Center.

At night, Dino or Michael, the Seahorse guards whom Tessa trusted most, stood watch outside Viv’s bedroom door. Viv hadn’t needed to ask. Tessa simply offered.

The Cohort loved Viv.

She was a natural with the babies. Tessa was impressed. Now, for example, Daniel had finished another Mammarina feeding and Viv had maneuvered him from her lap to upright on her shoulder and was patting his back.

Across the room, Gwen shifted in her bed, sighed, and then slowly sat up. She no longer winced when she moved, Tessa noticed. Her C-section incision was healing.

“Morning,” said Gwen, yawning as she pushed her long, loose hair behind her shoulders. It was the same salt-and-pepper shade Viv’s had been until her appointment with the colorist yesterday. “Or I guess it’s afternoon? I’ve lost all sense of time.”

“Early evening, actually,” said Tessa. “Almost dinnertime.”

“How can it possibly be so tranquil in here?” said Gwen. “Last I checked, I had twins . Are you two baby whisperers?”

On cue, Alexis began to cry. Tessa stood and brought her over to Gwen, transferring her carefully into her mother’s arms.

“Viv’s the baby whisperer,” said Tessa.

“Nah,” said Viv, “the Mammarina gets all the credit.”

“I still think it’s a creepy contraption,” said Gwen. “But I’ll take a little creepiness for the sake of sleep.”

“Daniel’s gained almost a pound now,” said Tessa. “He weighed five-fourteen today. It’s amazing.”

“Did he really? Or did the docs just swap in a substitute baby?” Gwen deadpanned, her tone cutting. She still had not fully absorbed the shock of delivering conjoined twins. Luke had formed an entire damage control team to manage the situation: an attorney, a psychologist, a neonatologist with specialization in rare births. In various professional language, they’d explained to Gwen that her twins had not been expected to survive. That, among other factors, maternal stress levels during pregnancy weighed significantly in determining whether the babies lived or died.

We knew you would survive, said the neonatologist. But the unique nature of your gestational term, in combination with the delicate status of the fetus, left us with a grueling decision…

You are entitled to deep anger, said the psychologist. It is a natural and healthy response to a highly unusual situation. At the same time, the twins themselves did not do anything wrong…

Page 28, Section A, Clause VI, said the lawyer. The Cohort Member relinquishes all rights to medical decisions made in support of the safety of herself and her child to the Seahorse Natal Staff.

At first, Gwen had wanted to speak only to Tessa. She’d been virtually incoherent with shock and confusion. Then the twins emerged from surgery, almost five pounds each and howling with need, and Gwen shifted. She was still angry, but her anger deferred to the urgent, wild demands of her babies.

At the moment, sipping guava juice as she cradled Alexis, Gwen did not look angry, Tessa thought.

Tessa’s own outrage at Luke’s decision had crossed over into something quieter. More contemplative. She was struck by the fact that he considered the Trial a win, that he was already meeting with his PR people to formulate a campaign. This campaign would launch after the Cohort and their babies completed their bonding period at the Center, announcing the triumph of TEAT and the impending availability of the Seahorse Solution to women everywhere.