Catherine

Part 2

When they got home, Laurie drank two full bottles of the formula. Catherine made a pallet for her on the living room rug using some soft throw blankets and the pillow set from the couch. She laughed at how natural of a mother she had become in just a matter of hours. She ate a little bit of leftover roast and washed the new baby blankets she had picked out. Laurie was quietly cooing in her new onesie, garishly silk screened with a cartoon stork holding a baby bundle in its mouth. Underneath the bird said, "Mommy's Little Surprise." How fitting, she thought. She couldn't have picked a better outfit for her little girl on her first full day at home.

It was around 6:30pm when the crying started and Catherine couldn't get her to calm down. She was not wanting any more formula and the pacifiers weren't working either. Her diaper was still clean. She decided to draw her a bath in the kitchen sink. Surely this was the problem. Maybe the salt water had irritated her skin. How bad of a mother she was for not bathing her sooner. Catherine picked her up from the rug and began to unwrap her from the blankets and to undo the snaps from the onesie when she noticed red bumps all over Laurie's legs and arms. Some had broken skin and blood had begun pooling around the sores. She considered chickenpox or measles, but after looking up the symptoms online she was left with no answers. None of them resembled the red sores on Laurie. She went ahead with the bath, hoping the warm water would give her some relief, and, surprisingly, it did. Laurie calmed down and her screams settled into choppy breaths. Catherine dressed her back into the onesie and set her down to sleep for the night in her makeshift crib.

After Catherine had put away the food, and gotten rid of the opened packaging from all of her grocery store finds, she sat on the couch and stared at her beautiful girl sleeping. She was still very worried about the spots but thought surely they would be gone by the morning. Surely it was the salt water. And not much longer after that, Catherine fell asleep as well.

She dreamt she had awoken on the couch to a loud knock on the door. It was the middle of the night and she called for Greg. No answer came. She shuffled her feet to the front door and looked into the peephole. Staring back at her was a large silk-screened cartoon bird eye.

"I've got a surpriiise for you, mommy!" said an animated voice from behind the door.

Excited, Catherine swung open the door to find the cartoon stork hovering over a red gift-wrapped box, flapping its wings so hard Catherine's hair was flying into her face and dust from the porch was in her eyes. She smiled at the stork and began ripping away at the wrapping paper; her eyes wide with curiosity. The top flaps of the box said "Little One's Rubber Nipples" and she could feel the bottom of the box was soggy and cold. The top was taped down but using just her hands she pulled back the flaps to reveal a box full to the top of orange, translucent rubber nipples.

"WHERE IS SHE?" She shouted at the stork, whose beak seemed to curve into a slight smile.

"WHERE IS MY LAURIE? WHERE IS MY LAURIE?"

And with that, the stork flew off into the night.

Catherine woke to Laurie's screams filling the beach house living room. Her heart still racing from her dream, she shot up and took her in her arms. She gave a louder squawking cry.

"It's ok, baby. You're fine. Mommy's got you."

Catherine had soaked through her shirt with sweat. She was sweating so much she could feel the baby blanket getting wet under her arms. She took Laurie with her up to the bedroom so she could change shirts and possibly calm her down in the process. She must be hungry, Catherine thought as she went up to her room. The blanket was getting wetter and wetter, and it wasn't until Catherine set Laurie down on her and Greg's bed that she noticed the blood all over the baby blanket. Checking herself, she only found a small stain on her shirt. She quickly unwrapped the baby finding sticky blood coating Laurie's legs, arms, and chest. Using her fingers she felt the sores. Each one was bleeding now and at the center of each was a sharp black hair. She took off her shirt and began wiping the blood off of Laurie's legs. The pressure on the hairs pulled at the baby's tender skin, causing the blood to flow faster. Laurie began screaming so heavy that her voice didn't sound human.