Macedonia High

Newborn

     It was on the night of January 27th, 1971 when the mysterious newborn baby girl appeared out of thin air in a baby nursery at the local hospital of the scarce city of Tolliopis, Oregon. Nurse Ardeem came in the nursery after her five-minute coffee-break was over. She looked over at the cribs with quick and inattentive eyes. Thinking that all the cribs were empty, she was about to switch off the nursery's lights when she noticed the baby girl laying down in the crib at the very back of the room. Puzzlingly, she walked around the rest of the cribs until she was in front of the small, plastic bed were the baby layed.

    The baby girl was covered with the tiny hospital blanket and was resting motionlessly and quietly, unlike other newborns. If it wasn't for the soft, measured breaths showing on her chubby belly, she would have been considered dead. She had cotton-soft skin that was so pale it was almost white and ebony-black hair that stuck to her flatly on her orange-sized head. Her facial features were all tiny and defined; full red lips below a short and thin nose. The most remarkable feature in her face  though was her smothering light green eyes that had a faint, yet striking glow in them. The Nurse drew-back slightly, stunned by the starking beauty of the little girl who was looking at her with a boring expression as if the lady was just as dull as the wall behind her.

     "Hello there," the nurse cooed to her, "it looks like someone forgot about you, little one. Come on, let's bring you to your parents. They must be very impatient to see you." She tenderly moved the thin blanket covering her right wrist to see the bracelet containing her number and the room where she was delivered to identify her. But shockingly, it wasn't there.

      "That's strange," exclaimed the nurse, "you don't have your identity bracelet. You even look clean, too." The nurse had no other choice but picking her up and carrying her to the nurses' supervisor at the Birth and Children department.

     "Martha, are there any parents at the hospital who haven't received their baby from the nursery yet?" she asked worriedly. Martha left whatever she was doing at her desk and came over to the nurse.

      "No, Vicky, according to the information given to me, the last delivering mother received her child about a few minutes ago. Why did you ask?"

     "Well, I just came out of my break when I saw her in the nursery all by herself," she tilted and turned the baby girl for Martha to look at her. "And the weird thing is that she doesn't have the identity bracelet on her."

      "But that's impossible, all and every newborn baby at the hospital must have their identity bracelet. How could that be?" Martha tried to deny the case.

      "I don't know. Maybe we should tell the manager about it." Right after the nurse offered her suggestion, Martha bid it immediately. When the manager was informed, he made an announcement throughout the entire hospital building for a missing newborn baby. Minutes passed and yet there was no response. Other announcements were made but without progress.

      Dawn started to arise when the nurse caring for the baby had given up and decided it has been a long time away from her husband and she had already called him many times enough to burn anyone else's nerves.

      She asked for permission to take the baby home with her, declaring that since she was the one who found her, she was temporalirly responsible for taking care of her. But the nurse knew that her real excuse was that the baby's charm had rubbed-off on her and she felt a pang of guilt and selfishness to be with her for a longer time.

     She didn't own a proper car-seat in her car to place the newborn in so she had no other option but take a taxi to drive her and the baby home.

     It had been a very rainy and dark night with the dense clouds covering the stars for anyone to see clearly without the usage of man-made light generators. Luckily for both girls, the clouds and the rain have subsided and backed-off for the sun to rise without any barriers concealing its light rays from shining brightly through the city.