Zaira knocked on the Rosses’ door, Callie on her hip. There was quiet shuffling on the other side. It wasn’t long before Hannah answered. The elder had on her usual friendly smile when she first came into view. Then she spotted Callie. Hannah’s eyes widened and her mouth opened in surprise, then she was sporting the largest smile Zaira had ever seen on her, her eyes twinkling.
“Have I been in a coma the last two years?” She exclaimed. “Who is this?” Her arms outstretched towards the baby.
“This is Callie.”
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Hannah leaned in to look at the baby. She put a light hand on the girl’s back. Hannah’s exuberance was a little much for Callie who shoved her face into Zaira’s shoulder.
“Your niece?”
“Um, no. She was put in my charge last night. I sent in the adoption papers for approval this morning. Hopefully, she’ll be mine by the end of the month.”
“Oh! I didn’t know you were looking to adopt. How wonderful! How long ago did you put in the request?”
“Um…”
Callie was side-eying the energetic elder.
“Are you sure she’s adopted?” The tone was teasing, but Zaira felt the question was valid. Callie had kept the altered appearance she had chosen the previous afternoon.
“Not unless I’ve also been in a coma as well. She’s not even a distant relative. This was a stroke of luck.”
“Why didn’t tell us you were looking to adopt?”
“I wasn’t. Rushka met Callie during one of their contracts and thought of me when they heard she was up for adoption.” She lied. It was a simple, easy-to-remember, cover story.
“That’s unusual. Very nice, but unusual. The adoption agencies often make this a long deal.” Hannah frowned. “Especially if you aren’t already registered.”
Zaira shrugged. She didn’t have a good answer for that and wasn’t about to dig a hole for herself with a shoddy lie.
Hannah said genuinely, “Do you get on well?”
Zaira looked down at Callie who had her head down on her mommy's shoulder, fist in her mouth, and was watching Hannah carefully.
“So far so good.”
“Dear?”
“Mhmm?”
“I’m going to have to meet this Rushka soon.” Hannah stated in a ‘mom’ voice. There was no room to negotiate.
“It’ll happen.” Eventually.
Zaira shuffled on the spot. “I was wondering… if you would like to come with us to the store. I need to outfit the house for a child. We’d be out all day.”
“Yes! Yes, of course!” Hannah clapped her hands. “Just let me get dressed.”
Zaira quickly went to grab the car seat off her lawn and brought it back to the car. She set Callie on the grass and looked at the instructions, they weren’t very clear. She started installing the seat in the car. Trying not to swear during the process.
She was still struggling when Hannah came back out, Ryan in tow. The woman had already been properly dressed for an outing but now she was wearing, not quite Sunday best, but not an outfit most people would wear to go shopping for children’s items.
Hannah’s happiness was radiating from her. Even Ryan, she noticed, had a lighter energy about him. He seemed much more relaxed and even had a slight smile on his face. He immediately walked over to Callie who was sitting playing with the grass and kept her from eating a handful of it. Then Zaira saw him smile and coo at the child. For her part, Zaira felt her nerves over the trip into town ebb and a smile grace her face.
“Are you certain she isn’t yours?” Ryan asked raising an eyebrow in her direction, but his smile conveyed playfulness. His teasing came as a surprise, but she didn’t have time to answer before he addressed the baby. “Hi sweetheart, your name is Callie, right?”
Callie looked at him wide-eyed and showed a rock to the man. Ryan immediately took that opportunity to continue talking to the girl and start playing with her. Callie took to Ryan quite well.
Zaira turned her attention to Hannah.
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“You look lovely.”
“Why thank you, dear. Thank you so much for bringing me along.”
Zaira smiled at her and nodded towards Ryan. “He likes children?”
“He loves children dear. And so do I. If you ever need a babysitter, you just ask us.”
“I was suspecting something of the sort. Thank you.”
“Anytime dear. So, what are we getting today?”
“Everything. She was dropped off with the bare minimum. Some diapers, a change of clothes…”
“When are we leaving?” Hannah asked.
“I just need to get this seat set up. It's not cooperating.”
“Here. I’ll get it.”
Ryan walked up to the vehicle. He installed the seat without much trouble. Zaira shot him a glance.
“I used to do this a lot back when we used to see our grandchildren.”
She gave him a sad smile. He waved her off.
Zaira went to pick up Callie.
“Would you like to come with us?” She asked Ryan.
“No, thank you. You ladies enjoy yourselves.” He smiled and nodded at her then leaned towards the girl. “Bye Callie.”
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“Oh, would you look at that!” Hannah touched the hem of a frilly sequin dress.
“You can toss it in.” The elder was the most attracted by all the choices in little dresses and shoes. Picking out all matter of bright dresses for the baby. Zaira let Hannah be, she would concentrate on the essentials and let Hannah have some fun.
“Look, Callie! Look at all these sparkles!”
Callie barely gave the dress a glance, much like anything else that day. She was snuggled into her new mom’s chest, held up by her baby carrier. She was awake, occasionally peeking out of her cocoon, but mostly sucking on her fingers and ignoring the world. The only thing that had kept her interest for very long was an extra soft cartoon flame plushie, which was now wedged in with her in the carrier.
They had walked by it and Callie had reached out her little arm and let a loud, “Bak.”
Zaira had walked over to the display stand which had held a variety of plushies. Callie whined and reached out towards the stand. It took Zaira 4 tries to guess which stuffy had caught Callie’s eye, the baby would pull away abruptly every time she got it wrong. Finally, she held up the stuffed flame, Callie immediately grabbed it from her and pulled it close, rubbing her face into the soft fabric.
“Awe… You’ve got to get it for her.” Hannah cooed more towards the little girl.
“That was the plan.” Today she was going to get the girl everything she needed and whatever she wanted.
Not that the almost-toddler had much input. Callie spent most of the shopping trip with her head shoved against her mommy and holding tightly to that little flame. Were she a toddler, this would be quite a different experience.
“Do you know much about her background?” Hannah asked, pulling Zaira’s thoughts away from comparing the brands of cribs.
“I wasn’t told anything. Hopefully, I’ll get more information once the adoption is finalized.” Zaira threaded her fingers through Callie’s short dark hair, caressing the little head. Callie was now sound asleep and Zaira wondered once more how much she remembered. What had she gone through?
They shopped until the stores closed. When they were done shopping for Callie, she and Hannah decided to stop by the grocery stores to top off. The little car was crammed. There were packages filling the trunk and over every seat. Hannah, who was in the passenger seat, even had packages on her lap and at her feet.
Overall, the day had gone well. Dare Zaira say she even enjoyed herself? Though she was a little concerned for Callie. The baby had stayed unnaturally quiet, only whimpering when she needed something.
“She’s so quiet.” Zaira had whispered out loud on the drive home. She remembered her boy being much more active at this age. Crawling everywhere, babbling and crying loudly, and just taking the world in.
“She just went through a big change,” Hannah patted Zaira’s leg. “Give her some time.”
Zaira glanced at Callie through the rearview mirror. The girl was staring out the window, wide-eyed, and had a death grip on her little flame.
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Two weeks had gone by. Zaira and Calliope had settled into a routine. They had gone to see Ime not long after their shopping trip and Callie was looked over. All was well. Zaira had mentioned Callie’s unusually quiet demeanor, but Ime was unsurprised and told her to keep an eye on it.
“It’s not unusual for those resurrected to take a few months a year to ground themselves.”
“You know she was resurrected?" Rushaka hadn't exactly mentionned who they had had to inform. "Does this happen often?”
“Of course, I know.” Ime finished preparing the two vaccines for Callie, the most she was willing to give at a time. They would play catch-up later. “Resurrections are really rare. Especially these days.”
“These days?”
“Yeah, Death and Alathea need to agree to have someone properly resurrection. They’ve not really been page on the same page this millennium.” Ime paused as they wheeled over to them on their doctor’s stool. Zaira overheard the retired god mumble under their breath. “And that’s putting it lightly.”
The doctor smiled and cooed at Callie before starting a little dance routine to distract the baby from the needles. The first went in well but Callie noticed the second prick. Calliope started crying and turned away to bury herself into her mother. Zaira held her tight and rocked her little girl.
“Do you want to be able to breastfeed her?”
Zaira looked up, blinking rapidly. “Sure.” She stammered.
Ime wheeled off to prepare the needed hormone treatment.
It was a little odd, but Zaira didn’t regret her choice. She looked down at Callie, she had fallen asleep on her chest after her meal. Zaira pet a soft little cheek. She only had two more uninterrupted weeks with her girl before she would be back on call for work. She wondered how well Callie would do alone with the Rosses. She had been tied to her mother’s side so far, though the Rosses had visited. She had seen more of Ryan the last few weeks than she'd ever had.
Zaira stood and slowly placed Callie into her crib. She’d installed it next to her bed, her anxiety couldn’t handle having the baby in another room. She risked another kiss before sneaking away to put on the laundry.
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Zaira picked up speed when she spotted the clearing for 13th Line Road. Leaving Callie for the first time had been harder than she had thought it would be. She was looking forward to baby cuddles.
Zaira landed in her yard, threw the rest of her glamour up, and walked to the Ross’. She heard Hannah cooing to the little girl.
“Yes, that is a lovely stick.”
Zaira hid in the treeline to watch a little longer.
Callie dropped the stick she was showing to Hannah and bum-scooted a little further to another stick. Callie babbled and looked around. Her eyes fixed on Ryan’s chopping block she bum-scootched to the block. Hannah followed closely behind her. Callie tapped the block a few times before her curious little hands reached out to grab the offering plate from the top of the block.
“Whoopsie. No darling.” Hannah softly grabbed Callie’s hands. “That’s for our forest friend. Are you hungry?” Hannah picked the girl up.
Callie whined in response.
“Come let's go inside.”
“I can take her,” Zaira said as she stepped out into the yard.
As soon as Callie spotted her mommy large crocodile tears streamed down her face. Callie started crying and reached out to her momma, pushing away from Hannah like she was being kidnapped.
“Whoa,” Hannah said as she and Zaira met up. “Here you go.”
Zaira held Callie close as the baby shoved her face into her chest pretending not to know Hannah.
“Well,” Hannah crossed her arms.
Zaira couldn’t help it, she giggled. “Ah yes, I see Hannah has been treating you so poorly.”
Hannah snorted and laughed. “Right. How long have you been back?”
“Not long. Everything go well?”
“She was just great.”
“Good.” Zaira kissed the top of Callie’s head.
“How was work?”
Zaira's mood dropped again. “It was ok.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Would you like to stay for supper?”
Zaira was about to say yes when they both heard the sound of tires on a gravel road. Arthur’s car appeared and pulled into the Ross’ driveway. “No, thank you.”
“He doesn’t bite you know.”
“I know. But it's been a long day and I don’t feel up to meeting new people right now.”
Hannah opened her mouth to rebuke before hesitating and saying. “I understand dear. Get some rest. We will see you later.”
Zaira looked to the driveway again. She heard Ryan greet his son. “How’s it going with Arthur?”
“It’s been amazing dear.”
Zaira studied Hannah’s expression. Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Have you heard anything from Julian?”
“From Julian? No. Even Arthur says he doesn’t hear from him.”
“I’m sorry.”
Hannah waved her off. “Don’t make me cry before supper. You'll ruin my appetite.”
Hannah gave Zaira a half-hearted smack on the shoulder, which startled Callie who had been falling asleep.
“Now go. Get some rest. I expect you here tomorrow for supper.”
“Yes, mam.”
“See you tomorrow, Callie,” Hannah added as she waved to the baby who did not wave back.