Hush Little Baby by Caroline B. Cooney Read Free Book Online

napped peacefully. She woke up with her heart racing.
    What if Dusty had kidnapped Sam the Baby?
    No.
    Dusty was dim and half wired, but she wasn’t bad.
    This was her son, and the reason she looked so awful was that she’d recently given birth. An event known to be tiring.
    Unless the reason she looked so awful was that the baby wasn’t hers, and Ed Bing was her partner in crime.
    Kit sprawled over the bed and grabbed her remote.
    New Jersey News came on public television at six. Although Kit had come to terms with the move from California, she made a habit of not watching New Jersey News. It seemed the right moment to change her ways.
    When she sat up, the mattress shifted, and poor Sam the Baby thrashed desperately, as if he felt himself falling. “Oh, Sam!” She picked up the sweet perfect little guy, resting his little chin on her shoulder, and Sam threw up everything in his tiny tummy.
    Curdled hot stinking milk ran down her back and soaked through her shirt. “Sam!” She held him up in the air, her two hands straddling his back. His eyes opened all the way, and he seemed to spot her and consider the meaning of this huge set of hands and this huge face.
    There was a large circular wet spot on her bedspread.
    “Sam!”
    She undid his diaper. It was completely dry. “Okay, I’m catching on. I didn’t tighten it enough. When you peed, it ran out the side.” She yanked off her own filthy shirt, washed her back, put on a new shirt, and mopped the baby up with a warm damp washcloth.
    New Jersey News began.
    A little box in the corner of the screen said 6:01 P.M. Dusty had left a newborn baby with her ex-stepdaughter for three hours.
    The baby began to cry. This was real. Not a whimper. He was a very little guy, very new to this world, but he could announce his problems a lot louder than a new kitten could announce its problems. Kit had no idea how to comfort him or quiet him. If being dry didn’t help, and being fed didn’t help, and being cuddled didn’t help — what were your other options?
    “Don’t cry like that,” suggested Kit.
    Newark schools were having financial difficulties.
    “Ssshhhh!” she said. “Be a nice guy, Sam.”
    A power plant was having minor but meaningful failures.
    She, too, was having a failure. She hoped it was minor. How did you know with babies whether you were in big trouble or little trouble? Sam began to turn red from shrieking. She patted his back. She rubbed his tummy. She kissed his forehead.
    He was not soothed.
    A state representative was resigning under mysterious circumstances. State police were closer to solving a rash of ATM crimes.
    The baby’s yelling dwindled. He gave her a sad look and threw up on her again.
    The weather was to continue fair and seasonably warm. Stocks were up.
    At least she knew if there had been a kidnapping, it had not been reported to NJN.
    “Dusty,” she said out loud, “you’d better come back here fast, or I’m going to do something.”
    Yeah? she said to herself. Like what?
    The baby slept, or else slid into a coma. She could not see his tiny chest lift, nor hear air drawn into his lungs. What if something was wrong?
    The phone rang.
    Kit was so startled by the ring she quivered like the baby, halfway to shudders. She rushed to grab it, so a second ring wouldn’t startle the baby. “Dusty!” she shouted. “You better get back here! I am so mad at you! What am I supposed to do with the baby?”
    There was no answer.
    No sound at all.
    Very gently the caller hung up.
    It was Ed Bing, she thought.
    No, if it was Ed Bing he’d talk to me. He’d say, How come you pretended you hadn’t seen Dusty in months?
    So who was it?
    A telemarketer?
    A wrong number?
    She was abruptly, completely afraid. Swallowed, immersed, drowning in fear.
    She could hardly hoist Sam, she was shaking so badly.
    I’m going home before I suffocate, she decided. Dusty expects me to be here, but when she finally arrives and I’m not here, surely even Dusty