Sheraton Academy: All Grown Up

I Shall Wait Nine Months

Rated: G. Warnings: pregnancy

I did not write the lullaby, it's a traditional Vienamese song.

"Oh, ow. Ow, ow, ow."

Mai Ly looked up at Josephine from where they sat beside each other on the couch, playing Mario Kart. Josephine dropped her controller and her kart came to a sudden stop as she clutched her stomach. Mai Ly didn't even bother to pause the game. One hand was immediately on Josephine's stomach, the other on the back of her neck.

"Josephine? What is wrong? What hurts?"

"She's kicking," Josephine smiled weakly. "She's kicking hard. It's like she's trying to beat me up."

Mai Ly gave a small smile back. "She is probably just stretching."

"I know. It was a joke."

Mai Ly leaned closer and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Josephine's mouth. Josephine grimaced and Mai Ly pulled back. The baby kicked again.

"Will you sing to her?" Josephine asked. "She likes your songs better than mine."

Mai Ly smiled. She gently rested her cheek on Josephine's stomach. The bottom was already poking out of her shirt, so she didn't have to pull it up very far.

The song was slow and lilting and a little eerie, one Mai Ly had sung many sleepless nights before. She'd translated it for Josephine the first time, but sang in her native Vietnamese:

O au o

The lights in Sai Gon are green and red,
The lamps in My Tho are bright and dim,
May you go home to read your books,
I shall wait nine months, I shall wait ten autumns...

Mai Ly's songs were always so sad and so full of longing, so different from the ones of animals and flowers Josephine had listened to growing up. But the point of a lullaby was to put someone to sleep, and defined only that way, Mai Ly's were the best.

Soon, the baby – they'd have to think of a name for her, Josephine was thinking something with flowers – calmed and curled up, and Josephine sighed in relief.

"Have you been thinking of any more names?" she asked softly, as if speaking too loud would urge the baby to start moving again.

"I like Lacey."

"Maybe for a middle name?" Josephine said. It was pretty, but she really wanted something to do with flowers.

"What were you thinking for a first?"

"I'm not sure," Josephine said. "A flower. I'd really like to name her after a flower."

They spent the next twenty minutes bouncing flower names back and forth, some serious suggestions like "Rose" and "Lily" and some more ridiculous ones like "Blackberry" and "Chrysanthemum."

"What about 'Faun?'" Josephine suddenly asked. The name struck her from out of nowhere, completely unrelated to any of the ones they were discussing.

"Faun Lacey? That sounds strange," Mai Ly said.

Josephine frowned. "Faun Lacey," she said, trying out the sounds on her tongue. "Faun Lacey. Fauna Lacey? Lacey Faun." She paused. "Lacey Faun," she repeated. She smiled. Mai Ly smiled back, bright and knowing.

"I like that," she whispered.

"Yeah," Josephine said. "Me, too."