New England Review

No Others Before Me

31-2coverMaria Hummel’s short story “No Others Before Me” appeared in NER 31.2 (2010):

Laura’s labor was long and difficult, not because it was hard to squeeze the villagers out, but because several of them tried to climb back in. After their town finally collapsed into a mud of placental fluid around them, they sat in the muck, rubbing their skinny arms. They submitted to being prodded by the doctors and lay listlessly on the mattress while Laura and I cooed at them.

“Give them as much body contact as possible,” advised the nurse. So we spread them out like Christmas ornaments all over Laura’s naked belly and thighs. They curled. They sighed. Then finally one fellow reared his head and pronounced his new world cold and inhospitable. He told the others that they were being punished for exploiting their paradise in the womb.

“It’s okay, little guy,” Laura said, in a voice I had never heard before. It was gentle and singsong and full of authority. She guided the man toward her breasts. “It’s okay.

After a good feed, he revised his opinion and called out to his brethren about a land of milk and honey. Laura pulled the others to her and they waited their turn in a cranky huddle. 

“See?” she said to me, her eyes glistening with tears.

I nodded. I saw. They needed her. All that tugging and sucking. All those itty-bitty sounds. This was what my beautiful wife had wanted: to be everything to them. And my job was to make it possible for her.

I drove them home in three car-seats, each with eight snug pockets where the villagers rode and tossed their arms at their mama.

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2013 Honickman Book Prize Winner Maria Hummel

NER contributor Maria Hummel has received the 2013 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. Her manuscript House and Fire was chosen by this year’s guest judge, Fanny Howe. Howe will also write an introduction for Hummel’s book.

Maria Hummel’s poetry and fiction have appeared in NER, most recently in 31.2. Her story “No Others Before Me” and her essay “Kingdom of Dumpling” were featured on our site.

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Kingdom of Dumpling | By Maria Hummel

Maria Hummel

From the moment we enter the restaurant, I am craving the pop. I know it will be over too soon, and I am almost glad to wait for a table in this small, steamy room.

My five-year-old son is with me, climbing onto one of Kingdom of Dumpling’s ripped red seats, touching a soy sauce stain on the wall. He is a radiant child, all eyes and platinum hair. When the waitress comes, she smiles at him, as most people smile at him, with astonishment and pleasure.

We order shrimp and chive dumplings, onion pancake, farmer’s cucumbers. My son gleefully clatters his chopsticks, dropping three. When we moved to this mostly Chinese San Francisco neighborhood last year, he had just finished months of isolation from his bone marrow transplant. We were free! Why not step into a tiny, crammed joint and try something new? I had never eaten food like these glistening white pockets, pinched at the top by a cook’s fingertips. First they slid into my mouth, slick, whole, and then my teeth crushed down. The pop.

Artwork by the author’s son

At twenty, I dreaded my thirties. I knew I would dislike aging—who doesn’t? But I didn’t understand that I’d also face despair. My life of late has become so slippery, so full of uncertainties: how to pay our next rent, how to keep our health insurance, to find a permanent job. How to know whether the pink now blooming in my son’s cheeks comes from steam or fever, or what makes him still bleed inside. Once, I married a wonderful man. Once, I had a son. Then he fell ill, and we saved his life. But these days, I can’t find any signs that I am changing for the better.

The pop comes when the dumpling skin breaks. Juice, meat, and greens slide out, shocking my tongue. I swallow. I fumble for another one. Smoothness gives way to exquisite texture.

“Too hot,” my son says, pointing at his plate, so I cut his dumplings for him. He slurps the ragged pieces from his fingers. “Yum. More, please.”

He doesn’t know the pop yet. One day he could experience the sensation, but for now he knows only the taste of it and the taste is good.

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NER Digital is a creative writing series for the web. Maria Hummel’s recent poetry and prose have appeared in Poetry, Narrative, and The New York Times. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son.

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