Beyond the Moon

Chapter 13

We went out and bought things for baby Salem, Molly and I. Elliott trusted us with everything while we stayed home.

"Babies grow quickly, so we'll get newborn sized onesies and then some bigger sizes?" Molly asked me.

"What? I don't know, can we even afford that?"

"He's going to need clothes to wear right?"

"Well yeah but..."

"This kid is like your niece, and he's got no dad so you gotta be there extra while Elliott is staying with us. We've got to give the best we can."

"I guess you're right." We got clothes of different sizes as suggested, and the rest of the essentials. Diapers, bottles, toys, things like that. There were a few more specific things that Elliott had actually prepared for, to my surprise.

"This everything?" I asked.

"I think so. If we need more we can come back in the morning can't we?"

"Yeah, I'd say so."

We went home, to find Elliott and her son both asleep on the bed. Salem was swaddled in a T-shirt. Molly insisted we move Salem to the makeshift crib we meticulously created out of blankets and a cardboard box. We knew that thing wouldn't work in a month or two, but it was all we had for the time being. As soon as Molly lifted him up, he began crying, waking Elliott up.

"I'm so sorry," Molly said, "I was just moving him to the box."

"No no you're fine, I shouldn't have let myself fall asleep with him on the bed."

"Everyone makes mistakes," Molly rocked Salem in an attempt to get him to stop crying, "I think he wants his mama."

"Come here boy," Elliott said as if she were talking to a puppy or a kitten, extending her arms to take the baby from my wife. She took him and rocked him until he slowly began to quiet down, "Mommy loves you." She kissed his forehead.

"Is it okay if we leave you two?" Molly asked, leaving our bags in the corner of the room.

"Yeah of course, it's getting late anyway." Elliott said, "you guys better get rest too."

"Okay. Feel free to come get me if you need anything, alright?"

"Thanks, good night. Good night Winnie."

"Good night you guys," Molly said. I didn't say anything. I found it difficult to form words.

"Salem makes me want a kid but severely not want one at the same time," Molly said to me.

"Yeah," was the only intelligent reply I had. And it was accurate. I loved Salem, but babies seemed to be such a pain.

I thought a lot about the idea of having children. I had such mixed feelings, because I wanted someone to pass things on to. I wanted to see smaller versions of me, or people who were somewhat parts of me, but I didn't want to hear them screaming and crying like babies do, or really a baby at all. And the way I saw Elliott lying on my floor, I didn't want to see anything like that ever again.