Baby Come Back

There is an overwhelming chill in the wind that has me floundering while trying to shut the car door. The snow bites and stings the exposed parts of my face as my scarf is tossed from side to side pulling against my throat. I cover what I can of my hands and head. I admit I was unprepared for this icy gale. I lose my footing a few times but manage to stay upright. This is becoming a workout just to reach the store. I can just make out the lights to the entrance and use them to guide me in. Snow is being thrown in force against the glass of the building. The gusts are suffocating me, my scarf is blinding, and my heart is racing. I can’t pull on this door fast enough. 

Ting-a-ling

The door opened with a small bell chiming from above. I stomped the snow from my boots on the rubber mat, wiped the snow from my eyes and looked out half-smiling relieved to be dry. I pull my hood down and looked from register to register. It is a small-town grocery store with only a few. Out of the four registers, only one cashier is here. I don’t see anyone else yet.  Looking left to right there are only eight aisles. The far left is where the refrigerated foods are. I’ll head there first.

I turn onto the cold, whirring aisle and the blinking lights put a heaviness in the pit of my stomach. Still haven’t seen anyone else. I want to be out of here before they close. I swallow the dry lump in the back of my throat and make my way to the milk. My hands are bright white, frigid, and trembling as I reach into the back of the shelf for even colder gallon. I can’t much feel the difference in temperature between my hands and the milk right now. I head back to the front to get a cart so I can warm up a bit. I walk back up to where the four registers are lined up. Scanning the room, I don’t see carts, weird. I’ll ask the-where’d that cashier go? I was near the cold section for a hot second. Meh, probably in the backroom. I continue to look for some sort of grocery carrier.

 Beneath each register is a small stack of hand baskets. I bend to reach one beneath the left-most register and see something down one of the aisles. I straighten up fast and squint to see further. Could be someone stocking shelves. Looks like a box in the middle of the aisle. A full breath escapes my lips and the eerie heaviness in my stomach vanished. I walk down the aisle to the box. Looks like there’s a clerk on his knees stocking soup. 

           “I’m so glad to see you, I thought maybe you were closing, haha” Why’d I laugh, it wasn’t funny. Bit unnerving more like. That’s not a clerk. It’s a cardboard cut-out of someone kneeling in the woods eating soup from a can and I’m an idiot. I shake my head and trek forth down the aisle for paper towels. As I reach the end of the lane, I can see the double swinging doors to the stockroom move.  My heart quickens and I proceed at a brisk pace. 

           “Excuse me, but I’m ready to check out and need…”.

Where did they go? Maybe they are in the restroom or on break or fixing the messed up electric system in aisle 1 no doubt leading to someone throwing up. Ok, that last one was oddly specific.

Small sounds, like a cat mewling, squeal from behind the swinging doors.

“huh”

Maybe a cat found its way in to hide from the blizzard. I listen closer to the door. Still think its an animal but maybe bigger than a cat. Could be a dog or maybe like an aardvark. Do aardvarks make sound? Shaking it off I move away from the door. But the squealing grows louder. Ok, I tap out. I will make my way to another store. I turn to leave, and the realization washes over me. The sound is a crying baby. My breath hitches in my throat. Ok, there must be someone back there. I wait a few minutes, calling down the corridor behind the doors.

           “Hey, is everything ok down there”? No responses. I will just head back there and if I get in trouble for being back there, I’ll just say I’m looking for the bathroom. I place my basket on the tile, propping open one side of the door. I’m shivering and my heart races in my chest and I step into the darkened hallway. There’s a vertical curtain of plastic strips hanging from the ceiling just beyond the doors, no doubt to keep the cold in. Which side tonight is anybody’s guess. Lights flick on and off in near strobe effects as I move toward the crying. I’d cry too kid, this is nuts. There’s not much in this hall. On the left it looks like a large cork board with a few papers on it. Too dim to see. On the right there are two doors. One is the restroom.  Damn, I really should. Ok, quick bathroom break, then onward.

           Toilet flushes, sink turns on, then off. Paper towel dispenser cranks and paper rips.

Exiting the bathroom, I peer through the door and it's still dark. I walk toward the next door.

The second door looks like an office. Also, where the crying is coming from. I hold my breath and creak open the door. It is a small office with a cluttered desk, an outdated monitor attached to the wall behind it, and a torn wheelie chair too big for the space. The crying turned to a light whimper and I followed it to beneath the desk. It was a baby wrapped in a winter blanket and mittens in a car seat. 

           “Heyyy lil guy, who do you belong to”?

I rocked the car seat back and forth while studying the desk for information. Minutes passed and I was hit with an instant stench.

           “Holy shit kid, what did you eat”?

There’s got to be someone here.

“Hello, anyone there? I found your baby and it really stinks. Anyone there”?

No parent, and no diaper bag. Can’t help much with the first part, but lucky for us, we are in a store. Clean diaper coming up. I unlatch the baby from his car seat and the smell intensified. 

           “Wow, this could knock a seagull off garbage pile”. I put my scarf around my nose and carried the stench bringer to the diaper aisle. 

           “Let’s see, these might fit you”. I opened the baby’s blanket and folded it so I could change him on it. I use my teeth to rip the bag of new diapers free and opened one up. Words were said, much wiping was done, and baby was restored to a fine scent.  While in the baby supply lane, I grabbed some ready-made formula and a bottle. Might as well run the gamut of baby care. An undetermined amount of time passed, and I found myself on the floor with the baby. We sat on a picnic blanket below the cardboard gentleman I found earlier. I ate from a can of soup while junior had his bottle. We bonded. This kid is a good listener.

           “I don’t know Baby, but if he was really interested, he’d call, dontcha think”?

Baby gurgles

           “Couldn’t have said it better. Cheers”. Clicked soup can to bottle.

“Ok, this is too long for you to be without your family. It’s been well over an hour. I don’t think anyone is coming back. I gotta call the police lil guy”.

I open my cell phone and tap 9, 1, 1.

           “Operator, what’s the address of your emergency”.

           “Oh, I’m not sure. I’ll see if I can see an address outside.”

I carry the baby to the windows that lined the front of the store.

I look through the frost and lingering ice. It looked as though the snow had lightened up a lot. I could see my car in the parking lot. I can see the sign to the Quick Shop and part of the address. But I see another car too. Its driver’s side door is open, that’s weird. 

           “Ok that’s all of the address I can see, It’s the Quick Shop down on County Rd. Yes, that’s the one. There’s been a baby abandoned here”

I look through other windows while on the phone. Trying to see why that car was left with the door open and, oh no! I speak with haste interrupt the operator

“I am looking in the parking lot, there is a red car running with the driver’s side door open. I can see boots underneath. I think someone is hurt”.

The operator stays on the phone with me. Its calm enough outside for me to check. I place the baby in the middle of the blanket and get my heavy coat back on.

I move with intention to the car and see a woman lying there. It was the cashier. 

           “There’s blood on her head and the car door. I can’t tell if she’s alive”

Please be alive, please be alive! I’m holding my breath as I check for hers. It’s not much, but she’s got shallow movement. 

Emergency response vehicles get to us fast. The crew check her vitals and I’m holding my breath. She reacts and acknowledges them. The worker gave me a thumbs up. All the air is expelled from my lungs at once and there is relief. They load her up into the back of the ambulance while another crew member asks me about the baby. When they checked the cashiers I.D. there was a picture of her holding him. They also found the base to the car seat buckled in the back seat of the woman’s car along with a diaper bag. The baby was hers. They placed him on her as she became more aware of her surroundings. She cried and said something I couldn’t hear to an officer. The crew secured the doors and they all drove off. The officer who was speaking to her came to me and said her name was Bonnie, her son’s name was Ben and she was grateful I found them both. I smiled and nodded then head back inside the store.  I wrote a brief note on receipt paper to Bonnie letting her know that her baby was A-Okay. Then described the contents of Ben’s diaper and left it with the diapers in the office I found him. I grabbed my basket of groceries and tossed the list of what I took and two twenties on the register before leaving.