Baby Doll

She’s on the couch curled up in a ball crying. She screams into a pillow and holds her stomach. “It’s too soon,” she sobs.

“I’m going to get help,” her husband tells her. He brushes her long brown hair back and kisses her forehead.

“Hurry!” she tells him, desperately.

He heads out into the storm in search of help for his pregnant wife. Nobody expected her to go into labor on vacation. They are in a tiny cabin in the woods, miles from any hospitals. There’s a terrible storm raging outside. The wind is howling, lighting is flashing, thunder is booming, and rain is coming down in torrents. Trees are down all over the roads.

Finally, after running for what seems like eternity, the man sees a house. He pounds on the door with both fists until a middle aged woman with gray hair opens the door. “Please help me,” he begs. He’s panting for air and totally soaked. Mud splatters his clothes. “My wife is in labor. She’s only eight months along.”

The woman follows him back to the cabin. He feels lucky to have found her. She tells him she used to be a nurse. She says she has four children of her own who are all grown up now, and two grand babies.

“You have to save them,” he pleads.

“I’ll do my best,” she promises.

They run to the couch where the young woman is still curled up. She screams in pain. “The baby’s coming!” she shouts.

“I’m going to help you. You can do this,” the grandma tells his wife. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Promise me,” his wife gasps. “Promise me you’ll save my baby.”

“I promise,” the grandma says because it’s what his wife needs to hear. “I need you to breathe now and when you feel your next contraction you’re going to push.”

His wife nods and takes a deep breath before her screams fill the cabin again. She grips her husband’s hand so tight it feels like she’s going to break the bones but he doesn’t tell her to stop. He focuses on his wife and their baby.

“I can feel the head,” the grandma announces.

Another scream and the baby’s head is out. His wife is sobbing hysterically. “Oh God…” she cries.

Next thing the man knows his baby is brought into the world. The baby slides into the grandma woman’s arms. She wraps the baby in a towel and starts checking the infant. The baby’s eyes are closed and it doesn’t make a sound.

“What’s wrong?” his wife asks. “It’s not crying.”

The grandma tries everything she knows. She pats the baby on the back, tries clearing it’s air way, and even attempts CPR. Finally she looks at the man with a very sad face. “I’m sorry. The baby’s dead.”

The man’s heart shatters in his chest. He and his wife were so happy. They had the nursery all set for their little one. Suddenly, his child is gone. It doesn’t seem fair. The gray haired woman hands him the bundle and he looks down at the perfect little face. It’s a girl and she’s beautiful. Tears spill down the man’s face.

“Let me see,” his wife demands, arms outstretched toward him.

He hands her the baby and she cries. She holds the baby against her chest and doesn’t let her go the rest of the night. She falls asleep holding their daughter. Once the storm is over and roads clear they make it to the hospital but it’s all too late. Nothing can save their baby now.
---

A week later the man returns home from work to find his wife in the nursery. He can hear her singing as he walks up the stairs. Her voice is soft and gentle sounding, a lullaby. “Honey?” he calls.

“Shhh…you’ll wake the baby,” she smiles at him. She’s sitting in the rocking chair beside the crib. There’s a pink bundle in her arms. His heart stops for a second. He steps closer to her and sees she’s holding a doll.

“Honey?” he asks, confusedly. This must be some kind of bad dream. Surely, this is not actually happening.

“She was crying but I finally got her to go to sleep. It’s all alright now,” she stands and places the doll in the crib they had painted white together.

The man doesn’t know what to do or say. What do you do when your wife goes crazy?

“Let’s go downstairs,” his wife tugs his arm. “I made your favorite for dinner, steak just the way you like it.”

He sits at the kitchen table and forces the food down his throat. It’s a meal he usually loves but he isn’t hungry tonight. He stares at his wife across the table. She looks so happy. “How was your day at work?” she asks him.

“It was fine,” he mutters.

“Good,” she nods. “My day was great. She’s such a good baby. She barely ever fusses.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our daughter silly,” she laughs.

“Honey,” he finally snaps out of his state of shock and leans forward to face her. “Our baby died. That’s just a doll.”

“Why would you say that?” she shouts angrily.

“Don’t you remember? That woman came and she tried to help us but the baby died.”

“No,” his wife shakes her head. “She almost died but then I heard her crying and she’s okay now. It’s a miracle.”

The man just blinks at her like maybe this is a nightmare and he’ll be waking up any moment.

In the morning when the man wakes up he can only hope things are back to normal. He takes a shower and gets dressed. Before leaving for work he goes to say goodbye to his wife but finds her missing from the bed they share. It’s as he feared, she’s in the nursery with the doll again. This time she’s sitting in the rocking chair and her nightgown is pulled down to expose her breasts. She holds the doll to her chest and rocks in the chair. He stares at her, horrified.

“She’s having a little trouble latching on,” his wife tells him. “She’ll be fine though, right? It’s normal.”

Nothing is normal about this. All he can do is nod and kiss her hair. “Goodbye,” he leaves for work. He can barely focus at his job. He can only think about his wife. None of it makes sense. He has no idea what to do. He loves his wife. He knows how devastating losing the baby was for them and that his wife is probably just trying to cope but she can’t go on pretending a doll is her baby. She has to snap out of it eventually, doesn’t she?
---

Two weeks later she is still treating the baby as if it were real. She tries to take it to the store with her and buy baby clothes for it. People stare at them as they walk by. His wife doesn’t notice a thing. It’s as if she is in her own world, a world where their daughter survived.

Finally he comes home at night and his wife is crying. She has the doll wrapped in a blanket in her arms. “I think she’s sick. She won’t eat and she keeps coughing.”

“What?” he stares at her.

“Our daughter’s sick!” she insists. “We need to take her to the hospital. I checked and I think she has a fever.”

He doesn’t move at first.

“Why aren’t you doing anything? Let’s go!” she runs to the door.

He follows her. They fasten the baby into a car seat in the backseat and he drives to the hospital. His wife sits beside the car seat and he can hear her singing. She whispers softly to the doll as if she is comforting a crying baby.

This is it. The man knows everything has completely spun out of control. Their baby died. Their wife can’t handle it and is convinced the doll is their child. She isn’t getting any better. He can’t fix her on his own. Life is very unfair. He could have never predicted this would be happening to him. It sounds like some horror movie but it’s not. This is his life.

He brings her into the hospital and while she’s insisting that the doll is their sick baby and everyone is staring at her, he signs papers to have her committed in the mental ward. Once they get her a room with the other crazy people he goes to say goodbye to her, to the beautiful woman he once loved and planned to start a family with. All of his dreams are crushed, ripped away by some cruel unseen force.

“She promised to save the baby,” his wife is in a hospital gown, rocking back and forth on the bed.

“I’m sorry honey,” he tells her, tears falling.

“Where’s my baby? Bring me my baby!” she shouts frantically.

A nurse brings her the doll and she cradles it in her arms gratefully.

“Oh thank God. She’s alright. I was so worried. I don’t know what I’d do if something bad happened to her.”

“I’ll see you later. I love you,” the man kisses his wife then drives away. His world has fallen down around him. His baby is gone. His wife is gone. It’s all gone.