莫理斯不安的坐著，他蹬著雙腳，整個人坐著椅子上往後斜靠在不平的方桌，面對著開著的大門。外頭大雨滂沱，雨水潑進了門檻。他盯著滴水的天花板，呼吸急促。 

根據雨量計上的紀錄，在諾裡部落已經整整下了三個禮拜的雨了！烏雲在部落的南邊山腰上集結成山的形狀，底部呈現深灰色，上層像是鳳凰羽毛的樣子，然後漸漸的往北邊移動，穿過村落。河面上的柳樹落葉並非只是下雨造成的。強風夾雜著雷電，有時甚至強到可以將給上游伐木所用的水車踏板給吹斷。當雨下的這樣久，苔蘚長滿了房子四邊的牆，佔據了樹的外皮，爬滿了石頭的表面；水蛭在泥濘裡蠕動，爬上了樵夫的腳指頭、小孩的膝蓋，一直到吸夠了血液整個身體像水棉脹起之後才會脫落。 

這嬰孩提早出世了！在這樣暴風雨裡，海蓮娜的尖叫聲加上雷電轟轟巨響使得莫理斯的呼吸更加急促了。莫理斯不允許進入產房，可是他忍不住將視線從漏雨的天花板上轉移到產房，從門的細縫中他可以看見海蓮娜胯下的陰影。海蓮娜的褥被隨著規律的產動已經吸滿了鮮血。接生婦坐在床沿握著海蓮娜的手，輕聲唱著： 

小小靈魂，變化無常，
在身體的陪伴下來到
這未知的藝術領域。
小小的你如此赤裸
溫暖且紅潤。 

莫裡斯閉上眼睛，他可以感覺到他的心跳。雨水混合著鮮血的味道讓他的肚子很難受。他試著摒住呼吸，當他強迫將一口空氣留在身體裡不吐出，他的胸膛往上提了一些，他的上手臂似乎漸漸脫離了他的身體，他必須繼續呼吸。雨水不斷的擊打著屋頂，海蓮娜的尖叫聲卻漸漸緩和了。有一個像是木頭燃燒的味道從產房裡飄出來。莫裡斯睜開眼睛，他看見海蓮娜最後的產動，小嬰孩從她胯下陰影中出現，但是這嬰孩似乎被一層像是氣球的透明的膜包住，他小小的手放在他的嘴裡，頭和雙腳好像擱在一個橢圓形的兩個焦點上。莫裡斯在之後從杜福斯教授那兒得知，這叫做「出生在胎膜裡」。這也是為什麼接生婦恭喜他有個好運氣的兒子。莫理斯將他取名為歐提斯。

Maurice leans his chair back against a crippled wooden table with his face facing the open door. The rain pours over the threshold into the cottage. He stares up at the leaking ceiling and breathes deeply.

Marked on the rain gauge, daily storms have been recorded for the past three weeks in Noris Brochi. Located in the southwest Britain, this town has been there since the Roman occupation. Noris brochi means “rain early”. Clouds gather in a mountain shape with a dark bottom and a feather-like top near Hurds Hill in the south of the town. They move across the town and flow toward the northern villages. Falling willow leaves and branches on the flooding river in front of Maurice’s cottage do not result from the rain alone. The storms come with lightning and thunder, and sometimes the wind is strong enough to break the blades of the waterwheel, which was set up for a sawmill at the upstream near the woods where the logging takes place. When it rains this much, moss starts growing on walls of houses, tree skins, rock surfaces. Leeches move in the mud, on loggers’ toes, on children’s knees, and suck their blood in until their bodies sponge up and fall off.

The baby came early. In such a storm, Helena’s shrieks accompanied with the thunder made Maurice breathe even deeper. Maurice was not allowed to go into the chamber. He couldn’t help himself from turning his eyes away from the leaking ceiling and peeping into the room where a small gap was left open and he could see a dark shadow under Helena’s crotch. The sheet under Helena’s thigh was seeping blood with the rhythms of her pushing. The midwife held Helena’s hand and chanted:

Sweet little soul, fickle,
Thy body's guest in close companionship,
Into what regions art thou coming now,
Thy little self so naked, florid and warm.

Maurice closed his eyes. He could feel his heart pumping. The smell of rain mixed with blood turned his stomach. He tried to hold his breath. When he did, his chest lifted a little, and his upper arms seemed slowly detach from his body. He had to continue breathing. The sound of the rain banging on the roof and Helena’s cries both faded. There was a smell of burning wood coming from the chamber. Maurice opened his eyes. He saw Helena’s last push and the baby followed, out from the dark shadow. But the baby seemed covered in a transparent membrane shaped like a balloon. The little arms lifted close to the mouth, and both the big head and two little feet were resting on the two polar of the ellipse. Later, Maurice learnt this from Professor Dufuse. It is called “being born in the caul”. That was also why the midwife congratulated him that he had got a baby boy with a good fortune. Maurice named the boy Otis.

**Painting:The Birth of the Virgin by Murillo