Early Bird

                  “She didn’t cry,” Will said, his voice unnaturally high-pitched. “When she was born. She didn’t cry. She didn’t make a sound.”

                  “Billy,” Norma said again, not having anything better.

                  “She was blue,” he said. “Not even blue. Gray.”

                  This is the worst feeling in the world, thought Norma. She didn’t know if she meant for her son or for herself.

                  She heard him gulp air, choke on it. He said, “The next few days are... They don’t know if she’s going to make it.”

                  “Maybe that would be for the best,” Norma said. She heard the words after they left her mouth. Maybe she only meant to think them, maybe she didn’t mean to say that sentence out loud, but now it was said, and she couldn’t take it back.

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