His Happy Daughter

Day Three

David regretted such a night. He bedded a woman he hardly knew. How could have done such a thing?! He was a constable, for fuck sake! If it ever gets out that he slept with a resident due to a drunken night? And that the resident was now pregnant? He would be killed. He would be disgraced. Everyone in town would know how horrible of a person he was. He was lying in his bed, thinking about how he needs to go about this. Kill the mother now? Kill the baby when it's born? His thinking was interrupted when a knock came to his front door. Who was knocking at his front door at 3 am? He begrudgingly stood up, and slowly made his way to the front door of his one floor home.

  It was the woman. She held something in her arms, tears streaming down her face. "Constable, please..." her voice was low, her looks were atrocious; she didn't have her mask on, and her hair was a sweaty mess atop her head. Hale's face contorted once two realizations hit him. The thing in the woman's hands was a child. A child. The other realization, he verbalized to her. "You're off your joy." He felt the need for his job to go forth. Not only is she breaking curfew, but she also bared a child, and was off her joy. Three laws in one moment, and he was the reason for all three. She shoved the child into Constable Hale's arms, and gave out a "Please care for her. I haven't named her." She panicked. Another constable spotted the two, and blew his whistle. "Please, please give her the life that we fail to have! Protect her, don't let her get hurt!" The woman gave out a gasp of pain as her blood splashed upon Hale and the child in his arms.

  Constable Hale was in shock. There wasn't anything he could do but to just stare. Stare at what had happened, what he was left with. The woman's body rested lifeless on his front doorstep. Hale has seen a bunch of courses in his time as a constable, but this one... it was different. "Hale- are you okay? What did she give you?" Another Constable came close, reaching his hand out to grab the blanket the little girl was bundled in. Without thinking, constable Hale recoiled, looking at his fellow constable. "Nothing. Just a basket. I was going to look through and throw it out." Constable Hale lied. "Alright. Sorry to be a bother. Good night." The other constable tilted his hat before leaving the house. Constable Hale closed the door and took a deep breath. He didn't know what to do. Just holding the child in his arms was breaking the rules, he lied about her, too. He was already too far deep in it. He looked down at the girl sleeping peacefully in his hand, sleeping peacefully through her mother's death. He held her close, the fear of braking all of these laws running through his mind. How could he? How could he do something so dangerous?

  He moved the blanket a little, showing the baby's full face. "Darling..." his voice was hushed, barely a whisper. Her face was so calm. Her hair was a light brown, her cheeks were a rose colour, as her skin was a fair white. She was wrapped up in a huge pink blanket, as she slept. Constable Hale glanced out the window as others took care and cleared away the corpse of the little girl's mother, he could only imagine what the news article would say she was up to. He glanced back down at the little girl as she stirred in her blanket. "Shh shh shh." His voice was low as he lightly patted her back, slowly rocking her back and forth. There wasn't a hand book on how to care for a child, there hasn't been children in years. So how the hell will he be able to take care of her?

 

  Constable Hale hasn't cried before. But he's also never felt such pain and anguish before. He quietly sobbed into his hands, thinking about the loss he just dealt with. How could he have been so careless? How could Rosemary have been so careless? He had to think of something, fast, a way to save his little girl before something terrible happens. He recomposed himself, and opened the drawer, grabbing the pill bottles. Looking at the pills, he sighed softly. "I don't want these." He spoke before thinking of some sort of plan. "But... I need to take them, so I'm not suspected." He paced the room softly. "Being in a good mood can help me think better and worry less, right? My mind won't be as clear as it currently is, but it'll be worth it if I can just get to Rose. We've got to start a new life, in another country, England isn't safe for a little kid." He looked at the closet that stood as tall as him in his room. "Where would we go?" He quirried, putting his pills back on the nightstand.

  He opened the closet doors, and dug past his clothes, and grabbed a box on the bottom of the closet, and opened it up. There were photos of him when he was a child but the one photo he was looking for was the one of his mother. He finally found the photo, and just studied her face, her smile. A flood of emotion and memories came back to him as he looked at how happy she was.

   "David, darling! Come here!" "Hi, Mum." "Cheer up, my lovely, what's wrong?" "The stupid kid across the street shoved me and got my trousers muddy." "Oh, darling, I'm sorry about that. I'll tell you what, once mummy makes enough money, we can go to a better place. I heard that Ireland is a nice place to live in the summer. Now come, let's have a cuppa, okay?"

   "Oh, mother. You were far too young. Don't worry, I'll save Rosemary. I'll make sure she lives a good life. It's taken me too long to do so." He stood up, and tucked the photo into his pocket, before grabbing a satchel, shoving the pills into the satchel. He went into Rosemary's room, and felt tears swell in his eyes, looking at the drawings she had left on the floor. It was a drawing of him and her holding hands. He picked up the drawing and folded it, putting it into his pocket with the photo of his mum. He took a deep breath, and grabbed the pink blanket off of her bed, shoving it into his satchel. There was a quick knock at his door, and he made his way down stairs. "Good morning, Constable Hale." The constable at the door tipped his hat. "Morning, constable Sawyer." Hale bowed softly, not having his own hat on.

  "We've locked away the child." Constable Sawyer spoke, as if hearing something like that would cheer up Hale. "Ah, wonderful. I fear what she could have done to my home. Eh- is she being held in the main prison?" Hale asked. "My, do you want to give her an earful?" Constable Sawyer winked. "Yeah, that's it." Hale nodded, clearing his throat. "Something seems... off about you, Hale. Are you okay?" Sawyer asked. "Yes, I'm fine. The thought of a child in my home spooked me so badly, I didn't sleep a wink. I've yet to even take my joy today. I was just about to do that before you knocked, actually." Hale lied. "Ah, I'll leave you to it. We'll see you back at work tomorrow." And Constable Sawyer left the house. Hale closed the door, trying to think how he's going to be a constable and save his daughter at the same time.

  Some things in life are worth the risk. Besides, once he gets her back, he doesn't have to be a constable anymore. He took a deep breath before popping a blackberry pill into his mouth, and feeling his emotions take a positive turn. "Don't worry, Rosemary. I'm coming to save you." He put on his mask, and closed the door, leaving his house for the very last time.