"Robert Reed - The Children's Crusade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

unborn child. And as I mentioned, it had been a wondrously easy pregnancy. Hanna has never been a
person who suffers pain well or relishes watching her body deformed beyond all recognition. But save for
some minor aches and the persistent heartburn, it had been a golden eight-plus months, and that's
probably why Hanna didn't hear anything alarming in that very simple question.

"A cold?" she said. Then she glanced in my direction, shrugging. "Just a little one. There and gone in a
couple days. Wasn't it, Wes?"

I looked at our doctor.

I said, "Just a few sniffles."

"Well," our doctor replied. Then she glanced at her aide, the two of them conversing on some private
channel.

Finally, almost grudgingly, Hanna grew worried, taking a deep breath and staring down at her
enormously swollen belly.

Seeing her concern, I felt a little more at ease.

Someone had to be.

Then our doctor put on a confident face, and a lifetime of experience was brought to bear. "Well," she
said again, her voice acquiring a motherly poise. "There is a chance, just a chance, that this bug wasn't a
cold virus. And since the baby could be in some dangerтАФ"

"Oh, God," Hanna whimpered.

"I think we need to consider a C-section. Just to be very much on the safe side."

"God," my wife moaned.

My temporary sense of wellbeing was obliterated. With a gasp, I asked, "What virus? What chance?"

"A C-section?" Hanna blurted. "God, when?"

The doctor looked only at her. "Now," she answered. And then with an authoritarian nod of the head,
she added, "And we really should do it here."

"Not at the hospital?" Hanna muttered.

"Time is critical," the doctor cautioned. "If this happens to be a strain of the IrrawaddyтАФ"

"Oh, shitтАФ"

"I know. It sounds bad. But even if that bug is the culprit, you're so far along in the pregnancy, and you
have a girl, and the girls seem to weather this disease better than the boysтАФ"

"What chance?" I blurted. "What are we talking about here?"