by James Hunt
Was she?
Lindsy slowed, taking stock of the situation. She had just gone through something very traumatic, reliving the most painful moments of her past, and she was both mentally and physically drained. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate.
Lindsy stopped in the woods, noticing that the cries had stopped as well. She stood there, catching her breath, listening to the darkness, which produced no more new cries, and the hope Lindsy had allowed herself to feel slowly dimmed.
“Maybe it was all just in my head,” Lindsy said, the breeze cooling the sweat on her face. She bowed her head, nodding to herself, but stopped when she again heard the child crying.
It was close. Very close.
Lindsy followed the quiet coos to a large tree, and when she rounded the corner, she found a baby, swaddled in a pink cloth, staring up at her with big, round, beautiful eyes.
“Oh my god.” Lindsy knelt and carefully scooped the child into her arms, and the baby squirmed. “Shh, it’s okay, little one. It’s okay.” Lindsy glanced around, having a brief moment of thinking that maybe someone had left her here, when she saw the name printed on the child’s sock.
Angela.
It was the Maples’ daughter. Somehow, the midwife hadn’t killed her. She must have been released when Lindsy put the bracelet on her and cast her into the afterlife.
Lindsy smiled, bouncing the child happily in her arms. “You’re ready to go home?”
The baby giggled, and Lindsy turned to leave, only to be stopped by another sound carried on the morning breeze. Child in her arms, Lindsy followed the noise through the woods, finding another child swaddled in blue cloth abandoned on the ground.
Confused, Lindsy stared down at the child, expecting it to vanish into thin air after she blinked. But the infant continued to wiggle like a worm in its swaddle, staring up at Lindsy with surprise.
“This isn’t… possible.” Lindsy dropped to a knee and examined the baby. The boy giggled when Lindsy touched him, and before she could pick him up, another child cried nearby.
Lindsy stood and found the baby less than a foot away from where she had found the boy. And then she heard another cry, and another until the entire forest was ringing with the sounds of crying children.
Lindsy couldn’t believe what she had found, and then she remembered all of the children the midwife had collected over the years of her haunting. She had been keeping them, but keeping them where she didn’t know.
Could it have been that place between realms? Some new plane of existence Lindsy wasn’t aware of? The questions faded from her mind as the crying grew louder, and Lindsy came up with a plan to bring all of these children home.
“Is that the last of them?” Lindsy asked.
Daniel nodded as he carried two more children to the RV. “I think so.”
Lindsy had sprinted into town as fast as her legs would carry her, taking Angela with her, and found Daniel and Carla with the sheriff and the mayor. The sheriff was finally out from under the midwife’s control, and now that he was able to see clearly, he was able to right some of the wrongs he had done.
Both Lindsy and Carla received full pardons for their crimes, and the mayor was arrested for his part in the fraud as well.
Between Lindsy, Carla, and the sheriff’s deputies that had been called in to help, they had recovered thirty-three children, all of them infants.
“The same number that Evelyn Carter stole after she died,” Lindsy said.
“How is this even possible?” Daniel asked.
Lindsy had pondered that same question herself, and while she didn’t have a complete answer, she had a theory. “Ghosts can’t kill people. They can hurt them, control them, but they can’t kill them. I think the midwife kept the children in a state of limbo, using their lifeforce to give her power.”
“That’s sick.” Sheriff Torrence grimaced.
“Yeah, well, the midwife has a way of making even good people do bad things,” Lindsy said.
Torrence blushed with embarrassment. Lindsy hadn’t meant to be too hard on the sheriff, but considering everything he had done, she wasn’t afraid to give him a little taste of what she had gone through over the past twelve hours.
“Some of these kids have been missing for half a century,” Carla said. “Will their parents even still be alive?”
“You’ll have to start going through old records,” Lindsy said, looking to Sheriff Torrence. “It’s going to take some time; you should be able to find relatives for some of these children.”
Torrence nodded. “I won’t stop until they’re all cared for.” He walked over to Lindsy and shook her hand. “If there is anything you ever need, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Well, I could use a ride to the hospital,” Lindsy said. “I’d like to know how my husband is doing.”
“I’ll drive you there myself.” Torrence nodded and then headed for the car.
Lindsy hung back a second, looking to Carla and Daniel. Carla hadn’t let Angela go since Lindsy passed her over. “Don’t forget to let her crawl around.”
Carla smiled. “We can’t thank you enough, Lindsy.”
“No, we can’t,” Daniel said.
“I’m glad I was able to keep my promise.” Lindsy tickled Angela’s stomach, and the child giggled, bringing smiles to everyone’s faces. She looked Carla and Daniel in the eye. “Cherish your time together.”
“We will,” Daniel said.
Carla hugged Lindsy, kissing her on the cheek as she started to cry. “Thank you for saving my daughter.”
Lindsy stepped back and waved goodbye to them and then climbed into the sheriff’s cruiser. Once the Maples were in the rearview mirror, Lindsy hoped the doctors would be able to deliver her a happy ending when it came to Mike’s diagnosis.
Lindsy awoke with a crick in her neck. She had fallen asleep in the hospital chair, her neck tilted at a hard right angle for most of the day.
When she had arrived early this morning, Mike was still recovering in the ICU. The surgeons had managed to stop his lungs from filling with blood, but the amount of blood he had lost combined with the inflammation of the internal bleeding had caused Mike to slip into a coma. He was on life support, and the doctors believed if he didn’t wake up within the next twenty-four hours, then he might not wake up at all.
Unsure when she had dozed off, Lindsy stretched her back, which popped like bubble wrap before she finally stood up from the chair.
The waiting area was empty, but sunlight shone through the window to her left. Lindsy squinted from the light but was thankful for the sunshine. The fluorescent lights of the hospital always made Lindsy feel like she was in a horror film. She figured it was because of how much death walked these halls. She regularly avoided hospitals if she could, lest she be thrust into a scene from The Walking Dead.
But the few hours she had been asleep were uneventful. It had been a while since she had been so tired that she blacked out. She knew more rest was needed, but she didn’t want to sleep here. Her back couldn’t take the harsh angles.
Lindsy walked to the window and stared outside. The early morning light made everything looked like it was bathed in gold. It was a good sunrise to see. She only wished that Mike was by her side to witness it.
Lindsy hated not knowing what was going on. She knew she could have tried to pilfer some information out of one of the nurses to try and get a better read on what was happening with her husband, or she could sneak back into the ICU where they didn’t currently allow visitors. But she was drained from the altercation with the midwife that she couldn’t even muster up the strength to figure out where the bathroom was.
And she wouldn’t get the chance.
“Mrs. Foster?”
Lindsy turned away from the window at the mention of her name and found a Middle Eastern-looking man with a turban on his head. She couldn’t remember the name of the religion, but she believed it started with an ‘S.’
“I’m
Dr. Nahid,” he said, walking over to her and offering his hand. “I’m treating your husband.”
Lindsy stepped forward, trying to organize her scrambled thoughts. “How is he?”
“Well, the latest scan we did of his head shows that the swelling in his brain had gone down, which is a good sign,” Dr. Nahid said. “Unfortunately, he’s still unresponsive and in a coma.”
Lindsy's stomach twisted into a knot. “Can I see him?”
“He’s being brought back from the scans now, but once he’s been settled back into his bed, I’ll have a nurse come and escort you,” Dr. Nahid answered.
“Thank you,” Lindsy said.
She remained near the window as the doctor walked away. It wasn’t the news she wanted to hear, but she supposed taking the good with the bad was all part of the process. It could be a long road to recovery for Mike, but she would be there with him along the way, no matter how hard.
Lindsy returned to one of the empty seats in the waiting room, which slowly started to have other people trickle inside, everyone looking weary as they sat and fidgeted, unsure of what their futures would hold for themselves, friends, family, and loved ones.
Even though Lindsy’s powers were waning, she could still sense the hopelessness from some of them. There were people here who weren’t going to come back out. This would be their final stop. Lindsy only hoped that this wasn’t hers and Mike’s.
It was nearly ten o’clock when a nurse finally came to collect Lindsy and escorted her into the ICU. The space was filled with a solemnness that was only disrupted by the sound of machines. Everyone, both staff and visitors, walked lightly through this place. It was like walking through a graveyard, everyone afraid to disturb those at rest.
Lindsy only hoped that Mike remained alive.
“He’s right in here.” The nurse gestured to an open door, but she didn’t go in herself, and Lindsy hesitantly entered.
Mike was hooked up to an array of machines. A breathing tube had been shoved down his throat, pumping oxygen into his damaged lungs. A digital display showed his slow heart rate and low blood pressure.
“If there is anything you need, just poke your head out of the room and wave toward the nurse at the end of the hall,” she said.
Lindsy nodded and then turned back to the nurse. “Thank you.”
“He’s a fighter,” the nurse said. “Don’t give up on him, because he hasn’t given up on himself.”
The nurse disappeared, leaving Lindsy with her husband. She approached Mike’s bedside, staring at him, but still keeping her distance. She was suddenly possessed by the irrationality that should she even breathe too loud, it might disrupt his recovery.
But she knew that was only her mind getting the best of her.
Lindsy slipped her hand beneath Mike’s and was pleased to feel it warm to the touch. It was the kind of warmth she recognized during the mornings when they woke, or from an afternoon walk, or from when they would hold each other on the small bed and drift to sleep.
“Hey,” Lindsy said, her voice catching in her throat, which she cleared. “You should know that I did it. The midwife is gone.” She gently rubbed her thumb over Mike’s skin. “The charges against Carla and me were also dropped, and the mayor was arrested.”
The machine beeped and expanded Mike’s chest, pushing another breath into his lungs.
“I saw them,” Lindsy said. “Our children. All of them. I had a chance to bring back our son, but I… I didn’t do it.”
Lindsy looked behind her and found a chair which she pulled closer to Mike’s bedside and sat down, still holding his hand. She liked being able to touch him. Even though it had been only hours, she felt like she hadn’t touched him in weeks.
“I wanted to bring our child back,” Lindsy said, biting her lower lip. “And even though it could have been the midwife just playing a trick on me, I think she was telling the truth about giving us one of the children we lost.”
Lindsy allowed that news to sink in, really marinate for the first time, and there was a growing sense of horrible loss inside of her.
“The things I saw,” Lindsy said, her voice a whisper. “I won’t ever forget them.”
Mike remained motionless save for the slight rise and fall of his chest as the machine continuously pumped oxygen into his bloodstream.
Lindsy desperately wanted him to say something. She could use his comfort, his wisdom, anything. He had always been able to come up with solutions to her problems. He usually turned to history, since that was his forte.
Lindsy recalled one night after they were first married. They had just made love, and Mike was in one of his lecture modes, talking about how history didn’t really repeat itself like people believed.
“We don’t have to stay who we are,” Mike had said. “Everyone can change. But most people lack the strength and grit to push through the hard times. But everyone has the capacity. No matter the circumstance. People have been rising to the occasion since the dawn of man. And we’ll continue to do it. It’s hardwired into our DNA.”
Lindsy smiled, remembering her husband’s words, and she was immediately comforted by them.
“Still,” she said. “It’d be nice to hear them in your voice.”
Lindsy squeezed his hand and started to pull away when Mike squeezed back. Lindsy paused, looking at her husband. Had she imagined that?
“Mike?” Lindsy asked.
Mike squeezed her hand again, and this time she was sure of it. Lindsy shot up out of her chair and hovered over her husband, who started to twitch, his eyelids fluttering open.
“Mike, can you hear me?” Lindsy asked.
The machines around them started to go haywire, and Mike’s convulsions worsened. Unsure of what else she could do, Lindsy quickly headed for the door and called for a nurse.
“I need someone down here now!” Lindsy shouted, but the nurses from the station were already on their way.
“He’s waking up,” a nurse said. “He’s going to reach for the tube if we can’t sedate him.”
“What, no, don’t put him back to sleep, please,” Lindsy said.
“If he tries to pull the breathing tube out of his throat, he could damage his esophagus,” the nurse said. “We need to make sure that it’s done correctly. It’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Lindsy nodded, but she hated seeing her husband convulse on the bed. The staff gave him a shot of something that finally made him calm down, and once he was settled, they checked his vitals to make sure he was still breathing.
Lindsy was asked to step outside for the removal process of the tube, but after it was finished, she was allowed back inside, and she returned to her seat by the bed. She grabbed his hand again and smiled. When he woke up, she would be right here to see him.
24
Three Days Later
“Take it easy down the steps.” Lindsy held Mike’s hand as she helped him down the hospital building’s front steps.
Mike was still weak from being in the coma, but the doctors had cleared him to make a full recovery. He just needed to take it easy for a few weeks to regain his strength.
By the time they reached the RV in the parking lot, Mike was completely winded.
“I’ve never felt this out of shape before,” Mike said, taking deep breaths to help fill him up. “This is crazy.”
“You just need time,” Lindsy said.
Mike opened the door and then refused any help up the steps into the RV, and then he collapsed into the kitchen table seat, sweaty and out of breath. “This might take a while.”
Lindsy smirked. “You can’t get out of driving duties forever.” She walked over to him and kissed his lips, lingering close even after she pulled away. “I love you.”
Mike smiled. “I love you too.” He adjusted himself in the seat, still unable to get comfortable when he was sitting down due to the cracked ribs. “Now, can we cook up some real breakfast? I’ve had just about enough of that hospital food.”
Lindsy pre
pared both of them something to eat and then brewed a fresh pot of coffee. Mike practically inhaled his meal, and when Lindsy couldn’t finish her breakfast, she handed the rest to Mike.
“Glad to see your appetite hasn’t gone to waste,” Lindsy said.
“I was starving in that hospital,” Mike said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “If they want people to heal properly, then they should feed them better food.”
“I’ll be sure to leave that suggestion in the comment section of our Yelp review,” Lindsy said.
Mike reached for the coffee. “How are the Maples holding up?”
“Fine,” Lindsy answered. “Their flight back to Cincinnati was this morning.”
“I was hoping to see Daniel before he left,” Mike said, anger in his voice. “Give him a present like the shiner he gave you.”
Lindsy rolled her eyes. “For the last time, I asked him to punch me. And the swelling has gone down, and there was no permanent damage. I’m fine.”
Mike grumbled but eventually calmed down.
“I’m a little surprised they didn’t want to stay,” Mike said. “After all, the midwife is gone.”
“She’s gone, but the scars left behind will linger on them for a long time,” Lindsy said. “The damage was already done.”
Mike nodded. “I can understand that.” He sipped the coffee and then set the mug down. “Any updates on those children?”
“Sheriff Torrence has tracked down relatives for most of them,” Lindsy said. “Some have proved harder to find than others, but every family member they contacted was willing to adopt the child. So they’ll be going home. Finally.”
Mike stared at the floor, his jaw cocked to the side. “I still can’t believe those children survived. I mean, was the midwife keeping them someplace? And if she was, how? And how did those children even stay alive—”