THE BABY AFFAIR
PART II:
Gary burst into the room and surprised the young man sitting in a chair inside so much that he jumped out of his chair in shock. The woman in the bed, presumably Esther smiled when she saw Marissa, but before she could say a word Gary was demanding of her, "Where is your daughter? Did you give her to a nurse just now?"
"Why yes! What happened?" asked her husband. Gary's hopes plummeted. Then he remembered someone with a baby getting into the elevator just as he and Marissa had been getting out. A woman with blond hair. "Wait right here," he told Marissa and ran out to the stairs. He reached the lobby panting; he was just about to run outside when the elevator doors slid open. He swung around, expecting to see the blond woman with the baby. The elevator had obviously stopped at some floors before reaching the lobby, as there were many people inside. Gary waited for all of them to disembark, but there was no blond woman in there. He was still standing in shock there when a young woman holding a small baby swaddled in blankets stepped out last. She seemed a little familiar to Gary, but he shook off the feeling. She was stuffing something into her bag and didn't see Gary. She bumped into him and dropped her bag. He picked it up for her and neither noticed that something had fallen out of it. He asked the woman before she could leave, "Was there a blond woman with a baby who got off on any of the floors above?" The woman did not seem understand what he was saying, because she was looking up at him with a puzzled expression. He repeated his question and she replied quickly, too quickly, "No, No, I didn't see any one like that, sorry." Saying so, she hurried past Gary and went out. Gary couldn't believe it. The woman had just disappeared. He turned to wait near the stairs, in case she had decided to get off the elevator before and walk out, but as he turned, he saw a yellow scarf lying on the floor. It must be that woman's, fallen out of her bag when she bumped into me, he thought, bending to pick it up. But when he picked it up, something silky which had been wrapped up in it fell out. A blond wig! In a flash he realized that the dark- haired woman whom he had talked to was the same woman who had stolen the baby. He ran out and went to the right where he had seen her go, but she had vanished! There was no telling where she had gone. His shoulders drooped in dejection. He couldn't believe the fact that the baby had been snatched right under his nose.
Marissa waited anxiously for Gary to come back. She knew what had made him run like that into the hospital and her heart was pounding in fear for the little baby. She could hear Esther demanding an explanation from her, but refused to say anything till Gary came back. She was sure that Gary would find the baby; he had to. There was no need to get Esther even more upset. She heard the door open and jumped up from where she had been sitting. But before she could ask the question, silence gave her the answer. Esther looked from Marissa to Gary, the expressions on their face. She didn't even hear Gary complete what he was saying, she had fainted.
Esther was inconsolable. Doctors finally had to give her sedatives to calm her down and put her to sleep. Her husband, John, seemed to have aged a few years in just a few hours. He paced the hospital corridors till he grew tired. Finally he fell too into a restless sleep in the chair in his wife's room. The police had been called and they had taken statements from everyone and had called an artist to sketch a drawing of the kidnapper from Gary's description. It was almost nine p.m. but there was no more news. The kidnapper hadn't called for ransom either. Finally Gary persuaded Marissa to go home. He helped her out of the cab and up to her door and waited in silence till she had found her keys and unlocked the door for her. He was exhausted. The paper had changed once more, but only to include a description of the kidnapper. He had waited with Marissa for what seemed like an eternity but there had been no more news, neither in the paper nor from the police. He couldn't stop blaming himself. Why hadn't he checked the paper, he knew that it changed without reason, occasionally. If only he had dropped it just five minutes earlier, he might have seen the article earlier….if only…
Almost as if she had heard his thoughts Marissa turned to him and said, "It wasn't your fault Gary. Stop blaming yourself." Gary pushed away her angrily, "I am to blame. I amthe only person to blame. Why didn't I check the paper like I usually do? Why did it change anyway? Must've been something I did that triggered off a chain reaction of events." Marissa replied in a soothing voice, "Go home and get some sleep Gary. Have faith in the paper. It will bring some news tomorrow, I am sure of it."
It was a long time before Gary fell asleep that night. Guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders. He tossed and turned and finally fell into a fitful sleep overcome by fatigue. Just as his mind slowly sunk into the depths of sleep, an image rose from the recesses of his mind, an image of the woman he had bumped into in the store earlier that day. But before his tired mind could process that fact, he had sunk into oblivion.
