Dawn to Dusk
Ch. 1 Discovery
One morning, a while ago, an elderly woman wakes for the day. She makes her morning coffee to wake herself up. She feels rather strange; like something is different. As she walks around her house, to see what has changed, she starts to feel a little bit better. Upon entering her laundry room and uneasy feeling arises when her eyes set themselves on her cracked door. "What is going on here?" she whispers the question to herself.
She grabs a wrench from behind her drier. It's dusty because she has kept it there for years in the case that something like this should happen.
She slips to the wall without a sound and cracks the door open very slowly. Peaking around the corner she sees no one is there. She creeps down a few steps before her foot hits something. She jumps back, startled.
"What have we here?" she inspects. It's a carrier with a baby in it. The baby's eyes are looking directly at her. The hazel gaze captures the woman. After a few moments of amazement in what she has found, she decides to take the baby inside.
She carefully grasps and lifts the carrier. Afraid the baby will cry if the movement is too swift, she transports the baby to her kitchen table. She is curious about the baby's gender. She has to know to report the child's abandonment. Although she doesn't want to believe the baby is now orphaned, she feels she has no other choice. She removes the blanket to find a tiny grey kitten sleeping in the baby's lap. "Awe," she gasps. "How precious is this? Two newborns bonding!" Tears gather in her eyes. She wants so badly to believe what she is seeing but not what she is thinking. Both small babies abandoned by their parents. She has to accept that the two weren't placed on her doorstep for no reason, she fears.
She picks the kitten up, yawning and stretching, putting it on one shoulder. Then, picks the baby up with gentle hands. She looks at both with great joy to be holding a small life in her hands. She still has to find out the baby's gender.
She lays the baby down on the couch and sees it is a girl. "I will call you Scylla. I always wanted a child but, I never wanted anyone after the tragedy." She murmurs to the girl. Her eyes looking directly into hers, as if she understands her pain. "Oh, you are a quiet one!" She blushes as she laughs out. "I suppose the right thing to do is to call the police to report you."
She calls the police and they send two officers rushing over. 'Knock, knock.' She opens the door. "Are you Mrs. Dawn Saint?"
"Yes, Sir, I am," she replies.
"We need to see the child right away. I am Captain Stein and this is Rookie Jennings." He reaches out his hand to shake hers.
"She is in here," she indicates to the kitchen. "She just fell asleep."
"You said she was holding a kitten when you found her?" Jennings curiosity gets the best of him.
"Yes a tiny grey one," she replies sincerely. This strikes Jennings as odd and he's puzzled by it. He has read something somewhere about this occurrence but isn't sure what it means.
"Where is it?"
"It's under the blanket with her."
"We're going to have to take her down to the station with us, ma'am," Stein chimes in.
"Why can't she stay here until you get a lead or something on the case?" she pleads.
"That's against the law without a judge's approval," he answers.
"Call judge Harry Bendon, Sir. I'm sure it would be okay with him."
"No!" the captain curtails. He looks at the woman's sad look and says, "Okay, alright, you win. I'll call him."
After a few minutes Stein informs her that she has temporary guardianship over the girl as long as she goes to the store immediately to get the things the baby needs. "Thank you!" she yelps as she hugs Jennings. The two officers go into the kitchen to say farewell to the girl. She isn't in the carrier anymore. Surprised they all look at each other.
"Good heavens! Where could she be! I didn't know she was old enough to know how to un-strap herself!" she squeals as she looks around frantically.
"We have to find her before we can return to the station," Stein says. They search everywhere for her but, she is nowhere to be found. "What about that room there?" Jennings points to a closed door. "We haven't checked in there."
"There's no way she could be in there," she says as Stein cuts her off.
"Why not?" he persists accusingly.
"As I was saying," she glares. "That room has been locked up for years."
"Well, we still have to check it out to be sure." Stein insists.
"Alright," she sighs. "Let me get the key." She goes to her room and rummages through a drawer. "Here it is," she says as she walks to the door.
"Well, come on, open it," Stein whines.
"Be patient, Sir," she glares again. "I haven't opened this door for a reason so, be considerate."
"Sorry," he says lowering his gaze to the floor.
She juts the key into the door and opens it hesitantly. Dust covers everything in the room. There are a lot of books and a large old style desk in the room.
She looks to the floor to find the baby, kitten on her lap, sitting on the floor holding a picture of a young man. "My husband passed many years ago. This is his study," she mutters to them. She picks the girl and the kitten up, "Remember the tragedy I was telling you about. My husband's death was that tragedy. That's him in that picture. I love him so dearly," she whispers to the girl.