Member-only story
Adrift in a Sea of Abandoned Babies
The fictional consequences of real things that happen
Before I was yours, I was nobody’s child. I sat in my cot and watched as people came and went. They gave me food. I survived. But that was all.
One day you came for me, loving me at first sight because I was beautiful and a baby. Nothing more than that.
You took me home to your privileged life, excited at the prospect of your gaps finally filling.
Don’t you know you can’t fill a hole with something empty?
You loved me even more when you discovered I never cried and stared at you with the biggest eyes you’d ever seen. Finally, you’d achieved what you were supposed to and you drank me in. Your dream child.
Six months passed before you noticed something wasn’t quite as it should be. I never cried. Likewise, I never laughed or responded to your embraces.
“Smile, baby, smile! Give a big smile for Mummy!”
Motionless, I stared at you with the biggest eyes you’d ever seen.
Another six months passed with you trying not to notice when both children and animals fled from me as I sat unsmiling and wooden in the swing at the park.
