'Baby Blues'

'Baby Blues - Part 1'

Tina wrapped her frayed green scarf around her neck and tucked her chin against the brutal wind. She could feel the loose ends of her straight black hair whipping against her corduroy jacket. The original buttons had fallen off long ago so she held it closed over her bulging middle as best she could.

A contraction seized her, and Tina's stride faltered on the uneven ground of the abandoned trash-strewn lot until the pain passed. She only needed to reach the county hospital. They couldn't refuse her care there.

Her mother had always said March came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. Apparently her mother had been full of baloney. Today was April Fool's Day and boy did she fit that description! Tina was a damn fool, just like her absentee ex-boyfriend Steven. He'd sworn Tina wouldn't get pregnant if he pulled out in time. So much for coitus interruptus.

Tina hugged her distended abdomen - didn't matter, done was done. By the time she realized her situation it was too late to terminate the pregnancy. Not that she could have afforded it.

The growl of a big engine drew near until Tina could sense the vibration through the cold ground on the soles of her feet. It was a blur of tinted windows, streaming white exhaust and silver paint.

One of the windows rolled down, and an older man in a bright blue turban cleared his throat, 'Miss, would you care for a ride?'

Warm air poured from the inside of the fancy car. It was seductive. All the warnings of her youth about speaking with strangers cackled like magpies in the back of her head. Until another contraction almost made her knees buckle that is. Stranger danger be damned - Tina was desperate. Her nod and grimace of pain was enough answer.

When the driver unfolded from the sedan, he was tall and thin with long everything. Even his nose hung over his full mouth looking like a thin arrow to his impersonal smile.

Before she could second-guess her decision, Tina found herself situated on buttery soft leather. Vents on the car ceiling spewed enough warmth to make the chill spots on her face get pins and needles. Her body was taken by another wave of agony before she could relax. The baby's head felt like a one ton bowling ball in her crotch and wetness soaked her black cotton leggings.

Tina gasped in horror. No, no, no, no!

A cultured male voice, one that screamed of old money and places Tina would never see in her lifetime asked, 'Will you permit me to help you madam? It appears your child would prefer to enter this world earlier than you anticipated.'

Tina looked up into eyes so dark they were almost black. She couldn't tell the pupil from the iris. Long lashes brushed against the bottom of his eyebrows as he sat poised in his charcoal suit and red tie on the opposite row of seats. His skin was smooth, brown and ageless.

Between pants, Tina squinted then asked, "Are you a doctor?"

The gentleman knelt on the floorboard and spread her knees. A pang of alarm rippled through her when he withdrew a knife from an inner pocket and flipped it open. No time to think or protest before he slit the cloth on the inside of her ankle apart all the way to her inner thigh. The knife disappeared as fast as it had appeared, and he ripped the elastic knit with two efficient tugs.

A divider lowered and the turbaned driver took one glance at the situation then closed the one-way glass. Forward motion threw Tina into the seat back as the car accelerated. She became mortified until another contraction struck and then she was too absorbed with remembering she was a person at all - let alone what the word dignity meant. Tina's whole body clenched. In her head, she pictured her body clamped into the letter 'c' as more fluid, and a wet lump bumped into her left leg.

Shrill, fragile cries spilled from a toothless gaping mouth as the gentleman placed Tina's blood and mucous slimed infant against her still distended stomach. Without warning the gentleman yanked the front of her shirt down and tucked the mewling helpless thing against her uncovered breasts. Tiny fists struggled and flailed at her neck.

The gentleman pushed and massaged just below her navel, and more things came out. Moist things fell with wet plops. Blood covered hands tied the cord and cut it. Tina felt the interior lights of the car circle like water around a drain as she lost consciousness.

Tina woke in a sterile white room. A TV droned in the background. The sheets under her were cool and soft. All of her old clothes had vanished, replaced by a front-tie cotton robe. When Tina tried to push herself upright, she discovered her left wrist cuffed to the bedrail.

A nurse darted to the bed - silent. She was stone-faced as she checked the IV drip. The policeman who followed her inside the open doorway came to the foot of the hospital bed and asked, 'Where's the baby?'

Panic just about burst Tina's heart, her chest heaved, and the air felt too thick to breath.

'What do you mean? Who brought me here? Where's the man who helped me?'

Her eyes flicked from the policeman to the nurse and back to the uniform with his stupid pad of paper that told her nothing.

The policeman asked again, 'Where's the baby, ma'am? Tell us, so it has a chance, even if you don't want it we can find a good home for your child.'

Tina grabbed one side of her head and tangled her fingers in her black hair, "This can't be happening! I held her, I held my baby girl. She was awake.' Tina smacked the bed then rattled the side rail and yanked on her cuff until the sharp-edged metal bit into the bones of her wrist. 'Tell me! Answer me! How did I get here? What hospital is this?'

The nurse jogged into the hall on a mission and the policeman's demeanor changed as he finally answered, 'County General. Some EMT's returned from a run and found you propped up in a wheelchair outside - bloody and half-naked.'

Her eyes caught a flash of red on the television, and reporters chased a man with questions down courthouse steps. Tina's mouth went slack, and her free arm rose to point at the television, 'That's him! That's the man who helped me!'

When the nurse came jogging back, she had a capped syringe in her hand.

The sting of the needle brought a deadened reality. Before she succumbed to the drugs, Tina heard the policeman say, 'Transfer this lady to the Psych Ward or something. She just accused Senator Zandi of kidnapping her baby. That man's a war hero. Some psycho calling him a baby snatcher is the last thing he needs.'

The nurse sotto-whispered, 'That poor infant is probably dead in a dumpster somewhere.' She turned sad eyes on the bed before turning back to her night duties. Another lost soul on a day filled with disappointment and trickery.
What a shame really.

THE END