Be My Baby

by Thomas Kearnes

Jacob closed his eyes, and Heath leaned forward to kiss him. That's when they heard the girl scream. Heath straightened up, craned his head to peer down the sidewalk. They were in the city, standing on the front steps of Heath's brownstone. The boys were used to strangers and their noises, but the desperation in her cry alarmed them both.

"Where did that come from?" asked Jacob.

"I can't see yet," Heath said, still scanning the pavement.

The two boys stood together, holding one another lightly by the arm, and waited for the girl to appear. Dense, bright clouds of mist rose from the street as the cabs and cars eased past. Heath turned with a start when he heard a rattle from a nearby trashcan, but he saw nothing.

Jacob tightened his grip on Heath's arm and pulled him closer. "Let's get back to where we were," he said.

Heath smiled and looked at him, his cheeks a fresh crimson, but he couldn't stop looking down the street. Girls don't scream like that, he thought. Not even here, not even at night.

Sinking back to his heels, Jacob sighed and joined the lookout. Still, they saw nothing but the puffs of mist that hung over the slick asphalt. The unseen girl cried out again, and this time the boys heard the words she screamed.

I lost my baby!

Jacob turned to Heath. "Did she say baby?"

"I think so."

"Oh, shit. This is a fucked-up neighborhood."

"We don't get people like that on this block, I promise."

"Then what's she doing here?"

Starting as just a dense shadow carried by the banks of mist, the shape of a girl began to emerge as her unsteady steps clicked toward them. Heath pulled Jacob back by the arm, placed his other hand over his chest. He squinted at the approaching figure. Except for the sighs of the passing cars, the block was silent. It was a rare moment in the city, and this girl had chosen it to arrive.

She was taller than normal. Thinner, too. She wore a dress patched together from black vinyl and white lace. Maroon fishnet stockings, pockmarked with small tears, covered her bony thighs. Her knee-high black boots clacked on the cement. She wobbled on her heels as she dumbly placed one foot before the other.

It was her face, however, that troubled the boys. Large eyes set close together, each rimmed in mascara tracking down her cheeks. Her skin was pale, so pale Heath suspected it was powder. A trickle of blood oozed from her nostril.

"Sweetie," Heath asked, "are you all right?"

She lumbered ahead. She was almost to the steps. She finally stopped and looked at them. "I lost my baby," she whispered.

"Your baby? You have a baby?"

She took a faltering step forward then pressed on. Jacob twisted his neck and shot Heath a look of warning. No, he mouthed. Heath bent down to look at Jacob, briefly surprised to find him there. His eyebrows knotted in confusion. "We have to help her," he said.

"She's a psycho," Jacob hissed.

"She's upset."

"Because she's a psycho."

Heath slipped past the other boy, holding out his hand to her. The girl jerked violently, her arms flailing. She screamed deep and primal. She brought her tiny knuckles down on the hood of a parked car. I lost my baby! I lost my baby! She kept beating on the hood, grunting and jerking from side to side. Heath backed up to the steps and allowed Jacob to place his hand at the small of his back. The two watched the girl wail on the car. Some intense moments later, she tired and let her arms drop to her sides. She stumbled forward again, fallen silent. The heels of her boots stamped a slow cadence on the sidewalk.

"Babe," Jacob said, "you gotta keep outta shit like that. This city is full of nutjobs." Heath looked down at him, surprised. Babe. Jacob had not called him that tonight. "I'm serious."

Heath brought his fingers under Jacob's chin. "I know you are," he said, softly.

After a quick look backward to make sure the girl still stumbled away from them, Jacob turned back to Heath. "That was scary."

"You were worried about me."

"She was crazy."

Heath shushed him gently. "She's going away now." He had his arms around Jacob, so he pulled him closer. Their bodies fused together, they felt warm to one another. Heath kissed Jacob on the lips, gently. The kiss deepened. Their arms began the slow, lovely crawl along each other's back. The block had returned to life. A neighbor high above shouted something from her window. A bottle smashed in the distance.

Almost half a block down from the boys, the girl stopped suddenly, swung back her head and howled. I lost my baby! I lost my baby!

The boys did not stop kissing. Jacob ran his hands through Heath's hair. Heath grabbed him by the ass and pulled him tightly against his hips. It was a hot, steamy Saturday night in the city, and these two boys were moments away from home.

The girl moved again now, still moaning for her baby. If she kept lurching forward, soon the boys would no longer hear her. She would vanish back into the crawling bright mist. The boys had stopped kissing now, stood embraced on the steps. Jacob leaned his head against Heath's chest, eyes closed, but Heath looked down the sidewalk.

He watched her vanish. He listened to her cries become softer and softer. It's the city, he thought. Some nights you find your baby, and some nights you don't.

© 2008 Night Train and respective authors/email support AT nighttrainmagazine.com