5) Mother
Kana thought she'd grown familiar with fear at Tibbets Prison. She'd learned terror when her home was immolated by earthquakes and warheads. Uncertainty for the future came later, on the exodus out of Death Valley.
But as she let go of Red Lucy's hand, it was the silence that stopped her heart.
Arcade swaddled David in a blanket, but her son wasn't crying. Kana wailed at Arcade to stop as he clamped the umbilical cord - couldn't he see that he wasn't breathing?! - then it turned into a whimper as her friend turned David towards her. His chest was rising and falling, fast as any infant's should. His dark complexion was healthy under the drying amniotic fluid. He squirmed in Arcade's hands and she felt her heart give a tentative new beat.
"He's a quiet one," Red Lucy said, and the rest was silenced by Arcade's glare.
She heard it anyway. "Like his dad."
Kana sniffled as David's weight and warmth settled in her arms. David's squirming intensified, and she giggled as wrinkled eyelids cracked open, familiar dark eyes urging her to stop being a mess and start acting like a mother.
She guided blindly probing gums to her teat and smiled even as the tears fell.