The Baby Snatchers by Chris Taylor

She told me that she’d died.”
    Cynthia’s voice hitched. Tears filled her
eyes and ran slowly down her cheeks. Cam’s heart clenched with pain
and he wished he could make things easier, but the truth was, he
needed to know. “Did you get to see Josephine again?”
    His sister shook her head. “No. When I asked
if I could, the nurse told me it wouldn’t be wise. Apparently, by
the time they found her, Josephine had been…gone for a while. The
nurse told me she…didn’t look so good. She urged me to remember my
baby the way she’d been the night before—beautiful, tiny, perfect.
She said it would be better that way.”
    Cam pressed his lips together, thankful that
his sister had at least been spared the pain of seeing her baby
cold and dark and still in death. If the baby had been deprived of
oxygen for an extended length of time, she might even have turned
black. It happened sometimes and it wasn’t pretty. The nurse had
made the right decision.
    “I’m sure she was right,” Cam said, wanting
to reassure his sister. “This way, your memories of the time you
had with your beautiful baby remain perfect and untarnished for the
rest of your life.”
    Cam picked up his fork again and resumed
eating. He was relieved to see Cynthia do the same. It couldn’t be
easy to dig up the painful memories from that day, but she seemed
to be handling it, and for that, he was glad.
    “The same nurse gave me the card with the
details of the crematorium. I took it from her, not knowing what
else to do with it. I hadn’t even thought about disposing
of…Josephine’s remains. The nurse must have seen something in my
eyes because she reassured me the crematorium staff would know what
to do. All I had to do was contact them and they’d look after my
baby.”
    Cynthia looked up at him and gave a small
shrug, her expression filled with sadness. “That’s about it. You
found me not long after.”
    “You gave me the card and I called the
crematorium. It was all done very quickly and efficiently. I must
admit, it’s the first time I’d had to do something like that, so I
wasn’t quite sure what to expect, either.”
    Cynthia nodded. “I was still in a daze, but
I remember listening while you discussed the details with that man
at the funeral parlor. We chose a tiny white casket with white and
gold bows around the sides and a gold cross on the top.”
    Cam nodded and another wave of tears pricked
the back of his eyes. “It was beautiful, honey. Just like your
beautiful Josephine.”
    As Cam reached out to cup his sister’s
cheek, she gasped aloud on a sob. Her face crumpled and she buried
her face in her hands.
    “I didn’t even get to take a photo of her!”
she sobbed. “If only I’d had a phone! It didn’t even occur to me to
ask one of the other patients. I’d only just given birth to this
perfect, tiny person. I had no way of knowing it was the last time
I was going to see her.”
    Her tears now fell in earnest and Cam’s
heart broke at the sight of her pain. Pushing away from the table,
he closed the distance between them and pulled her upright so he
could hold her close. Her arms went around his waist and she buried
her face in his shirt.
    Her sobs were desolate and heartbreaking.
She cried like she’d never stop. The tears Cam had tried so hard to
hold back slowly ran down his cheeks. He tightened his arms around
her and let her weep. When at last her sobs quieted, he pressed a
gentle kiss against her hair.
    His little sister had been through so much
and she still had her whole life to live. He couldn’t help but pray
the toughest days were behind her and from that point on, she could
begin to look ahead. Georgie had told him time was the greatest of
healers and he knew she was right. He only hoped Cynthia would give
herself the time she needed and learn to accept the inevitability
of what had happened.
    It was a sad fact that SIDS sometimes
happened and nobody could explain why. Even still, he couldn’t