The entire town of Ranston was crazed with worry. All of the schools had been evacuated, and adults in the town were in a frenzy over their lives and their children. A teacher from the high school threatened, Ms. Steinburg, hurried home, wanting to reassure her husband that she wasn't blown to pieces, and tell him of the teenagers she rescued at the school.
The woman came to her house, which was only a short walk from the frenzied school. and unlocked the door. Her husband pacing around the house, waiting.
"Hannah!" Nikhil shouted in relief when he saw her. "Han, I was so worried! You didn't pick up your phone!"
She gave an exhausted smile to her husband. "I'm alright, Nik. Everyone is. I had to leave my phone back in my classroom. And the clappers aren't real, I know that."
"How?"
"I met them. Two runaway kids were hiding in the high school. Unwinds, I think. I helped them get out of the mess, and over to Sonia's."
"What?!" he exclaimed. "Hannah, are you crazy?"
"It was the right thing ok?"
"There's the baby, though." Hannah trailed off.
"Baby? What baby?" Nikhil asked.
"The two kids had a baby with them. Newborn, I think. They must be a couple."
"Did they take the baby with them?"
Hannah shrugged. "I suppose, unless they storked it."
Nikhil sighs. "Storking is just the easy way out. Why is it acceptable for people to throw away their babies so lightly?"
"Your own sister was a stork!" Hannah retorts.
"Yeah, and I love Maya to death, but that doesn't mean that girls should just throw away their babies. Life is too important for that, you know?"
"Well, that's why we fight against Unwinding, Nik." she reminded him. "Because life isn't something to throw around."
The phone rings, and Nikhil picks it up. "Hello?" he answers. "Oh, hi, Aunt Sonia."
Hannah raised her eyebrows. Was Sonia telling them about the Unwinds? Or was there more news on the "clapper threat?"
"You want us to come down? Why? Okay, okay, we'll be there in ten minutes." Nik hung up the phone. "She wants to talk to us in person."
"She's just paranoid that someone's listening in on our phone conversations." Hannah said. "Then again, you never know."
Soon the couple was walking through town on the chilly November night. The roads were covered with police cars and news vans, while pedestrians hurried about, not straying in the remnants of the morning's chaos.
Nikhil put his arm around his wife, who pressed herself against him to protect herself from the cold. The pair reached Sonia's store, which was dark inside. Closed, read a sign from inside. Many of the other stores had emptied out earlier today due to the panic.
Hannah dug out her key to the store and unlocked the door. "Aunt Sonia?" she called into the dark. Nikhil flicked on the light switch, and an old woman came out from the back room.
"Didn't you read the sign, you two?"
Nik smiled. "Good to see you too, Sonia. Hear you had something to do with the high school fiasco."
"Why don't you ask your wife about that?" Sonia retorted, beckoning them over to archaic table carved in extravagant patterns. The couple sat down on creaking chairs assembled around the table, and waited for Sonia to speak.
"Who are those two?" she asked. "The ones with the baby."
"I've never seen them before in my life." Hannah answered. "I may not know all of the students in the school, but I know all of the mothers, and she definitely didn't attend Central North. I don't think the boy did, either."
"I think they're the pair that shot the officer over in Akron." Sonia said. "Thought you might know something about that."
"You helped a wanted fugitive?" Nikhil exclaimed. "Hannah, a criminal is way more dangerous than a normal pair of Unwinds. Especially in the eyes of the law."
Sonia shook her head. "There's danger in helping any Unwind. But you two have never been caught. Nobody in the Juvie Cops suspects you. Believe me, I have my sources."
He sighed, leaning back in his wooden chair. "You'll tell us if they suspect we're in the resistance?"
"I already told you I would!" Sonia grumbled. "Besides, you think I'd let the firstborn child of my sister, God rest her soul, get nabbed by the cops? I thought you liked me, Nikhil. But anyway, we must deal with the Unwinds. More specifically, their baby."
"They didn't stork it?" Hannah asked. She couldn't see why they'd keep it, as a baby would only be a liability on the run.
"Not yet. And there is the technicality that the baby, apparently, isn't theirs."
The couple looked confused. Why would a pair of runaway teenagers have a baby that's not theirs?
"I don't think that they kidnapped anyone's kid." Sonia continued. "We would've heard about it on the Net by now. Maybe it's a friend of theirs."
"That doesn't matter, though. What matters is that there's a baby who needs someone to love it." Hannah said.
"Exactly my point!" Sonia said. "Which is why I have this little idea. It's crazy, and I know that you have lives of your own-"
"We'll do it." Nikhil said confidently. "No life should be lived unloved."
Hannah suddenly realized what was being asked of them. "Nikhil, are you insane? We can't handle a baby!"
Her husband turned to her. "Han, nobody can at first. Those kids definitely can't. My parents didn't think they could handle another kid when Maya turned up on their doorstep. But we have to try."
Hannah was terrified of being a mother. She taught teenagers, not babies. Talking, somewhat self-sufficient teenagers. She never babysat for anyone under the age of eight, and was the youngest in her family. Hell, she had only been married for five months! No way she was ready to handle a baby. Yet, when she thought about the unloved of the world, the neglected children around, the right-fully angry neglected she taught, her heart tore apart.
"We'll make a decision later." she said, standing up to leave. "Let's just go home."
Nikhil follows her out, and she walks fast, trying to keep ahead of him. What was he thinking, keeping a baby? He was only twenty-eight, she twenty-nine. She certainly didn't feel like an adult, like someone who could handle a needy baby. Hannah Steinburg was not mother material.
"Hannah!" Nikhil called out after her. "Han, wait up!"
He ran after her on the now-dark streets. She tried to pull away from him, but he put his arms around her. "Hannah, I know a baby right now seems crazy, but is it any different than if we'd been storked?"
She finally faces him. "It's not that easy, Nikhil. We're not ready to be parents. I'm not ready."
"Han," her husband said softly, put his arms around her waste. "That baby needs a good home. Being on the run with Unwinds certainly isn't safe."
She looked up at him. "I know," she says quietly. "I'm just scared."
"I know." Nikhil answered. "I am, too. But we can do this. I believe in you."
Hannah gave a small smile up to her husband. "Okay," she said. "Okay, we can do this."
Nikhil pulled her in for a kiss, and the two of them stood there on the sidewalk, excited and nervous and scared and exhilarated for their new child.
A few days later, Nikhil and Hannah pulled into their driveway, a baby girl in a carseat behind them.
"I still can't believe this," he said. "She's beautiful."
"So what are we going to name her?" asked Hannah.
Nikhil thought for a moment. "What if we named her after our moms? After all, they raised us fantastically."
"Diana Dhavala," Hannah said, looking back at her daughter. "Welcome home."
Hey, everybody! Did you like my second-ever Unwinding story? And did you catch my reference to Didi?