Infant in Aisle 23

Nathan should never have taken the manager job at the Save Right. He hated being the last one in the store. It was always kind of creepy but the blizzard tonight made things much worse.

Snow had been in the forecast but no one had expected this much. What had started as a light flurry was now whiteout conditions. Nathan had sent all the shoppers and employees home about an hour ago. He was required to stay, count up all the money in the safe, do a walk through and lock all the doors.

It wouldn't have been so bad except the blizzard had knocked out power. The emergency generator and lights still worked, but it was very dark compared to normal. Nathan had just locked up the upstairs office. He had started going through the aisles when he heard shrill, frantic, crying.

Nathan followed the sound to aisle 23. There, in the middle of the store, was an abandoned shopping cart with a baby's car seat in it. Who would forget their own kid?! Nathan wondered to himself as he cautiously approached. He looked down into the car seat.

A tiny infant, maybe a few days old was sitting wrapped up in a pink blanket with a matching bracelet on its little wrist. The band was made of the same material hospital bracelets are. She was too young to be alone! Nathan had to do something to get this girl help. It wasn't right to just ditch anyone's baby like that; what about the bracelet? It looked like it might have some useful information.

"Patient number: 1311666;" Nathan read aloud. "Gender: Female Surname: Jones. Date of Birth 11/13/2020." Why weren't the names of the parents listed? Something was really wrong here. This baby had been born today. Why would anyone take a kid out of the hospital and leave the tags still on? The date of birth and patient number...weren't numbers like 11 and 13 and 666 supposed to be bad luck or evil? Nathan scoffed at the idea. It was stupid to just run away from a child just because it had numbers on its tags that superstitious people didn't like.

Nathan had no experience with babies or items associated with them but he eventually got the carrier out of the cart. He looked into the now calm and staring eyes of its occupant. "I can't just call you nothing;" he said. "You're too cute...I think I'll call you Blair, after the Blair Witch Project. That sounds like a good name for a girl born on Friday the 13th...better than Jason Voorhees." Newly named Blair made delighted burbles and stuck one of her hands in her mouth. "I guess you approve;" Nathan said. "Allrighty then, Blair, we're going up to my special office and we're gonna call some people to get you home!"

It was extremely awkward carrying the car seat up the narrow stairs to the employee break room. Nathan sat the carrier on the only table near the store's landline. Just as he was about to dial, Blair began to fuss. Nathan stretched himself, and the chord as far as they would go and rocked her car seat.

"9-1-1 what is your emergency?" The operator asked. "Yeah, uh;" he said not sure how to continue. "I have a baby here with a hospital band. It looks like she's been abandoned." The operator, who was stuck in a routine asked. "Can you locate either of the child's parents or guardian?" Nathan sighed, trying not to get too aggitated. "I'm here alone in the Save Right in Morris, New York;" he said. "There's nobody here because of the blizzard!" Apparently the lady he was talking to was quite the stollid 'plow through it' type. "Is the infant healthy and alert?" Nathan looked over at Blair who was placidly waiving her arms and staring at the ceiling. "Yeah I guess;" he said. "She doesn't look hurt."

"EMS and police response time will be slightly delayed due to inclement weather. ETA is 30 minutes to an Hour."

"That long?!"

"EMS and police response--"

"Okay, okay!" He said "that's fine, I'll be here!"

Nathan knew he should stay on the line, but he was tired of doing yoga to talk and rock the car seat. He hung up the phone, Blair began to cry. Nathan undid the buckle and picked her up. "Oh no;" he said. "It's okay, sweetie." He gave the bulge where he assumed her diaper was a sniff. The blanket was dry and there was no poop smell. "I guess you're hungry then;" he said. "Well, good thing we have all your needs here in Save Right!" Nathan cringed a little on the inside. He'd only been working here for three months and already he sounded like an advertisement.

Back downstairs he grabbed a jar of formula, a baby bottle and rubber nipples. He got a water bottle and wrote a note reminding himself to pay for the borrowed items. It was lucky he had buckled Blair back in her car seat, she was wailing, red in the face and squirming so much she would've fallen if she wasn't restrained. "Allright little boo;" he said. "I'm making you a bottle. I haven't done it before so, hang tight."

He managed to get the formula can open but spilled a little when he was pealing the saftey seal. He diligently read the directions and mixed the right amount of powder and water into the bottle. Screwing the lid on, Nathan shook the bottle a little and tried to give the food to Blair.

Once she had given it a few sucks, Nathan let go of the bottle. Blair was too young to hold on by herself; the nipple slipped out of her mouth and the bottle landed on her tummy. She was getting upset again. Nathan quickly got Blair out of the car seat and held her this time. When she had drained her meal, Blair started to pull a face.

Is she smiling at me? Aww! Nathan thought to himself. Blair started crying a little. Nathan had been an only child, all his cousins were older, babies were a total mystery. Maybe Blair had gotten an air bubble. At a loss, he held her against his chest, bounced her slowly while patting her on the back. There was a single loud "BUHP!" followed by a stream of warm liquid flowing down Nathan's shoulder. He brought Blair up to get a look at her.

She gazed calmly off into space as she licked at the spit up on her lips. "You're lucky you're adorable;" he said. "I don't let people puke on my work clothes, usually." He got a paper towel from the dispenser and wetted it in the sink. Then he cleaned both of them as well as he could.

There was a sound of sirens coming from the parking lot. "Here comes help;" Nathan said. "Well, it's been fun kid." He buckled Blair back into the car seat and carried her out to the waiting first responders.

"What happens to her now?" Nathan asked Patrolman Eams, as the officer took his statement. "We scanned the Hospital Bracelet and talked to the staff there;" Eams said. "Apparently Baby Doe's mother, Valerie Jones, is a junkie with several arrests for prostitution. She checked out of the hospital as soon as the epidural wore off. Didn't even wait for the nurse to give her any post delivery care. Valerie never asked about the baby or anything." Nathan was shocked. "How did Blair--er--Baby Doe end up in my store?!" Patrolman Eams was decent enough to explain. "Surveillance video at the hospital shows Valerie getting into another man's car;" he said. "We think this guy is Valerie's pimp. After she got in his car, he goes into the maternity ward and comes out with a car seat presumably holding the baby. Our guess is the pimp came into the store to get somthing, the blizzard hit and he panics and leaves the kid inside."

That was awful, what a lousy start to life. "So what happens to Bl--I mean the baby now?" Nathan asked. "It's obvious the mother doesn't care about her child." Eams said. "The pimp probably planned on selling the kid to some pedophile. It's a good thing you called us. We'll probably turn Baby Doe over to the state and then she'll be placed in foster care."

It made Nathan sick to his own stomach that there were monsters evil enough to abuse somone like that. Blair deserved better, it wasn't her fault that she had been born to someone so heartless. A life in foster care didn't sound so good either. "Could I, uh, maybe adopt her?" Nathan asked suprising himself. Patrolman Eams had a little trouble being stoic but he managed to be professional. "I'm sure once she's gotten a medical exam, you could take that up with social services."

It took months of background checks, income verification, paperwork and visits from social workers but Nathan was finally able to adopt the baby. He was excited to see her again when her caseworker brought her in for their final meeting. "Now for the reccord what do you plan on naming this child?" The caseworker asked. "Blair Sabrina Goodwin." He figured if Blair was going to be his daughter, she might as well have the same last name.

After congratulations and farewells had been said, Nathan took his new child out to his car. Nathan was so happy, as he drove home, he promised to be the best dad Blair could ever have.