Summary

In “An Early Labor Day,” Mia is in labor, and she and Oliver are stuck by a drawbridge. They are worried about getting to the hospital on time but also about missing being able to watch Mia’s sister play in the Olympics that day on television. Mia decides she could always watch the game on her phone. She thinks about how the summer people in their Maine town find drawbridges to be romantic and that they believe they help them to slow down, but for locals they pose numerous problems. Oliver and Mia get to the hospital, and Mia is hesitant about the pain she will face, but she remembers “her mother‘s resilience, her sister‘s stamina” (4). She tells the nurse her sister is playing in the Olympics.

Cricket feels like she is always just waiting for a parking spot while she...