Upstairs is Cassandra cleaning the kitchen, making coffee and a bit to eat for the kids. Cassandra softly busy in the kitchen, Billy sitting with Joan in the sunny corner room, the kids hushed and talking among themselves in their room, and I with the stillness of no thinking in my head gazing out the window under the Bat flag at the greenish dome of city hall. It's early afternoon now. Knock on the door and in comes Claude and Helene with John Doss, way over 6 foot, a tower of a man with those huge gentle hands that by mere holding can take the panic from a hurt child. All of a sudden it seems we got the best.
Diggers start coming.
John Doss moves in from the crowded front room every now and again and kneels his huge person down to speak quietly to Joan as he feels with those giant hands across her belly for the baby within. Now the city has darkened for night, and Geary Street outside the window crawls alive with the homeward bound. The labor was becoming long, more than 24 hours now and the concentration of Joany's song had drawn the muscle lines tensed above her eyes pointing to a spot between them, slightly above them, and directly within. John Doss had a slightly worried look as his hands felt over her belly. He seemed to be trying to gauge the position.