The Maternity Ward, Redux

It was a different experience this time, for Elizabeth, and she wasn't sure how she felt. She was about to have the first child she didn't have some sort of biological connection to. Douglas held Shanequa's hand, as she worked to push the twins out. One that neither Elizabeth nor Douglas had a hand in fathering.

In one sense, she felt selfish expecting that. Moses was a great father to her white kids. So she should do her best to be a great mother to her black child. But still, she fretted.

After a long labor, even longer than Elizabeth's, it happened. The first child emerged: Sarah Jones. And then the second child emerged, the child that Douglas would have to help raise: Shalonda Lancaster. Elizabeth and Douglas's eyes met, and then each awkwardly averted, as Moses wheeled and dealed to ensure that the paperwork was done properly to avoid the truth of what happened today being acknowledged. In the eyes of everyone that day, Shanequa was a surrogate mother to Sarah.