Jenna swaddled the newborn—a little girl—and laid her in the clear plastic bassinet next to her exhausted mother, who pressed her clenched fists against her lower belly, lines of pain on her face. It was Najida’s fifth child, so the cramps would be strong. “I’ll bring you some medicine for pain.”
As she walked back to the pharmacy, she saw Nahal, Lailoma, and Parwana peeking through the kitchen curtains at something that was going on outside, headscarves drawn over their faces.
“What is he doing?”
Jenna filled out the paperwork for two oxycodone and carried them, together with a glass of water and a stool softener, back to the mother’s bedside. “Swallow these. They will take some of that pain away.”
“Thank you.” The woman took the pills and drank.
“You have a beautiful baby daughter. Do you have a name for her?”
Najida glanced over at her new baby. “No. I have three daughters already. My husband wanted this one to be another son. He will be angry.”
The baby gazed around at her new world, sucking on one hand, blissfully unaware that she was a disappointment to her parents simply because she’d been born female.
The thought put an ache in Jenna’s chest.
She wanted to explain to the mother that it had been her husband’s sperm and not her egg that had determined the sex of their children but stopped herself. “Rest.”
Jenna walked back toward the kitchen hoping for some tea and found the three student midwives still staring out the window. “What is it?”
“Your brother is up on the wall.”
Jenna walked over, saw Derek standing atop the compound’s outer wall, looking to the south, tools in his hand. He pointed, said something she couldn’t hear.
“What is he doing?” Nahal asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Is he married?” Parwana asked.
Jenna was about to say she had no idea but caught herself. She was pretending to be his sister, after all. She guessed. “No, he’s not.”
With Farzad, Dawar, and a few others looking on, he straddled the wall and adjusted something. Jenna couldn’t see what it was from here.
She went to her room, slipped into her parka, and walked out back.
Under normal circumstances, she would never have gone outside in the presence of a group of men, but she had a chaperone now. Derek was her brother, after all.
“What are you doing up there, brother?” she asked in Dari.
He saw her, grinned. “Hey, sister. I’m installing security cameras. Farzad thought it would be a good idea.”
Jenna turned to Farzad. “Thank you.”
Derek acted like it had been Farzad’s idea, but she knew better. Somehow, Derek had talked Farzad into this.
Derek jumped to the snowy ground and walked over to her. “Do you have time to talk? We can sit in the Land Cruiser.”
There were three women in labor, but Marie was looking after them. None were close to delivering yet.
“I have a few minutes.”
She followed Derek to the Land Cruiser and climbed into the rear passenger seat.
Derek turned on the engine—and the heat. “You could sit up front, you know.”
“I suppose I could.” Respecting the culture here was her full-time job—if she wanted to help Afghan women. “You bought security cameras?”