Muscle Testing

The healer told me to face north with my hands on my uterus and my feed spread apart.

"Say boy," she directed.

"Boy." I said.

"Say girl."

"Girl." I obeyed, noticing my body slightly tipping forward.

"It's a girl," she announced clapping her hands. But I remained skeptical.

And a few days later, after a day of contractions and a brief night of sweaty swaying to internal movements--punctuated by a push, I heard Chup say to me, "She's here. Your daughter."

And so sometimes, when no one is watching, I put my hands my jumpy uterus and I whisper to the north,

"Boy."

"Girl."

And my body tips the sound of the second.