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"Throw Away Baby" published July 2014



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Prologue to "Throw Away Baby"

Throw Away BabyThe child cried incessantly; always calling for her mother. She'd been crying for the past two hours.  It was making her nuts! She was at the end of her rope. She’d been babysitting the little brat for the past week and her mother wouldn’t return for at least three more weeks.

Babysitting for a two year old wasn’t exactly on her list of most fun things to do although she really had nothing better going on in her life. It wouldn’t have been so bad except the toddler had squalled constantly since being dropped off. Her brother really took advantage of her this time. How dare him! He planned to travel to Europe for a month with some bimbo. Couldn’t he find one without a kid? She wondered how he got out of taking his wife with him. What excuse could he have come up with to keep her home or suspecting his infidelity?

All attempts to get the child to stop crying failed. She tried holding her but the child must have sensed that she didn’t really want to touch her. The crying became louder. Candy didn’t work; the kid threw it down, crying more. She tried storytelling, but her attempts were drowned out by the child’s high pitched protests. Pretty soon the neighbors would start complaining. Maybe someone would call the cops; then she’d be in a pickle. They’d want to know about the kid and she’d have to say she was babysitting. Then they’d want her to contact the mother. Fat chance; she’s not in the country. Then her brother’s extramarital activities would become known to his wife and that would wreck all his plans for his future. She needed quiet; she had to shut the kid up.

Preparing a bottle she hoped a walk in the stroller would calm her down. Maybe the child would go to sleep. They headed to the park which was only a half mile away. The little girl squalled the whole time. People stared. She headed back home. She couldn’t handle this much longer. Time to call her brother; send the child’s mother home or find out the name of a relative who’d assume care for her. Enough is enough.

She dialed his cell phone number but it went to voice mail. By now the kid had howled six hours nonstop. She kept calling her brother without any luck. It would be the middle of the night in Europe but she didn’t care; she just wanted this kid’s mother to get her ass on a plane and get her nasty little monster out of her house. Without thinking she picked up a pillow and put it over the child’s face; held it there. Oh what sweet relief; no more howling. She sat on the sofa with tears of joy running down her face. She listened to the quiet for a long time. Life was good.

Slowly realization sunk in. “My God; what have I done? I didn’t mean to kill her. What am I going to do?” Anger sets in. “This is all Ian’s fault. I’m not going to jail because of him.” She paces; it’s late. She needs to think. Wrapping the toddler in a blanket, she put her in bed. She carries the stroller to the car. The car isn’t hers; it belongs to the mother. She’d left it for her use since the car seat had already been set up in the back. She packs the kid’s stuff; puts it in the trunk. She’s tired now, but can’t sleep with a dead child in her house. Taking the kid out to the car she put her in the trunk too. She’ll figure out what to do tomorrow; right now she needs sleep. It’s the kid’s fault; if she would’ve stopped that constant screaming she’d be alive. It’s Ian’s fault too. He shouldn’t have taken up with a woman with a kid. What was he thinking! What kind of mother would leave her child with a stranger! None of this is my fault.

She’d been asleep for about an hour when Ian returned her call. Scared, she decided not to tell him what happened. She told him she had called to let the kid hear her mother’s voice but now the child is asleep and she doesn’t want to wake her up. After hanging up, she drifted back to sleep in a matter of minutes.

The next day she drove the car to the mother’s house. She’d been left the house keys in case she needed something for the child. She noticed the computer and logged on. She searched for ways to dispose of a body. There were many ways: lye, acid, burial in water or land but none seemed very pleasant or foolproof. After a couple of hours she left and drove around trying to find a remote location to bury the body. Nothing seemed private enough. She decided to keep searching until she found a good location. She had no idea what to do with the car either.

Three weeks passed with the body still in the trunk. Driving the car into her garage she set up floor fans. It was June and getting hot. The body began to smell. She put a shovel in the trunk next to the child. Her brother would be home any day; she had to get rid of the body before he returned. Every day she searched for a good place to bury the body. She’d already stopped thinking of the body as a child.

Finally she found the right place remotely located near the edge of the Everglades. Waiting anxiously until early evening, she headed out. The neighbors wouldn’t think anything of her going out for an early evening but they might remember if she left her house at midnight. She would go to a mall and hang out until at least ten o’clock. The smell of the body had become stronger making it necessary to park away from other cars. She’d go to a movie until traffic lightened. The time to dispose of the kid had arrived. It would be so good to have this finished.

The only other problem that needed to be sorted out was what to tell her brother.