yeah, my hypothetical poetry wasn't amusing enough. today i'm writing a short story. i have no idea how good of a writer i am, and i by no means consider myself a writer. just a poet and a hopeless romantic.
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He walked into the apartment, confused by her silence at his knock.
"Jackie?"
He looked around, noticing to his horror that the apartment was stripped. No furniture, nothing on the walls, no sign that a young woman and her baby girl had ever been there. Panicked, he called her name again.
"Jackie!"
He ran into the nursery, his only thought being the safety of that baby. He stopped in the doorway. The nursery was just as empty as the rest of the apartment. No crib, no changing table, no baby.
All that remained of Jackie and her baby daughter was a pacifier, laying in the middle of the nursery as if it had been dropped in a hurry, with no time to go back for it. He knelt down, panic fading into horror and heartbreak, and picked up the pacifier. He cradled it in his hand. It was still warm. It still smelled like the baby.
The entire apartment still smelled like them. If he focused really hard, he could see where the legs of the crib had left dents in the carpet. He could see where the dresser had rubbed against the the pastel purple paint on the wall. He only wished he could see the baby. And Jackie.
He remembered the hospital like it was yesterday.
Jackie had been swearing like a sailor at the pain. But he hadn't tried to get in her way. That was their agreement. No strings attached. He had waited, patiently, until a nurse with a bright smile on her face had brought her in. The most beautiful little baby girl he had ever seen. She was wrapped up in her tiny pink blanket, crying a little. The world must have seemed so scary to her. He wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be okay. Just then the smiling nurse had noticed him. She smiled a little brighter.
"Are you family?" she asked, cradling the frightened baby. He nodded. She smiled again and looked down at the baby.
"This little girl is brand new." she said, cooing softly at the baby. "Her mother is asleep." she looked back at him. "Do you want to hold her?"
Without thinking, he nodded. The nurse carefully placed the bundle in his arms.
He was mesmerized. This moment was perfect. The baby was perfect. She stared at him, afraid. He smiled at her, rocking her gently.
"What's her name?" he asked, as he realized that Jackie had never told him what she wanted to name her baby. The nurse smiled.
"Lucy." she said.
"Lucy." he said back, then looked back at the baby. His baby. Lucy. She was so small, so helpless, so warm. He wanted to hold her forever, just like this. He wanted to protect her from whatever terrible things waited for her in the years to come. He wanted to be with her always.
"Lucy." he murmured again.
He knew she didn't like him breaking his agreement, but he never imagined this. He never thought it would come to something this extreme.
He realized he was crying and wondered how long he'd been doing it.
Jackie and Lucy were gone. He was never going to see them again. His baby, his first child, the center of his whole universe, was gone.
And all he had left was her favorite pacifier.
