“I’m already on my way, Nazar. I’ll get there early, turn on the heat, light the fireplace, and get some food ready,” I say into the phone as I exit the highway onto the road leading to the vacation community where I finally bought myself a cottage. A long-held dream come true—a small house outside the city where I can escape the hustle and bustle of the capital and recharge both body and soul.
Today is one of those days. My buddies and I decided to have a guys-only weekend, watch some action movies, play soccer on the console, and just shoot the breeze. In short, unwind.
“Hey, don’t forget to toss the beer in the fridge,” my best friend chuckles on the other end. In our group, it’s always been my job to handle the provisions. Nazar takes care of entertainment. Pasha’s in charge of inviting the ladies, if we need any. And Mykyta hardly ever drinks, so he’s our designated driver after parties.
“Don’t worry about that. Just make sure you guys don’t dawdle and get moving. The weather’s brutal. Snow’s coming down so hard I can barely see the road,” I advise. We’d planned to head out together later, but I wrapped up work early and couldn’t stand sitting around in the city any longer.
“We’ll be there, don’t stress,” he assures me.
“Alright, I’ll be waiting. Gotta go. Be careful out there,” I say as my SUV powers through the snowdrifts whipped up by the blizzard. It’s been a while since we’ve had a winter this snowy.
In the beam of my headlights, I spot a woman at a bus stop. She’s dressed in a black coat, holding something in front of her… a bundle of some sort. A baby, maybe? In this weather, you wouldn’t even let a dog out. Taking a newborn outside in this storm is a downright terrible idea.
I pull over and crack the window.
“I’m headed to Green Gardens. Need a lift?”
“Yes, please!” she chirps, hopping into the back seat of the car.
“Where are you headed with a little one in this weather?” I ask, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. She looks half-frozen. Her lips are blue from the cold, and snowflakes still cling to her eyelashes and eyebrows.
“I’m getting home from visiting relatives. Could you drop me off at the turn to Kryntsi, please? It’s not far from there.”
“I can take you farther if you’d like. You’ll freeze the little one out there,” I offer. She gives a weak, somewhat nervous smile.
“No, that’s okay. Someone’s meeting me. Thank you, though.”
“No problem,” I nod. She tries to hand me a bill, but I wave it off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m going that way anyway. Buy the kid some candy… or whatever they eat.”
“You’re very kind. Bless you,” she says softly. I pull over. We’ve reached the turn to Kryntsi. The road here hasn’t been cleared either. I guess the city crews can’t keep up. They’re barely managing downtown.
She hops out, and I drive off, thinking about how I can’t wait for the guys to show up. I need to grab a bite—haven’t eaten a thing since morning. I’m a co-owner of a chain of car dealerships, so my day’s been anything but dull. Running a business isn’t as easy as it looks, especially when you’ve got your uncle’s watchful eyes on you. He’s the one who taught me everything, brought me into the game, and has high hopes for me.
My wheel hits a pothole hidden under the snow. The car jolts hard. And then, from the back seat, comes a piercing baby’s cry.
What the—?
I whip around, stunned. I’m not imagining it. The woman really left me a little surprise.
How do you forget your own child?
I fight the urge to stop, turn back, and track down the mother. But I realize I dropped her off a while ago, so she’s probably long gone from the turn.
What if it was an accident? Maybe she didn’t have time to grab the baby?
But I distinctly saw in the rearview mirror that she headed toward the village.
I reach for my phone to call the police, but the baby’s wailing, the blizzard’s getting worse, and my signal’s gone. In the darkness, I can see the wind whipping tree branches against power lines, sparks flying everywhere.
“Shhh, it’s okay, little one. Everything’s gonna be fine,” I promise, quickly weighing my options.
There’s only one thing to do—get to the cottage as fast as I can. First, I’ll get the baby out of harm’s way, then I’ll call the cops. Let them find this scatterbrained mother and figure out if she even wants her child.
I park in the driveway by my cottage, step out of the car, and hesitate for a couple of minutes before daring to pick up the baby. I’ve never been around an infant before. It’s so tiny. Fragile, like glass. I’m almost afraid to breathe in its direction.
But I push past the panic and carefully lift the little one out of the car. For some reason, I decide it’s a girl. She’s sobbing uncontrollably, but she quiets down once we’re outside. Big blue eyes stare at me, full of fear. Her little lips tremble, as if she’s gasping from the cold and wind.
“Hold on, kiddo,” I say, hurrying toward the house. It’s incredibly awkward to unlock and open the door while holding a baby. How do women manage this?
Never mind that. With Herculean effort and a near meltdown of my nerves, I get the baby into the living room. I lay her on the couch and quickly turn on the heat. She must be freezing. Then I head back to the car to grab the groceries, tossing them haphazardly into the fridge. My unexpected guest is screaming her lungs out, and I stare glumly at the food stash, clueless about what I could possibly give her. I picked out this menu for four grown men, not one tiny lady. I try to call the police again, but there’s still no signal. Thank heavens the power’s still on, at least for now.
The little one won’t stop crying, so I crank the gas heater up to three to warm the place faster. She’s probably cold, that’s why she’s screaming.
It crosses my mind that I know absolutely nothing about babies. Not a single thing. Funny, I could’ve been a dad by now… to an eight-year-old, even. I wonder if it would’ve been a boy or a girl?
But a knock at the door snaps me out of that bittersweet trip down memory lane—a past I’d rather forget.