Due Date

A stillness settled over the morning as the relentless night winds somewhat reluctantly subsided. The third shift nurses at the maternity hospital were gathered outside before the end of their shift, smoking cigarettes and feeling the first feather-like touches of the rising sun on their faces. There were only three of them, the staffing levels having been depleted once the private equity fund had been allowed to purchase the hospital and all of the other ones around it as well.

The three nurses stood smoking, facing eastward, Jim, Susan and Heavenly. They contemplated their own futures, in the short term as well as the vast, hazy and somewhat menacing expanse of the rest of their lives. They were relatively young, Jim and Susan at least, being born in Minnesota during the late 1990’s. Heavenly was a bit older, mid 40’s, born in Sierra Leone but living in Nigeria most of her life before emigrating to the Midwest. Susan carried a baby monitor with her and she turned up the volume to make sure that they weren’t missing anything as she lit up another smoke. They all knew that their own jobs would someday soon most likely come to an end as the new subsidiary company Xtremely Good Birthing Solutions replaced them all with computers and robots.

The company had run a trial down at a rural legacy hospital in a remote rural part of northern Alabama and only two infants had died. So, although there was some kinks to get worked out eventually, the company considered it enough of a success to make plans for a regional launch some time in the near future. The sales team, which outnumbered the medical staff 5:1, was still working out the details of the sponsorships and partner agreements. Emfamil, Pedialite, Similac were all 100% committed to the project. Amazon and Meta were negotiating for higher margins and the investors were pressuring for a deal to get done soon so that they could be up and running and charging the providers for contact-less births before the beginning of the summer.

The uninterrupted low hum on the Fisher Price walkie-talkie that Nurse Susan carried in her pocket indicated that all of the newborns and their moms were still asleep. The nurses had lowered all of the shades and closed the blinds tight before stepping outside, so that no one would be awoken by the rising sun. Jim thought about what he would have for breakfast when he arrived home. His husband, also named Jim, always got up and got their daughter ready for school while preparing a nice meal for when Nurse Jim got home from work, and Teacher Jim left for work, dropping off their daughter at their school along the way.

Nurse Heavenly had a big family to take care of when she got home, including her elderly mother, so, for her, going home was like going to another job. She sometimes accepted the thought of automation at the maternity hospital as perhaps that would give her a chance to rest. She could just sit at a desk and watch the babies being born, much like the grocery store employees who stand around the self-checkout lanes, their new responsibilities being no more than entering a code into the touchscreen when an error occurred.

Susan didn’t give a fuck about what came next. She was going to go home, maybe stop and buy a frozen burrito and some more smokes at the gas station before heading home and watching TV til she fell asleep on the couch. She liked working at the hospital.