The Child
By Bobby Wheeler
Copyright 2015 Bobby Wheeler
There are things in the news that at times affect us more then we realize. One such event was soft peddled in the way that network and internet news do to try and make the news exciting without making viewers overly disturbed.
One such event disturbed me greatly. It was about a young lady who was thought to have recently given birth, killed her baby by burning him on the roadside. From the reaction on yahoo you would think these things happen every day. It is a sad world with a lot of sad strange people in it, but I hope it never gets to the point where as something like this becomes accepted. Therefore I am going to try and recreate the events leading to the tragedy of a young mother who killed her baby.
It was a quiet night in town and like many small towns in NJ little seems to happen that does more than simply pass the time. A low breeze blew across the nearly abandoned road and you could see the lights from the homes that line the side of the road.
Events had been put into motion which few , if any , can ever understand. A young mother, not poor or by any means a bad person, but bearing a secret she could not share with her family on this night, she gave birth.
For what would normally have been greeted with joy at the birth of the new child… there was something wrong , something dark in the way the women looked at the child. Love did not measure into the equation as this young mother tried to deal with the new life she had brought into this world.
She could not… they would not accept the child… so the child had to go. Thinking quickly to herself and wondering about New Jersey being a safe haven for child… but that just wouldn’t do for her…
There could be no trace of this baby she could never admit to having born.
Looking about the young mother found a shoe box which, while it had seen better days, would serve as she placed the now screaming child into it. She ignored the screaming bundle as the baby started to shake.
For some it would not be a cold night…. but for others…
Into the LandRover and the child on the floor in from the passenger seat. Without thinking much about it, the women put on her safety belt…. but once again ignored the child screaming on the floor of the SUV.
Putting the Rover into gear the women thinking that this would perhaps all soon be over. Driving down the nearly deserted road… she tried to think of a way to make her problem just go away. No longer in any sense thinking as the mother of a child, she considered her options.
She pulled the SUV over to the side of the road and quickly searched the back of the SUV until she found what she wanted. There was a can of lighter fluid used no doubt in a summer cookout that would serve yet another purpose.
Taking the lighter fluid she climbs out of the land rover and walks to the other side and seeing the baby..
As we hope against all odds for some sense of motherhood to emerge…. but it did not and she opened the passenger door… removing the small box and placing it on the side of the road along where the grass met the pavement.
Fire, fire… it would consume all. It will hide what I have done.
By the now the thoughts of this woman were becoming feral as she started to spray the baby with the lighter fluid. She could have at any time have taken the baby to any firehouse or police station and simply given it up.. but no, that did not suit her needs.
After a short time the can was empty and the baby was screaming louder. One may assume that the child's eyes were burning or that it had in some way sensed its fate.
The sound of a door opening and closing from the house closest to the road and the SUV did not draw her attention or stop her in her task…. reaching into the SUV she took a lighter and used it to set fire to the baby.
Watching as the baby began to burn and struggle in its own tiny way against something it could not understand…. the woman did not hear the approach of the man from the house.
Approaching and seeing the small fire in the box the man looked at the women and asked her,
“What do you think it is you are doing here”?
Looking closely at the box but not yet knowing of the tiny life being burned in front of his eyes.
“I stopped to burn some garbage, mister… it's just garbage….”
Looking closer he said, ” Well you can’t do that here… put it out..” and then realizing that its wasn’t garbage burning , it was a small child.
Calm no more, he screamed for help in the direction of the house and tried to think of some way he could save the baby…
“Bring the dammed extinguisher and hurry it up”
Looking scared and maybe just beginning to see what she has done the woman falls to her knees and moans softly while seemingly unable to take her eyes off the small burning box.
“And listen…" He calls back to the house "and you had better call the police also”.
For all the good it did another man did arrive at the roadside and sprayed the box with water from a fire extinguisher. Water does little good in this type of fire, but when it was all you had you make do.
“What would you wanna go do that for?”
But the women on the roadside said nothing…. slowly began to rise and look about her. Perhaps thinking of returning to the SUV.
Thinking quickly the man stepped between her and the car door… saying, ” Now Missy, that’s not going to happen.”
She looked about and spoke rapidly now.
“Hey mister that’s not my baby…. why don’t you let me go?”
The fire was but the baby was still and he couldn’t think what to do for the small burned child.
After what seemed like a very small time a police car pulled up behind the SUV soon followed by a paramedic.
The officer quickly stepped of his car and approached the now silent and badly burned baby.
The paramedic approached as the officer waved him in.
Against all odds that the baby was still alive.
The baby, gender not yet known, was rushed off to the hospital where the doctors of the burn unit would try to save its life.
With a pointed finger the first man indicated the women who had been trying to escape to her SUV and quickly explained what he had seen.
The officer, having children of his own, was very angry, but managed to cuff the would be attempted murderer and wrestle her into the back of his car… looking to the remains of the small burnt box and hearing a siren off in the distance he wondered what kind of a person could do this to a baby.
The women forgotten for a few moments had begun to cry in the back of the police car. Perhaps only now beginning to realize what she had done.
Too late… for both the baby and for herself.
The officer took a few notes and asked the men to come down to the station. On the way to the station, the officer heard on the radio that the child had died en route to the hospital and really hadn’t had a chance.
“What is wrong with you!?" he yelled at the cowering mess, once a woman in the back seat.
“How could you do such a thing?”
Pause.
“Well you did it and your baby is gone and I got you."
"You have rights. You have the right not to die right now and you have the right to have those shinyteeth of your rammed down your throat”.
Pausing as the car speeds up..
“Haven’t you got anything to say, you murdering bitch?"
"Do you understandyour right’s as I have given them?”
And thinking to himself, wouldn’t it be a terrible shame if you didn’t make it to the station? But no that Won't happen either.
“Mister, I didn’t have no baby.No sir, not my baby".
“And what e
xactly did you think it was you just burned?”
“Just some trash mister….”
“Il trash you , you little bitch…. you will be lucky to you may make it to the station!”
Turning on the siren that until now had been forgotten… the police car sped on to its destination. One something slightly less than human in the back and barely recognizable as a human.
It did little good to talk to this one.
The night got quiet again as the police car drove off onto the same general direction the ambulance had gone. The sound of sirens fades and we find the two men who tried to save the baby standing and looking at each other.
They had tried, for all the good it did but it still hurt and it would be a long night full of bad dreams in which babies screamed and burned and ultimately died.
And so…. in great pain the child died, the mother you may ask, if indeed we should use that termfor such a terrible excuse for a human being. Well, I suppose she will get her day in court.
She may be crazy as hell. What she done if it were up to me I would have just shot her.
The night air is cool… as the smoke begins to clear in the breeze,blowing out the foul smell. The men returned to the house, one with the empty fire extinguisher in hand.
The door slammed behind the second man.
“Jr… I think i need a beer and why not bring one for yourself.. its OK”
Jr did return with the two beers and handed one to his father .
Thinking about what a truly sick world it was and uttering a small prayer for the baby child (not knowing it had died.)
Sad what some folks will do.
Parts of this are conjecture and parts are fact. Much of what happened that night will just never beknown and we can only hope that one small child will get her justice.
This bothers me and I hope it bothers you also. I know that this account is deeper and perhaps darker then I have been able to convey .
But the basic facts remain true.
I wish you luck sleeping tonight.
Thanks to many kind friends for thier help in this production.
For David for not giving up on me.
For Amanda,Genesis and Drew and many others for beta reading and coments.