There was no one to help, nowhere to put the baby down. She had to do everything with one arm, while the other held the baby to her chest. The first night at the shelter, she hardly slept. She walked the baby so she wouldn’t cry. Her body was exhausted but her mind felt peaceful. There wasn’t time to think about herself anymore; the baby needed her every second. For a couple of days it rained so hard people got to stay inside the shelter all day. The children played while the women talked or sat on their cots, their faces haunted. Raina’s milk was in but the baby was fussy. One woman said, “It’s probably colic.” “What’s that?” she asked. No one knew exactly, but it was something babies got a lot. Raina called the clinic and made an appointment to see Dr. Ramirez the next afternoon. The baby was up most of the night. Raina held and nursed her, whispering to her as they lay on the bed. She could not stop looking at her baby’s face. She had never seen anything so beautiful.
