OUT ON A LIMB Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the wicker basket. Caron and Inez had both managed to lean over my shoulder and read the terse message.
    “Skyler?” said Caron.
    “It’s a complicated story,” I said as I went into the kitchen and poured several inches of scotch into a glass. It had been about a month ago, late in the afternoon, with dark clouds in the sky. Caron had disappeared from a local inn, and although I had been frantic to find her, I’d found myself delivering a baby. Claire Malloy, book seller and hastily recruited midwife. The mother, a teary, malnourished, and abused teenaged girl, had agreed to be transported to a battered women’s shelter and then, I’d hoped, to a hospital for postpartum and neonatal care. I hadn’t followed through, since she had been a sad yet determinedly anonymous figure.
    I had told no one about the episode, not even Luanne.
    “Who are his parents?” asked Inez as I came back into the living room. “I mean, why would they leave this baby with you?”
    I glanced at Skyler, who thus far seemed docile but could quite possibly be the personification of the calm before the storm. “His mother’s about your age. She was living on the streets. I had… an encounter with her, and I guess she found out who I was and where I lived.”
    Caron crossed her arms. “That doesn’t explain why she left this baby on our front porch.”
    Inez went so far as to purse her hps, albeit briefly. “It really doesn’t, Ms. Malloy. This isn’t a hospital or a convent. Why would this girl abandon her baby here?”
    “She hasn’t technically abandoned him,” I said as I reread the note. “She wants me to take care of him for a few days, that’s all.”
    “But why you?” demanded Caron.
    “I don’t know. I guess she doesn’t have anyone else.”
    “This is a baby, not a puppy! I don’t care how old she is—she isn’t supposed to dump her baby like a sack of potatoes! What if no one was home? What if that person downstairs had gone off to dig up bodies or paint swastikas on overpasses? Inez and I were in my room. We couldn’t have heard anything. You came up the back stairs. What would have happened to Skyler if…” Her indignation gave way to sobs interspersed with hiccups. “Leaving a baby like that!”
    Skyler, no doubt sensing emotional upheaval, began to whimper. I took him out of the basket and cradled him against my chest. “It’s okay,” I said, speaking to both of them as I savored the redolence of baby powder.
    Caron went into the bathroom and reappeared with a handful of tissues. “It Is Not Okay, Mother. What are you going to do?”
    “This isn’t kidnapping, is it?” asked Inez, glancing over her shoulder as though anticipating the intrusion of a squadron of social workers armed with assault weapons.
    Skyler quieted down. I eased him back into the basket, which was well padded with a slightly grimy quilt.
    “It’s not kidnapping,” I said firmly. “I have the letter to prove that I’m the designated caretaker for no more than a few days.”
    “So what are you going to do?” demanded Caron. “Shouldn’t you call somebody? Leaving a baby on the doorstep is clearly negligent, and probably criminal.”
    “But you didn’t tell Peter,” I pointed out.
    Inez cleared her throat. “Well, we discussed it, but we figured he’d call some brawny lady to come scoop up little Skyler like a bag left at the bus station and take him off to some dreary, roach-infested house where he’d be left in a metal crib in a cold room. He’s just a little baby.”
    “That he is,” I said as I took a swallow of scotch. “His mother knows who I am, but I have no idea who she is. I don’t even know her first name, much less her last name or where she lives. Any suggestions?”
    Caron seemed to be recovering from what I suspected was more than momentary shock over the present situation. “Well, you are the legal guardian for the time being,” she said. “I really don’t understand why you won’t tell