a new sensation

5:56 am. The alarm is going to sound in four minutes anyway, so I reach across and tell it not to bother. Then I roll over and nestle myself up against her back, my right arm encircling her shoulders. A warm sigh, and she shifts into the curve of my body. Several moments pass, during which we may be awake or still sleeping, and then she slowly moves away, rolling onto her back. As I snuggle closer, she guides my hand onto her swollen belly. The first sensation is the firmness of the small, warm bulge just below her navel. Then my spread palm feels the gentle flutter of her pulse, the easy rise and fall of her breath. Like an ear, my hand tunes these out, listening in its own way for a new feeling. A light push, just at the base of my thumb, a small but concentrated push.

"Did you feel that?"
"Yes."

We hold this tableau until there is another tiny thrust against my hand.

"Did you feel that one?"
"Yeah."

Someone is alive in there and growing stronger every day. I could have stayed there like that for hours.