Both were frighteningly quiet.
“Sweetheart, where did you get these babies?”
The girl looked at Angela.
“They’re mine.”
Angela froze.
The child quickly corrected herself.
“My brothers.”
That made considerably more sense, but nothing about the situation was normal.
Angela pressed the emergency call button.
Within seconds, nurses appeared.
One carefully lifted the first baby.
Another took the second.
The girl immediately panicked.
“Don’t take them!”
“We’re helping them.”
“They need milk.”
“We’ll take care of them.”
“No!”
The girl grabbed one nurse’s sleeve.
“Promise?”
The nurse knelt.
“I promise.”
Only then did the child release her.
Doctors rushed both newborns into treatment.
Angela remained with the girl.
“What is your name?”
“Lucy.”
“Lucy what?”
“Lucy Harper.”
“How old are you?”
She held up six fingers.
Angela swallowed.
“Where are your parents?”
Lucy looked toward the hallway where the babies had disappeared.
Then she said the sentence nobody in that emergency department would ever forget.
