A Voice In The Night by Brian Matthews

was this. It was simply their life together, nurtured by her smile that revealed everything good inside her and the wonderful feel of her smallness tucked in close to his side.
    After Jeremy was solidly asleep, they slid into bed and lay silently in each other’s arms. Slowly he began to stroke her, sliding up both sides of her tiny frame to her hands. Then their fingers intertwined and he squeezed tight, while barely brushing her exquisite lips with his. He moved down across her chin and then to her swanlike neck, stopping at her tiny, perfect breasts. She released his fingers so that she could run her hands softly through his hair, happy that he loved her breasts so. She had been self-conscious about them until Luke. They had seemed to her a deficit, but he had convinced her otherwise.
    In fact, before Luke, she had thought of herself as only a little above-average-looking, flawed by her large mouth and imperfect nose. At times, she regarded herself as homely, even grotesque. But he had laughed when she first told him this. She would always remembered how he had pulled her out of bed by the hand and led her naked toward the hall mirror. He stood behind her and whispered into her ear. “This is a mirror. It works like this. See that girl? That’s you. It’s not some beautiful girl looking back at you. That’s how you look. Has anybody explained this before?”
    She had gone along with the joke. “Me? That’s me? Really? I am kind of beautiful.” Eileen turned to face him, glowing her childlike smile.
    “And when you do that , you’re almost too beautiful for me to bear.” She heard him nearly choke up from the emotion that had swept in on him. She saw that he meant it. She pranced back to bed with a happy feeling that she would bring back by remembering that sweet moment at the mirror. Or she would remember the times when she had caught him looking at her, a hint of surprise flitting across his face as though he were seeing her for the first time.
    Now they made love to each other with an ease and agonizing slowness born of familiarity. They knew when to excite each other, bringing themselves to a peak and then pausing just before the end. After a few of these stops she gasped, “Please. Now. Please!” Afterward they lay side-by-side, holding hands lightly, talking softly about small and unimportant things. It was a way for them to prolong their intimacy. Then, Eileen stiffened. “Oh! Gee, I think I’m having a contraction.” Luke jumped up. “Are you sure? You’re not due for what? Four weeks?”
    “Well, maybe making love started things off a little early. It’s okay. It’s nothing to worry about.” She knew intuitively that everything would be fine. “Nothing bad can happen now, remember?” He stopped pacing and helped her sit up. “Yeah, that’s right. I guess it’s gonna take a while to get used to that idea.” They packed a bag, called Margaret over to take care of Jeremy, and drove to the hospital. Sadie was born four hours later. She was perfect and strong. Luke and Eileen had their completed family now. Eileen couldn’t remember any labor pain.
    She’d had plenty of attention at the medical center, where the number of sick patients had dropped to zero. Maternity was the only department doing a brisk business, but the nurses and doctors felt almost superfluous. Deliveries were uneventful.
    Luke headed home in the early morning hours, the first time he’d been able to drive the Healey since all the security measures had taken over their lives. But faithfully, every week, he’d started it and Eileen’s car and let them run for a few minutes to keep them lubricated and the batteries charged. Now he luxuriated in the cool morning air and the early morning sun that swept over him in the open car. Its throaty exhaust growled agreeably and reminded him of the freedom-filled drives they used to take up to the Rhode Island beaches or to Nauset Beach on the Cape.
    Now they could decide to have