Birth of Katie’s baby
Katie is catching her breath, her “legs are shaking like willow branches”. Falling on the hay in the barn, she raises her knees. Katie concentrates on the Holsteins’ hides until “their black spots disappear and swim”. Katie sinks her teeth into her nightdress. There is a funnel of pressure resembling “the squeezing through the hole in the barbed wire fence”. Lying on “the stained hay” between her legs is a baby. The image of the baby’s birth gives an impression about the most difficult moment of Katie’s life.
The first seconds of life
When Katie loses her consciousness after birth, Sarah decides what to do with Katie’s baby. The baby’s “umbilical cord is purple”. Sarah’s hands are shaking, but she manages to reach “the old scissors”. They are “rusty and coated with bits of hay”. The cord severs in two thick snips and “begins spurting blood”. There is “the baby’s cry”. Sarah begs God to take away the baby. The image of Sarah’s act gives an impression about her insensible soul.
Evidence of murder
When Sarah comes to say goodbye to Ellie, she pulls from beneath her apron “a small packet wrapped in tissue paper”. Ellie thinks it is a gift, but it is “a pair of scissors”. They are “heavy and silver”. They are “polished clean”, but a small loop of twine is “dark and stiff with dried blood”. This is a pair of scissors which Sarah uses to cut the baby’s umbilical cord and possibly kill him. The image of evidence gives an awful and disgusting impression about Sarah Fisher.
