“I
think you should. “
The nurse instructed them to wash their hands with a special soap and put on blue gowns before they could walk into the nursery where the baby was lying in a plastic bassinet. They were not allowed to pick her up, however. They were just allowed to stare. And stare they did.
Daria barely recognized the tiny infant lying in front of her. The baby was so small. Had she really been that small when Daria found her on the beach? Her skin was very pale, almost translucent, and her hair was little more than a dusting of fine blond glitter on the top of her head. She was attached to several monitors by long wires taped to her chest.
Daria was surprised to feel tears fill her eyes as she;
looked at the baby. This baby was alive because of her,| She moved, she breathed, because of her. It seemed un bet lievable. | Daria’s mother took her hand, and Daria held on tightly^ something she had not done in years. She glanced up atj her mother’s face to see tears streaming slowly and silently I down her cheeks, and Daria knew that for each of them, | this baby was more than a small bundle of flesh and bone. | This baby was already changing their lives. :
“We’re going to stop at St. Esther’s,” her mother said ;
once they were back in the car and driving across Curri-, tuck Sound toward Kill Devil Hills. | “To light a candle,” Daria said with conviction, proud she was able to read her mother’s mind.
“Yes,” her mother said.
“But also, we’re going to pay a visit to Father Macy.”
“Why?”
“Because.” Daria’s mother stared at the road and clutched the steering wheel firmly in her hands.
“Because if the mother doesn’t come forward, I believe that baby should be ours.” She turned to face Daria.
“Don’t you? After all, she’s alive because of you, my sweet Daria.”
It had not occurred to her that they might be able to keep the baby, but instantly, Daria could imagine no other outcome. A little sister!
She was going to do something a bit evil when she lit her candle: She was going to pray that the identity of the person who left the baby on the beach was never discovered.
St. Esther’s was nothing like the church Daria’s family attended
during the rest of the year in Norfolk, Virginia. The church in Norfolk was dark and cold and musty 9
smelling, and always made her shiver with a strange mixture of fear and awe. But St. Esther’s stood near the sound in Nag’s Head, a large wooden rectangular building that felt clean and new inside. It was open and airy, with huge windows near the high ceiling and pews made from light-colored wood. There was stained glass in some of the windows, a kaleidoscope of translucent glass cut into abstract shapes that sent beams of bright colored light through the air of the church.
St. Esther’s was empty that afternoon, and Daria thought their footsteps were entirely too loud as she and her mother walked across the hardwood floor to the tiers of candles in the corner. Daria’s mother took a long wooden taper from the holder, slipped it into the flame of one of the candles and used the lit taper to light a candle of her own. She handed the taper to Daria.
It did not seem quite as magical and mysterious to light a candle in here as it would have in their dark, cavelike church in Norfolk, but nevertheless Daria lit a candle in the bottom tier and knelt next to her mother to say a prayer for the baby.
Dear God, let that little baby live and be healthy, she prayed. And let her be ours.
When they had finished praying, Daria and her mother walked out the side door of the church to the small attached building that housed the offices of the priests, as well as some classrooms where children attended day camp. They entered the building and began walking through the wide, cool hallway, its hardwood floor gleaming in the light from the skylights. Father Macy was just walking out of his office as they approached.
“Why Mrs. Cato. Daria,” he said with a smile.
“What brings the two of you here?” He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and his hair was the color of the sea oats on the Kill
Devil Hills beach. He was a good match for St. Esther’s, as approachable and cheerful as the church itself.
Daria felt her mother put an arm around her shoulders.
“Go ahead and tell him, honey,” she said.
“I found a baby on the beach,” Daria said.
Father Macy’s brown eyes grew wide.
“A baby?” he| repeated.
“Yes,” her mother said.
“Daria had the courage to pick her up and bring her home to us, even though she was a newborn with the, uh… afterbirth still attached.” She squeezed Daria’s shoulder.
“We would like to talk with you about her, if you have a minute.”
“Of course,” Father Macy said. He stepped back into his office.
“Come right in.”
