Midwives

by Chris Bohjalian

so many other beliefs shatter when we grow up, I want to keep this one intact.

For Stephen Hastings and Bill Tanner, however, for Judge Howard Dorset, this trial was merely their job. It was, in fact, just one of the many jobs they would have in their lives. One more house for a home builder. One more flight for an airline pilot. One more baby for an obstetrician or a midwife. The stakes may have been high for my family, but for the men arguing about my mother’s character and capabilities, it was just another morning out of the office, another afternoon in court.

You can’t spend your entire life avoiding chance. It’s out there, it’s inescapable, it’s a part of the soul of the world. There are no sure things in this universe, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to try and live like there are! There’s

public defender, but we’re not. I kept hearing these words

I once read somewhere that work takes up as much time as you can give it. If you give a job thirty minutes, for example, you’ll do it in thirty minutes. But if you can give it an hour, it’ll take an hour.

Besides, my mother’s conviction would not bring back Charlotte Bedford. It would merely destroy a second woman.

I became an ob-gyn at least in part because a woman’s right to choose to have her baby at home was important to me, and I wanted to be sure there were always doctors on call who would support that decision.

He knew as well as anyone to whom revenge really belongs.