Chapter Ten

Sue Birch was miserable. The baby was due days ago, and she still hadn't gone into labor. This was her first child, and the way the pregnancy had been, she hoped it would be her only child. The nausea, food cravings, aches, pains, and emotional distress had been more than enough for Sue to decide she never wanted to go through this again.

Her husband, James, had two children from a previous marriage. He never got to see his children, as they lived out-of-state with their mother. James had visited them once since he and Sue got married, and Sue did not go with him. He was excited about the arrival of the new baby, much more excited than Sue was.

She parked herself in a chair. She had been walking all morning, trying to induce labor. She wanted this child out of her body. Her legs screamed at her to quit, and the rest of her body told her that she needed to rest.

Doctor Milwe said it was normal, and he wouldn’t induce labor for another few days. “Suck it up, Sue,” she said to herself through gritted teeth. This was 1951. Women have been having babies for centuries without problems. Surely, she could handle just one.

Sue still had chores around the house to finish. James had laid off the staff because the hotel wasn’t doing well. It was horrible timing, because she could use some help. Sue tried to stand to go do the laundry.

As she stood, Sue felt the first contraction. She doubled over in pain, at least as much as she could. When the pain had passed, Sue pushed her hair back into place, wiped her sweaty palms onto her dress, and continued to the kitchen.

The laundry basket was sitting on the kitchen table. It was full of clean laundry waiting to be put away. Sue began folding the laundry and felt another contraction hit. She tried to clench her teeth, but a scream escaped her throat. This one was stronger than the last. Suddenly, she felt her water break. It gushed onto the kitchen floor, forming a puddle around her feet.

Sue tried to get to a phone. She needed James to take her to the hospital. Her body had other plans. She was hurting too badly to let go of the kitchen table. She took a deep breath before forcing herself across the kitchen to the phone attached to the wall.

Another contraction hit. She stopped and screamed. It felt like she was pushing out a fully grown man. She had broken out in a sweat and felt like she was on fire. Sue screamed for help.

She lay down on the kitchen floor. She couldn’t make it any further. The contractions were coming faster now. Sue reached down and felt the top of the baby’s head coming out. With the next contraction, she pushed as hard as she could. The pain was blinding. She screamed again, begging and crying for help.

She repeated the process two more times, and then, a little baby boy laid on her kitchen floor, crying as loudly as his lungs would allow. Sue picked him up, dried him off, and wrapped him in one of James’s shirts from the laundry basket. She clamped the cord and cut it with a kitchen knife, hoping she had correctly remembered the stories of slave women who delivered babies while working the fields.

. They would deliver right there on the ground, pick up the baby, and keep on working. She felt sorry for those women, who were obviously much stronger than she was. She began to cry, partly from the pain and partly from the fact that she had just delivered her baby at home, alone.

She was still sitting in the kitchen floor, holding the baby, when James got home from work. Once he saw the state she was in and the blood on the floor, he rushed into the kitchen and sat down beside her. He cradled her head to his chest, beaming with pride. He helped Sue from the floor and walked her to the bed. He then called the hotel and told them to send a couple of maids to the fourth floor, to clean up the mess in the kitchen.

“I’ve decided on a name,” James announced. Sue didn’t care, but she asked anyway.

“What name have you decided on?”

“James Alvin Birch, Jr.”

“That’s fine, dear.”

“Okay. Swell. You get some rest, and I’ll watch the baby.”

“That’s fine, dear.” Sue hurt all over. Every muscle ached and burned. She was tired and knew that she needed to rest. James was so excited about the baby that he hadn’t put him down since he got home.

It didn’t take long for Sue to fall asleep. As she slept, she dreamed about the house. Specifically, a demon that inhabited the house, up on the fifth floor. This demon, though she couldn’t physically see it to confirm, felt immensely powerful and intimidating. It caused the hairs on every inch of her body to stand on end, and its presence loomed over James, who was still cradling their son. She didn’t know why or how it would accomplish its goal, but she knew it wanted the baby.

Sue was uneasy when she woke.. James was sitting in a chair in the bedroom, rocking the baby.

“Do you want to hold him?” James asked when he noticed she was awake.

“No. I’ve held him for nine months. It’s your turn,” she replied.

What Sue wanted was a bath. She got up from the bed and started the water in the bathtub. She undressed and laid down in the hot water. It felt good, relaxing all her sore muscles. She started to drift off to sleep again before she heard a voice that jolted her awake.

“Give me the baby.”

She knew the voice belonged to the entity from her dream. The demon. Sue opened the valve and drained the water from the bathtub. She dried herself and put on clean clothes. She ran a brush through her hair quickly, not bothering to fix it, or even fully dry it.

She walked out of the bathroom. James was still sitting in the same chair, the baby still cradled in his arms. Sue took the baby and fed him while James arranged the bassinet beside their bed. After feeding the baby, Sue diapered him and wrapped him in the new baby blanket. James had taken the opportunity to sneak away to call his friends and family about their son’s arrival. She placed the baby carefully in the bassinet. She stood over him for a moment, watching him sleep. She heard the voice again.

“Give me the baby.”

Sue turned and looked around the room. There was no one there. She was frightened, because the voice was louder this time, and she was fully awake.

“No!” she shouted out loud.

“No, what?” She turned. James was standing in the bedroom doorway.

“Nothing, dear. It was nothing. You’d better get some sleep while you can. Babies have a way of keeping you up at night.”

“Quite right. I believe I will turn in. Are you coming to bed?”

“In a moment.” Sue stood there, looking at the baby. She felt terrible for resenting this poor, helpless creature. What a horrible mother she must be. The baby was sleeping peacefully, and Sue quietly got into bed beside James. She had just started to doze off when the baby’s cry woke her again.

She got out of bed, picked up the baby and sat in a chair to feed him. She looked at his tiny face feeding at her breast. This was her baby, her son. He looked like a tiny angel.

After the baby had fed, he continued to cry. Sue walked into the parlor with him, so the noise wouldn’t disturb James. She held and rocked him until he went back to sleep. She carefully carried him into the bedroom and placed him in the bassinet.

“I’m going to take the baby,” she heard the demon’s voice from her dream again.

Sue didn’t know what to think. On one hand, she was scared that some otherworldly force was going to hurt her baby, but the logical side of her mind knew that she was hearing things that weren’t real. She lay back down in the bed, but she did not sleep.

Sue was restless. She still hurt all over, and now, she was scared as well. She was afraid to tell James about the voice, for fear that he would commit her to an asylum.

She woke in the early hours of the morning. She hadn't realized that she fell asleep. The baby had not made a sound. She jumped up from the bed and looked in the bassinet. The baby was gone.

Sue began to cry. She frantically looked underneath the blankets and searched the floor around the bassinet. She screamed.

James woke to the sound of her screaming. "What's wrong, dear?" He jumped out of the bed.

"The baby! The baby's missing!" she cried.

"How can that be? Where was he?" James was getting upset, too.

"He was right here, in the bassinet. I laid back down, and I must have fallen asleep, but when I woke up, he was gone," she sobbed.

"We'll find him. I'll have the maids and bellboys questioned. Whoever took him, we'll get him back."

James strode out of the room toward a telephone. He called out "Sue! In here!" from the parlor.

Sue ran to the sound of his voice. She turned on the parlor lights, and there, on the seat of her chair, lay her baby. He was still, unmoving. As she got closer, Sue could see the purple skin on the bottom half of his body, the pale, mottled skin on the top half. She knew that he was dead.

James stood there, staring, motionless, expressionless. Sue knew that it was the demon. The demon had gotten her baby, the first baby to be born in this house. But James would not blame a demon. He would blame her. She had been the last one to hold the baby. She was the mother, and it was her job to protect the baby.

Sue stood from the floor and held back her tears. She turned and walked into the bedroom and calmly picked up the revolver James kept beside the bed. She cocked the hammer and placed the barrel against her chest, just over her heart, and pulled the trigger.