They arrived together, she said softly, left on the steps of a church in the middle of the night, without a word, without names, just nine infants wrapped in the same blanket. Richard couldn’t move. Nine! How could anyone leave nine lives like that? The nurse lowered her voice even further.
Nobody wants them. People will agree to adopt one, maybe two, but never all of them. They will eventually be separated.
The word « separated » pierced him. He thought of his wife’s promise, of that love given a place to grow. He thought of how Anne always said that family wasn’t about blood, but about choice.
When Richard finally spoke, his voice trembled. What if someone took them all? The nurse almost laughed. All nine? Sir, no one can raise nine babies, not alone, not without money.
People will think you’re crazy. But Richard wasn’t listening anymore. He approached the cribs, and one of the babies, tiny fists clenched, stared at him with a disturbing intensity, as if she already knew him…
Another woman grabbed his sleeve, and a third smiled, her gums exposed. Something cracked inside him. The pain he carried transformed into something heavier, but alive.
The responsibility. I take it, Richard whispered. The paperwork was a war.
Social workers spoke of recklessness. Relatives called him an idiot. Neighbors murmured from behind their curtains: What’s a white man doing with nine black babies? Some muttered darker things.
He was warned about the money, the ridicule, the ruin of his life. But Richard didn’t flinch. He sold his truck, his tools, even Anne’s jewelry.
He begged for overtime at the factory, repaired roofs on weekends, and took a night shift at a diner. Every dollar went toward milk, diapers, and cribs he made himself; the house was overflowing with chaos. Sleepless nights, baby bottles boiling on the stove, clotheslines sagging under nine little outfits.
He learned to braid hair with clumsy fingers, learned which lullaby soothed which child, learned to count their breaths in the dark when fear kept him awake. And, each day, the whispers grew louder. In the park, parents pulled their children closer together, strangers stared at them in the grocery store.
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