tiny blessings
Greg is in the middle of stepping out the door when he finds his foot hovering over a small bundle wrapped in a worn, hand-knitted blanket.
Oh no, he thinks. Not again.
He’s not sure why he’s become the most popular drop-off location for babies over the last few years. The first time a baby cooed at him from his doorstep, he’d thought it was strange luck. His farm is miles from the nearest village — rolling hills, gravel roads, inclement weather at the best of times — but he’d reasoned that a desperate woman may have been running from something more sinister than he knew, and so she’d taken a chance.
No one came for the child, so Greg named him Simon and went about formally adopting him.
The second child, arrived mere months after, was a girl who had, at the best of times, a tempestuous nature. He named her Kate, and was once again in contact with various agencies in the area.
The trouble was, no one seemed bothered, disturbed, or even surprised that babies were simply being left on the doorstep of a bachelor’s run-down little farmhouse. In fact, the ladies in town seemed to think he was quite attractive as he carried the littlest ones in his arms and pushed the others along the cobblestones.
Which is why, upon finding the seventh bundle on his doorstep in the last four years, Greg picks it up with a practiced hand and gently tugs the blanket away from the tiny face.
Enormous blue eyes stare back at him and the tuft of dark hair sticks straight up. Unlike the other babies, this one doesn’t make a sound when Greg carries him inside to carry out his usual inspection — ten fingers, ten toes, two ears, two eyes, one nose, no frostbite, all in order — before calling the doctor.
“Septimus,” Greg says when the doctor on call tiredly asks for a name.
“I hope for your sake that this is the last one,” Allen says, and Greg listens to the pen scratching along the paperwork. “Seven babies in four years. None of them yours. Are you blessed or cursed?”
“Haven’t worked that out yet,” Greg mutters, tenderly brushing his finger over the baby’s hand.