666 - The Miracle of Birth

OK, this is my attempt. Its not as good as i'm used to, but it will do
Its kinda rushed, but I wanted to get it done before the deadline and i've been busy...so i hope you enjoy

***************************

666 – The Miracle of Birth

…and on the Day of Damnation or Restoration
The Lord of Light or Dark
Would make themselves known to the world
The Will of this Lord will allow Hell to Rise
Or Heaven to fall…
- The Lost Bible

11.06am – June 6th 2006
The wail of the baby echoed in the delivery room. It had only been several seconds since the child had been born, but it appeared to have come out crying.
The mother lay on the bed, drenched in her own blood but no one seemed to be rushing to do anything about the continuous river, oozed from the point of the babies exit.
“We must deliver this child to the Temple,” one of the Doctors said to a nurse standing by.
“What of the Mother?” the nurse asked.
The Doctor stared at her for a moment, and then replied “she has served her purpose, remove her body and place it in the furnace.”
The Nurse nodded and began to clean up blood spillage on the floor.
The Doctor cradled the child in his arms, looking deep into its highly dilated eyes.
“The count down to the day of ascension has begun. This day plus 21 years will mark the beginning of ‘Hell on Earth’.”
“Not likely” said a voice from behind the Doctor, followed by an almighty crack to the back of the head.
As the Doctor fell forward, his hold on the child was gone, and the baby fell.
Before it hit the ground, the Doctor saw someone grab for it.
Falling face first with no arm forward to stop his descent, the Doctor smashed his nose into the floor of the room, feeling a searing pain as the nose broke, and the heat of blood gushing from it.
Turning around to see his assailant, the Doctors eyes were immediately drawn to the Nurse who had been in the room with him. Her body had fallen atop that of the mother, her cold lifeless eyes staring into the space between her self and the Doctor. A bloody puncture wound on the neck giving the Doctor immediate recognition of cause of Death.
His eyes quickly turned to a Man dressed in White, with a Star emblazoned on its chest, standing feet away holding the child.
“That is the Son of Our God, hand him over now ‘fore the Might of ‘Him’ reigns upon you” The Doctor seethed, though the words sounded swamped in the blood.
“There is but one God. He alone holds the power to bring forth retribution on me.” The Man claimed.
Before the Doctor could speak a reply, the Man moved in quickly, producing a knife of sorts and piercing the neck.
As the Doctor felt his blood pour from the neck, his energy sapped from his body, he had one more thing to say.
“The Lords Army is Legion, He will find…..” the hoarse voice trailed off as the Doctor slipped away.

*******

Josephine Marceau sat in the hospital, aching from the huge ordeal her body had just gone through to give birth to her first child.
‘Josie’ just sat, propped against the wall, resting after the 36 hours of sheer struggle, fighting this child that seemed reluctant to enter its new world.
She so desperately wanted to hold the child, but her in fatigued state; her eyes could not remain open.
As the lids gently fell, a warm sensual breeze filled the room, pouring in through the open window. The warmth of the Sun mildly exaggerated by the windows creating a peaceful temperature, while the light itself giving a warm glow to the room.
Music began to fill the ears of the young woman, soft relaxing music putting the woman at ease. Opening her eyes again, Josie wondered where her child was, why she had not been allowed to be with it yet.
Finally the door to her private room opened.
A man dressed in White with a Star on the Chest, the Doctor she assumed, walked in carrying a child, her child.
“Please to say you have a beautiful Healthy baby Girl” The Doctor stated, as he moved closer.
Josie smiled and reached for the child.
“What took so long?” she asked.
“One or two complications that have been sufficiently dealt with” the Doctor responded as he handed the child over.
Josie sat cradling the baby in her arms.
“I expect great things from you,” she whispered, then kissing the forehead.
“Have you thought of a name for her yet?”
“D’Monique Marceau, after my Mother,”
The Doctor gave a little smile, followed by something sounding a lot like ‘How appropriate”.
“Pardon?” she asked, somewhat confused.
“Nothing, I should let you rest, you and your daughter have had a long couple of days”
Josie simply nodded, welcoming the peace the child placed upon her.
As her eyes stared deep into the child’s, she noticed how large the pupils appeared. It would have seemed rather creepy at any other time, but the glow coming from within was powerful.
The woman looked up to thank the Doctor before he left, but was too late. As she moved her eyes back to her Daughter, she noticed a book on her cabinet, one that she had not noticed before.
Reaching over, she picked it up.
The texture of the book was smooth. It felt old in her hands however, almost as though it would fall apart.
In gold across the top simply read ‘The Lost Bible’.
She opened the front cover, inside was a note for the new Mother.
‘Josephine, please take care of your Child.’
The woman was too tired to think about who had left this ‘gift’ instead, she held her baby close, kissed the forehead, and laid back.

******

Outside the room of Josephine Marceau, Hector Greenblatt picked up his Cell phone.
As he typed in a number, it rang out.
On the screen read the name ‘Victor’.
“Hello Victor”, he answered, “it’s done”
“Excellent, Hector” came the reply. “And her 'real' child?”
“Taken care of, she’ll not know the one in her custody is not of her blood, as was decided.”
“Very Good, get back to the commune, its time for us to move out.” With that, the line went dead.
With one last look through the window in the door, Hector saw the child in the arms of the woman.
“I only hope I never see you again” he said, then stalked off down the hall.



[edit on 15/6/2006 by JebusSaves]

First of all, the formatting was a good idea. I normally try to make use of formatting in important posts because it adds a certain level of professionalism and sort of gets attention. So cool there, though it has little to do with writing.

I like the story, and I like the fact that a few things were sort of left loose enough for my own imagination to own part of the story in terms of character backstories and what will happen from here on out. That's a tricky desire to please though because not everyone likes questions left open, so you do have to have at least a good portion of things nailed down.

I need to know at least a little bit about Josephine- she's only a place-holder because the kid has to come from somewhere. She's not a real character yet and she needs to be in my opinion.

Greenblatt is a huge question mark, and to a certain degree I like that, but I would like to see more of him. Actually I'd like the story told entirely from his point of view. Rather than having an omniscient narration (where we can see everyone no matter which characters are or aren't present, like in a movie) I'd rather be seeing things through his eyes. The third person writing is OK, but I'd prefer to observe the beginning in terms of what Greenblatt sees and hears while lurking in the shadows or playing some under-cover role. This way we can get some of his thoughts and through him find out more about the good guys and about what the stakes are if this child grows up to fulfill its purpose. As an agent of some kind, he's in a position to be believably briefed on everything that's going on, and to give us a lot of exposition without blatant "telling".

A few well placed personality ticks really make people come alive as well. Something as small as giving the badguy an asthma-treatment inhaler or a nervous twitch can make him a little more realistic than the standard nameless "bad guy".

Other than that, there are minor quirks of language use that sort of pulled me out of the story and put me into evaluation mode, which is the last thing you want. Examples:

It had only been several seconds since the child had been born, but it appeared to have come out crying.

Unnecessary exposition. This kind of thing has to be seen or heard by a character. You can't just say it happened. This reads like a witness' statement rather than a 3rd person narrative.

“We must deliver this child to the Temple,” one of the Doctors said to a nurse standing by.

“What of the Mother?” the nurse asked.

The Doctor stared at her for a moment, and then replied “she has served her purpose, remove her body and place it in the furnace.”

This struck me as cliche "bad guy talk". You'd think they already know what they have to do. So I'd take out the questions and simply insert curt instructions. Perhaps the one of the nurses begins to take the child to the temple and the Doctor simply says something to the effect of "hurry up", in the process naming the destination.

"She has served her purpose... remove her body and place it in the furnace" is way too not sinister in my mind- that's the line that stood out the most to me. Something more along the lines of "burn that" would have just oozed evil you know?


This is the nucleus of a really fascinating short story. I think it would work much better from Greenblatt's point of view and with the characters given some color and individuality by their manner of speaking and their physical mannerisms.

Thank You Vagabond.
With your pointers, i've done a quick re-edit of the story. Please, if you like, give me more feedback. I'm still relatively new to the short story(or indeed any story) area, so any tips/pointers are cool.

666 - The Miracle of Birth

…and on the Day of Damnation or Restoration
The Lord of Light or Dark
Would make themselves known to the world
The Will of this Lord will allow Hell to Rise
Or Heaven to fall…

- The Lost Bible


11.06am – June 6th 2006
Standing silently in the hallway, Hector Greenblatt peered through a small window in the door leading to the delivery room as a Doctor lifted a child and separated it from the Mother, while two nurses busied themselves with other things. The crack of two push doors allowed the man to hear everything going on. The room he was looking into was a sterile white. No windows or other exits could be seen from this standpoint, though a full view of the room was impossible due to the ‘L’ shaped design Hector had seen on the map he’d obtained earlier. The map had clearly shown a second exit on the lower edged of the ‘L’ shape, but that only led to a store room with no other exit.
The medical equipment looked state of the art, some glistening in the fluorescent white beams of the surgical lighting, others dirtied and tarnished with the blood of the mother splattered over them.
The wail of the baby echoed through the empty hallway having only been several seconds since the child had been born, it appeared to have come out crying.
The mother lay on the bed, drenched in her own blood but no one seemed to be rushing to do anything about the continuous river that oozed from the point of the babies exit.
“We must deliver this child to the Temple,” Hector overheard the Doctor say to a nurse standing by the bed.
“What of the Mother?” the Nurse asked.
The other Nurse in the room moved closer to the woman, who was beginning to look like death had decided she was his next ‘client’, and gently mopped her brow.
She looked towards Hector, and for a fleeting instant, her eyes connected with him then blinked away.
The Doctor stared at the first Nurse for a moment, and then replied “she has served her purpose, remove her body, clean all the blood and then place all of it in the furnace. There must be nothing left.”
The first Nurse nodded and began to clean up blood spillage on the floor, the other quickly followed suit.
Hector watched as the Doctor cradled the child in his arms, looking deep into its eyes.
“The count down to the day of ascension has begun. This day plus 21 years will mark the beginning of ‘Hell on Earth’.”
As the Doctor faced away from the door, Hector gently opened the door, and quickly moved to in behind him.
“Not likely” he said and followed it with an almighty crack to the back of the Doctors head.
As the Doctor fell forward, Hector reached round for the child. With the Doctors hold on the child gone, Hector had no trouble getting him.
Hector then watched the Doctors continuing descent to the floor still falling face first, though due to the way he had been holding the child, neither arm was in a position to stop him from smashing his nose onto the floor of the room. A loud yelp gave Hector the acknowledgment the Doctor had felt pain as the nose connected, and instantaneously, blood came gushing from it.
Watching the Doctor turn around to see his assailant, Hector saw his eyes immediately fall to the first Nurse who had been in the room with him. Her body had fallen atop that of the mother, her cold lifeless eyes staring into the space between her self and the Doctor. A bloody puncture wound on the neck giving the Doctor immediate recognition of cause of Death. The second Nurse stood silently next to both bodies holding some sharp medical instrument, a grim look of despair on her face, obviously disgusted at what she had just done.
His head turned to face Hector who was standing feet away holding the child.
“That is the Son of Our Lord, hand him over now ‘fore the Might of ‘Him’ reigns upon you” The Doctor hissed angrily, though the words sounded dull, probably swamped by the blood.
“There is but one God. He alone holds the power to bring forth retribution on me.” Hector claimed.
Before the Doctor could speak a reply, Hector moved in quickly, producing a small triple edged knife with an Ivory handle pierced the Doctors neck.
With what was obviously the last moments of life, clawing to make one final statement, the Doctor simply said, “The Lords Army is Legion, He will find…..” the hoarse voice trailed off as the Doctor slipped away.
Hector looked to the Nurse, who still had the look of absolute revulsion on her face of what had transpired.
“It had to be…..” Hector began.
The Nurse scowled at him, letting him know she knew what he was going to say, but really didn’t want to hear it.
“Hector, just take the baby to the other, and I’ll make arrangements for her child.”
“Gladys…..” Hector began again, but the woman would just not allow him to say a word.
“Meet me out front in twenty minutes.”
With that Gladys took out a phone and began typing a call.
A final stern look from the woman told Hector he’d better leave, so he turned and left the room.



[edit on 22/6/2006 by JebusSaves]

[edit on 22/6/2006 by JebusSaves]

******

Josephine Marceau sat in the hospital, aching from the huge ordeal her body had just gone through to give birth to her first child.
‘Josie’ just sat, propped against the wall, resting after the 36 hours of sheer struggle and agony fighting this child that seemed reluctant to enter its new world.
She so desperately wanted to see and hold her baby, but in her fatigued state; her eyes could barely remain open.
As the lids gently fell, a warm sensual breeze filled the room, pouring in through the open window. The warmth of the Sun mildly exaggerated by the windows creating a peaceful temperature, while the light itself giving a warm glow to the room.
Music began to fill the ears of the young woman, soft relaxing music putting the woman at ease. Opening her eyes every so often, Josie wondered where her child was, why she had not been allowed to be with it yet.
Finally the door to her private room opened.
A man dressed in White, the Doctor she assumed, walked in carrying a child, her child.
“Pleased to say you have a beautiful Healthy baby Girl” The Doctor stated, as he moved closer.
Josie smiled and reached for the child.
“What took so long?” she asked.
“One or two complications that have been sufficiently dealt with” the Doctor responded as he handed the child over.
Josie sat cradling the baby in her arms.
“I expect great things from you,” she whispered, then kissing the forehead.
“Have you thought of a name for her yet?”
“D’Monique Marceau, after my Mother,”
The Doctor gave a little smile, followed by something sounding a lot like ‘How appropriate”.
“Pardon?” she asked, somewhat confused.
“Nothing, I should let you rest, you and your daughter have had a long couple of days”
Josie simply nodded, welcoming the peace the child placed upon her.
As her eyes stared deep into the child’s, she saw a look of peace and innocence. It was a beautiful sight for the woman that somehow seemed enhanced thanks to a glow coming from the child.
The woman looked up to thank the Doctor before he left, but was too late. As she moved her eyes back to her Daughter, she noticed a book on her cabinet, one that she had not noticed before.
Reaching over, she picked it up.
The texture of the book was smooth. It felt old in her hands however, almost as though it would fall apart.
In gold across the top simply read ‘The Lost Bible’.
She opened the front cover, inside was a note for the new Mother.
‘Josephine, please take care of your Child.’
The woman was too tired to think about who had left this ‘gift’ instead, she held her baby close, kissed the forehead, and laid back.

******

Outside the room of Josephine, Hector, picked up his Cell phone.
Before he typed in a number, it rang out.
On the screen read the name ‘Victor’.
“Hello Victor”, he answered, “it’s done”
“I know, Gladys has just informed, excellent work, Hector” Victor replied. “Is the mother okay with the child?”
“She’ll not know the one in her custody is not of her blood, as was decided.”
“Very Good, get back to the commune, its time for us to move out.” With that, the line went dead.
With one last look through the window in the door, Hector saw the child in the arms of the woman.
“I only hope I never see you again” he said, then stalked off down the hall.
Finally reaching the exit, Hector saw Gladys sat in the car waiting.
Moving faster, he opened the door and sat down fast.
“Hi Hon…..” Hector began.
“Shhhhh” she replied, stopping Hector from finishing what he was about to say.
“Why? What’s the Matter now?” he managed to quickly get out before Gladys could say anything.
Gladys glared at him for a moment, then up to the rear view mirror.
Hector followed her eyes.
Staring into the mirror he saw something that gave him an instant realization of what was going on.
A small baby girl was asleep on the back, in a car seat that looked brand new.
“Victor and I had words last night. Well as it stood, we couldn’t leave the other baby without raising some suspicion, so we kind of decided that umm...”
Hector really didn’t want to hear the next words out of Gladys’ mouth.
“Well, Hector, sweetie, we always said we’d have children one day. So, umm, say hello to ‘Helen Greenblatt’.
With that, Gladys gave Hector a quick smile, and before any comment could be made, the car started with a burst of noise.
A scream came from the back seat as the child woke from the noise.
Gladys looked at Hector and smiled.
“At least it wasn’t twins” Gladys said, then quickly put the car in gear and drove off.

To be continued……


[edit on 22/6/2006 by JebusSaves]

sorry for double(more) post, but i've done a little more editing. I really shouldn't just do it at 4am...lol

666 - The Miracle of Birth

…and on the Day of Damnation or Restoration
The Lord of Light or Dark
Would make themselves known to the world
The Will of this Lord will allow Hell to Rise
Or Heaven to fall…
- The Lost Bible


11.06am – June 6th 2006
Standing silently in the hallway, Hector Greenblatt peered through a small window in the door leading to the delivery room. He saw a Doctor lift a child and separate it from the Mother, while two nurses busied themselves with other things. The crack of two push doors allowed the man to hear everything going on. The room he was looking into was a sterile white, with no windows or other exits visible from this standpoint, though a full view of the room was impossible due to the ‘L’ shaped design Hector had seen on the map he’d obtained earlier. The map had clearly shown a second exit on the lower edged of the ‘L’ shape, but that only led to a store room with no other exit.
The medical equipment looked state of the art, some glistening in the fluorescent white beams of the surgical lighting; others dirtied and tarnished with the blood of the mother splattered over them.
The wail of the baby echoed through the empty hallway having only been several seconds since the child had been born, it appeared to Hector to have come out crying.
The mother lay on the bed, drenched in her own blood but no one seemed to be rushing to do anything about the continuous river that oozed from the point of the babies exit.
“We must deliver this child to the Temple,” Hector overheard the Doctor say to a nurse standing by the bed.
“What of the Mother?” one of the Nurses asked.
The other Nurse in the room moved closer to the woman, who was beginning to look like death had decided she was his next ‘client’, and gently mopped her brow.
She looked towards the door, towards Hector, and for a fleeting instant her eyes connected with him then blinked away.
The Doctor stared at the first Nurse for a moment, and then replied “she has served her purpose, remove it, clean all the blood and then place all of it in the furnace. There must be nothing left.”
The first Nurse nodded and began to clean up blood spillage on the floor, the other quickly followed suit.
Hector watched as the Doctor cradled the child in his arms, looking deep into its eyes.
“The count down to the day of ascension has begun. This day plus 21 years will mark the beginning of ‘Hell on Earth’.”
As the Doctor faced away from the door, Hector gently opened it and quickly moved in behind him.
“Not likely” said Hector and followed it with an almighty crack to the back of the Doctors head.
As the Doctor fell forward, Hector reached round for the child. With the Doctors hold on the child gone, Hector had no trouble getting it.
Hector then watched the Doctors continuing descent to the floor still falling face first, though due to the way he had been holding the child, neither arm was in a position to stop him from smashing his nose onto the tiled surface of the room. A loud yelp gave Hector the acknowledgment the Doctor had felt immense pain as the nose connected, and instantaneously, blood came gushing from it.
Watching the Doctor turn around to see his assailant, Hector saw his eyes immediately fall to the first Nurse who had been in the room with him. Her body had fallen atop that of the mother, her cold lifeless eyes staring into the space between her and the Doctor. A bloody puncture wound on the neck giving the Doctor immediate recognition of cause of Death. The second Nurse stood silently next to both bodies holding a sharp medical instrument, a grim look of despair on her face, obviously disgusted at what she had just done. Hector threw her a look with the implication of ‘are you ok?’
The Doctors head turned to face Hector who was standing feet away holding the child.
“That is the Son of Our Lord, hand him over now ‘fore the Might of ‘Him’ reigns upon you” The Doctor hissed angrily, though the words sounded dull, which Hector assumed was due to the amount of blood still flowing.
“There is but one Lord. He is the only one who holds the power to bring forth retribution on me.” Hector said in his most menacing voice, which seemed to be lost over the echoing cry of the baby.
Before the Doctor could speak a reply, Hector moved in quickly, producing a small triple edged knife with an Ivory handle and pierced the Doctors neck where the jugular would be.
With what was obviously the last moments of life, clawing to make one final statement, the Doctor simply said, “The Lords Army is Legion, He will find…” the hoarse voice trailed off as the Doctor apparently slipped away.
Hector looked to the Nurse, who still had the look of absolute revulsion on her face of what had transpired.
“It had to be…..” Hector began.
The Nurse scowled at him, letting him know she knew what he was going to say, but really didn’t want to hear it.
“Hector, just take the baby to the other, and I’ll make arrangements for her child.”
“Gladys…” Hector began again, but the woman would just not allow him to say a word.
“Meet me out front in twenty minutes.”
With that Gladys took out a phone and began typing a call.
A final stern look from the woman told Hector he’d better leave, so he turned and left the room.

******

Josephine Marceau sat in the hospital, aching from the huge ordeal her body had just gone through to give birth to her first child.
It had been a harsh pregnancy for the woman, so she had expected a harsh birth, though for obvious reasons she’d hoped for different.
Thankfully the father was not here, he was the last person that Josie needed in her life right now.
When ‘Josie’ had learned of her pregnancy, Malcolm, the father, had left her to deal with it alone. At first Josie had found it difficult. She had few friends for support, no family and was working a low paid job so the pregnancy was the last thing she needed.
After the man had left her, things in her life started to change.
One of her Doctors put her in contact with a man named Victor Munroe, a local businessman who had apparently helped a few women in the area in the same predicament.
Josie was offered a perfect little job, working for the ‘Munroe Foundation’ as a secretary. The money was great allowing her to actually have some savings for when the baby came. Things were starting to look up for the woman, until three months in when Malcolm came back.
He first started harassing her at home. He’d wanted her to take him back, but Josie had other ideas.
This soon began affecting her work, and Josie was starting to worry that she’d lose her job.
After a couple of weeks of stress, Victor called her to his office and asked why her performance had slipped.
Without intending to, Josie told Victor the full story, and too her amazement, Victor seemed to be genuinely concerned for her. He promised her that it would be sorted.
After a week had passed, Malcolm had not reared his head again, which allowed Josie the pleasant thought that the man had disappeared.
Things were going well until two days ago, her waters had broken at work and she had been rushed to this hospital, which now that Josie thought about it, seemed strange as it wasn’t the closest one, but who was she to complain, after all she’d been given her own private room.
Now, Josie just sat, propped against the wall, resting after the 36 hours of sheer struggle and agony fighting this child that seemed reluctant to enter its new world.
She so desperately wanted to see and hold her baby, but in her fatigued state; her eyes could barely remain open.
As the lids gently fell, a warm sensual breeze filled the room, pouring in through the open window. The warmth of the Sun mildly exaggerated by the windows creating a peaceful temperature, while the light itself giving a warm glow to the room.
Music began to fill the ears of the young woman, soft relaxing music putting the woman at ease. Opening her eyes every so often, Josie wondered where her child was, why she had not been allowed to be with it yet.
Finally the door to her private room opened.
A man dressed in White, the Doctor she assumed, walked in carrying a child, her child.
“Pleased to say you have a beautiful Healthy baby Girl” The Doctor stated, as he moved closer.
Josie smiled and reached for the child.
“What took so long?” she asked.
“One or two complications that have been sufficiently dealt with” the Doctor responded as he handed the child over.
Josie sat cradling the baby in her arms.
“I expect great things from you,” she whispered, then kissing the forehead.
“Have you thought of a name for her yet?”
“D’Monique Marceau, after my Mother,”
The Doctor gave a little smile, followed by something sounding a lot like ‘How appropriate”.
“Pardon?” she asked, somewhat confused.
“Nothing, I should let you rest, you and your daughter have had a long couple of days”
Josie simply nodded, welcoming the peace the child placed upon her.
As her eyes stared deep into the child’s, she saw a look of peace and innocence. It was a beautiful sight for the woman that somehow seemed enhanced thanks to a glow coming from the child.
The woman looked up to thank the Doctor before he left, but was too late. As she moved her eyes back to her Daughter, she noticed a book on her cabinet, one that she had not noticed before.
Reaching over, she picked it up.
The texture of the book was smooth. It felt old in her hands however, almost as though it would fall apart.
In gold across the top simply read ‘The Lost Bible’.
She opened the front cover, inside was a note for the new Mother.
‘Josephine, please take care of your Child.’
The woman was too tired to think about who had left this ‘gift’ instead, she held her baby close, kissed the forehead, and laid back.

******

Outside the room of Josephine, Hector, picked up his Cell phone.
Before he typed in a number, it rang out.
On the screen read the name ‘Victor’.
“Hello Victor”, he answered, “it’s done”
“I know, Gladys has just informed, excellent work, Hector” Victor replied. “Is the mother okay with the child?”
“She’ll not know the one in her custody is not of her blood, as was decided.”
“Very Good, get back to the commune, its time for us to move out.” With that, the line went dead.
With one last look through the window in the door, Hector saw the child in the arms of the woman.
“I only hope I never see you again” he said, then stalked off down the hall.
Finally reaching the exit, Hector saw Gladys sat in the car waiting.
Moving faster, he opened the door and sat down fast.
“Hi Hon…” Hector began.
“Shhhhh” she replied, stopping Hector from finishing what he was about to say.
“Why? What’s the Matter now?” he managed to quickly get out before Gladys could say anything.
Gladys glared at him for a moment, then up to the rear view mirror.
Hector followed her eyes.
Staring into the mirror he saw something that gave him an instant realization of what was going on.
A small baby girl was asleep on the back, in a car seat that looked brand new.
“Victor and I had words last night. Well as it stood, we couldn’t leave the other baby without raising some suspicion, so we kind of decided that umm...”
Hector really didn’t want to hear the next words out of Gladys’ mouth.
“Well, Hector, sweetie, we always said we’d have children one day. So, umm, say hello to ‘Helen Greenblatt’.
With that, Gladys gave Hector a quick smile, and before any comment could be made, the car started with a burst of noise.
A scream came from the back seat as the child woke from the noise.
Gladys looked at Hector and smiled.
“At least it wasn’t twins” Gladys said, then quickly put the car in gear and drove off.

To be continued……