Baby

time. Putting out a bowl of water for him, she completed dinner and served it on her rickety table. Baby shuffled to the table, again wearing the water bowl on his head. Netty dropped her spoon and laughed. Maybe someday Baby would tell her what it meant. She finished dinner, noticing Baby did not touch his soup. She cleared the dishes and headed to the outhouse to make her nightly ablutions. As she opened the outhouse door, first looking for rattlesnakes, it occurred to her that she had seen no signs that Baby had the same necessity. Assuming Baby was simply just a woodland creature she never encountered before; she took herself off to bed. Why worry over something that really did not matter, she thought. She was beginning to love Baby even as he continued to mystify her. Her last thought for the evening was how comforted she felt with Baby again pressed up against her as he slept curled under the covers by her tummy.
    Netty and Baby woke the next morning to another beautiful day. Unfortunately, Netty’s outlook for her planting was so low, she found climbing out of bed a miserable chore. She planned to sift through the seeds to see if she could find a few that might be salvageable. If she had to spend any of the last of her silver coins on new seed, she could have great difficulty stocking in the supplies she would need to get Baby and her through the winter. As it was, she would lose her opportunity to get a jump on the planting. By the time she traveled back and forth to town and planted the new seed, she could lose a full week. She knew she could not take Baby to town with her and she was unwilling to leave him alone just yet, afraid he might decide to return to the woods if she left him alone. She could not bear the thought.
    Shrugging into her work clothes after breakfast, she grabbed a small basket from the kitchen to store the few seeds she hoped to salvage from the caskets. She noticed that Baby was already stretched out on the stoop in what was becoming his customary eating position . Whatever that meant, she thought. Arriving in front of her old animal hospital, she slid the sliding wood door completely back to let as much sunlight in as possible. As she stood in the small room, she did not at first grasp what her eyes registered, not fully adjusted to the dimness. Slowly, awareness crept over her and she sank to her knees. Reaching out, she gingerly touched the little plants that lay all over the ground where yesterday she spilt the moldy seeds. This cannot be . She quickly ran to the other caskets and found them chock full of little plants, all looking to bust out of their confinement and reach for the sun. Netty ran for the busted wheelbarrow she paid to have repaired. She hurriedly loaded it to the brim, worrying about their survival with no soil or water. No time to ponder on this new miracle, she quickly started down the road to her field, shouting to Baby as she passed him on the stoop.

    By the time Baby made it to the field, she had one beautiful row of plantings in the ground and was digging holes for the second row. Distractedly, she hardly noticed Baby, who approached the field, shinning eyes focused intently on her as she planted. As she straightened up, wiping grime off her face, she watched as Baby made a hole with his fragile little fingers, plucked a plant from the wheelbarrow and buried it. Astonished and elated, Netty briefly wondered who taught this to Baby.
    Before long, Netty found herself running back to the hospital to refill the wheelbarrow and pick up lunch as Baby continued to do the planting. By late afternoon Netty dripped with exhaustion. She glanced at Baby, now curled inside the empty wheelbarrow grinning at her with his amazing eyes doing their usual flashing. As tired as she felt, she still retained enough energy to scoop him into her arms and rub her face on his. Holding him on her hip like a mother would a child, she swung around to admire their work; row upon row of glowing greenery, corn, tomatoes, squash, beans, peppers, radishes, onions, watermelon, and honeydew. Even patches of strawberries and raspberries. Hmm , Netty thought, the plants sure appear taller from where I stand.
    “Sister, eat,” came the whispered aura in her mind.
    “Yes, yes, yes,” she laughed. “Soon Baby. Now we must be patient while we wait for the plants to mature. We sure did a good job.” Turning her back to the crops, she plunked Baby down into the wheelbarrow and started down the