An Arizona Thunderstorm

 

    The spring and summer wore on. There were fantastically hot days. Days that Beth, but not Jessie so much, were not really prepared for. It slowed her down. She spent many mornings sitting on the porch of Aunt Julia’s mobile watching Jessie work in the small kitchen garden. Often in the afternoon she would be sleeping in the hogan until the sun sank below the top of the hill to the west. Then she would rouse and wander into the house to confer with Julia about dinner.
    All the gifts for the child that had been brought by Aunt Sarah and her grandsons had been set up in the hogan in readiness. Beth often gazed upon these things in a mild state of amazement. Life certainly held some changes!
    The season of leafy greens was over. It was so hot. Now, he was growing beans, corn, and big hard squashes. Things went well. They had even had a few early ears of corn with dinner.
    One day Julia, Jessie and Beth with Honda made the trip into Winslow to visit the old man who bought gold from the Navajo. He was Navajo also but had lived in town for many decades. He had air conditioning in his house. They had a nice time feeling cool for an hour or so while they talked. Julia and he had known each other for many years.
    He weighed Jessie’s nugget and said he was surprised to see one of those these days, since the Navajo mines hadn’t been producing those lately. It was worth about a thousand dollars. So, Jessie made his first sale of gold, for cash. The old man, Peter Tso, strongly suggested that Jessie take some more time to explore John Chee’s old mine. On the way out of the door, Peter winked at Beth and patted her shoulder.
    Before they went home, they located Dr. Miller’s office, just to know where it was for later and then they had a nice late lunch at Mi Pueblo. Honda was left in charge of the pickup parked carefully in the shade. He was sitting there grinning at two boys who had stopped to talk to him, when they all returned to the pickup.
    One of Jessie’s projects that summer had been to bring power out to the hogan just for lights. They weren’t intending to cook out there or anything requiring a lot of power. He had to get some supplies, but it wasn’t a hard job. As a cabinet maker up in Washington Jessie had become very handy at making things. He had improved the hen house also, adding roosts for the girls and a better door. He also put some blocks under it to raise it up higher off the ground. The hens rewarded them with several eggs each day.
    When she was around six months into her pregnancy Beth called Dr. Mary Miller as Sarah had suggested and made an appointment to go see her. They got along well, and Beth could see why Sarah liked her so much. Dr. Miller talked about how traditional Navajo births were until rather recently experienced in the home surrounded by family and maybe a midwife or even a traditional medicine man if they felt he was needed. She said Beth could go to the hospital in town, Winslow, or they could have the birth in her office, or if Beth wanted to, she would come out to Julia’s place and assist there. Beth rather liked that idea but would make a final decision when she got closer to the delivery.
    That night, while they worked together in the kitchen, Julia explained a bit about Navajo culture and birth traditions. It surprised Beth to learn that Navajo traditional culture is matrilineal. The hogan belongs to the wife. When a young man married, he went to live with his wife’s people. As Dr. Miller said, the birth took place at home with the mother surrounded by family members. She stood or sat upright, leaning on a doorway, or holding onto a rope descending from the timbers of the ceiling. It also turned out that they didn’t do much preparation for the child before birth out of a superstitious anxiety about this being asking for trouble. But Aunt Sarah was a modern woman, she didn’t worry about such things.
    Finally, Beth thought it would be appropriate to have the birth at home with Dr. Miller assisting. Dr. Miller agreed and gave Beth her home number in case she went into labor at night. She said she would need enough time to drive out to the Chee’s, so to call early when it first started.
    Now, as everybody knows, babies choose their own time of birth. They love to do it in the small hours of the morning, the time of change, the time of deaths and births, when people are coming and leaving. Changing Woman watches over these events.
    As it happened, the last day of her pregnancy was a heavy stormy day. The air was close and damp. A storm was coming. Dark clouds approached from the west, passing over the nearby hillside. A wind sprung up. Random splatters of rain began to hit the windows of the house. Then rain just descended. A lot of rain, and it kept it up. Water puddled up in the yard between the house and hogan and in the driveway. Then water began to run down the driveway in small rivulets. Jessie stood at the window watching the water pool up and run downhill.
    Lying in bed Beth could hear thunder coming closer. She felt restless and thought maybe she had a low backache. Jessie spoke to her soothingly and it helped some. But soon she knew she had a backache, and she knew that was a sign of labor. Then she felt some tightening across the front of her belly. Jessie said, “we better let that doctor know to start heading this way.” Just then their light went out. So, in the dark they picked their way to Julia’s door and called Dr. Miller from her landline. She said she would get ready and start driving their direction immediately.
    The heavy rain continued. The storm was directly over them then. The thunder was deafening and lightning lit the room through the window frequently. Since the power was out, they had no way to even make a cup of tea. All Jessie and Julia could do was to sit with Beth. In a way they had a nice time together there in the storm. They had candlelight. It was rather cozy all considered.
    As Dr. Miller drove toward them that night, or early morning, she made it within a few miles of the Chee’s but there had been too much rain. There was an awful lot of water coming downhill and it filled up a dip in the roadway. She couldn't drive through it. She sat for an hour waiting to see if it would abate but it didn't. She was forced to give up. She drove home to Winslow through the storm. She had a mobile phone but couldn't even call the family as their phone was out too.
    Aunt Julia could see that Beth's time was approaching quickly. Beth said she would like to be sitting up. So, Julia brought her little utility stool into the living room, with some old towels and so on. She had been at several births and had had a couple of her own, so she knew what to expect. Beth moved to the stool. Jessie sat behind her on a kitchen chair so that he could hold her and support her. Beth became drowsy and fell into her labor. Time seemed to pass quickly to her, but not to the others. A couple of hours passed as the lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled.
    Suddenly Beth became alert. Julia noticed this and knelt on the floor in front of her. Her black eyes caught Beth’s blue ones. They gazed into each other, and the work was begun. Julia opened her mouth and almost hissed a long breath. Beth copied her. They breathed together many times.
    So, it happened that Julia Marie Nez was born during a wild thunderstorm at home with Aunt Julia presiding and Jessie supporting Beth during her labor with his strong hands on her shoulders.

    As the sun came up, the thunder rumbled away to the east, the wind quieted down and all was peace.

So far...They haven't taken my phone yet.docx