The Light at the End of the Tunnel Read Online Free PDF Page A

another foster family, and another.”
    “Honey, don’t do this to
yourself.”
    “I gave birth to him, Evan. He was our
child.” Her hands went to her face again as she quenched a sob, “We
even named him.”
    “But have you noticed, since the incident we
haven’t called him by name. He’ll get a new name, and…he’ll go from
there.
    Thirty minutes later they pulled into a gas
station at that next town, got their gas, then to a diner, got a
mostly-conversation-less meal, then a motel room, where
they—furiously—made love.
    “What if the next child is like this one,
Evan?” Leslie asked as they lay in each other’s arms.
    “Don’t worry, my darling, it won’t be. What
happened was a once in a lifetime—once in ten or a hundred
lifetimes, but it won’t happen to us again.”
    “The child was evil, Evan. It was born evil. It will grow up evil, and will do terrible things.”
    “He already has done terrible things, my
darling.” But I’ll never tell you what .

     
    Chapter 8 Meet Nurse Nicole
Waters

    Les Paul lay in his basket with his eyes
closed. He wasn’t having any real thoughts. He was way too young
for having real thoughts. He still mostly depended on his body to
just do what was necessary when something came up. He opened his
eyes. Nothing there. Nothing but starlight. His mind went to what
he last saw: two people standing over him, looking at him, with
blank faces. He knew they were the people who cared for him,
but…they weren’t caring for him.
    His body took over. He closed his eyes and
opened his mouth and the most horrendous sounds began coming out.
Crying had always gotten him what he needed before, and what he
usually needed was attention, and all the extras that came with
it.
    ****
    Only about a minute passed before a young
nurse appeared at the door, and stepped outside, and immediately
reached into the basket and grasped the squalling baby, and lifted
it to her bosom, and then gasped when the small hand went into her
top, and actually tried to get to her breast.
    Knowing the baby was probably hungry, for a
brief instant she almost allowed the hand to do what it wanted, but
then she stopped the hand, which brought an immediate rise in the
level of crying. Then she put the baby back in its basket and slid
the basket inside, just as an older nurse appeared and said, “Well,
what do we have here?” The new nurse reached and grasped the baby,
who then ceased crying, did not grab at her breast, and, basically,
just began to act like a normal baby. The new nurse then held the
baby next to her bosom, and patted him on the back, “Weren’t you
even going to pick him up, Waters?”
    “I did, but….”
    “But what?”
    “He—it—tried to get to my breast.”
    “Goodness, Waters, the baby is probably
famished. It didn’t know what it was doing.” The older nurse
scowled, “Good Lord, I’m sure it wasn’t flirting with you. Did you
see anything? A car leaving, or anything?”
    “No. Just the crying baby.”
    “All right. Just one more abandonment by some
young girl who shouldn’t have gotten pregnant. Well, come on, we
have some work to do. And you , sister, are going to do it. You need to learn some things about babies.”
    “I know. I will.” But young Nurse Waters was
not so sure. She remembered the baby’s face as she picked it up,
its expression. At the time she thought nothing of it, and even now
she thought little of it, but couldn’t help still seeing
that…expression. The older nurse laid the baby down, “Get him
undressed, Waters, I’ll get a new diaper and other wraps, but you
will do the work. Have you ever changed a diaper?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “You didn’t? Not even in school? What’s this
world coming to?”
    “We did in school, ma’am, but it was a
baby-like doll.”
    “Very well.” The older nurse started away,
“Get to it then.”
    Nurse Waters approached the baby, and first
looked at its face. Now just a normal baby expression. She