Chapter 7
Remorse's Buyer
Chapter Description: Sarah re-buys some supplies
Sarah took some time for herself. Her husband had left the lot, on his way home. She sat silently thinking about nothing for a time. The last few hours were such a whirlwind that she needed to breathe a bit, just to make sure her heart didn’t give out on her.
She then moved on to pressing concerns. She didn’t know where she was going next but knew that they were underequipped. They knew that they had the skills to take care of a young child, they’d already done that twice before now. But they no longer owned any of the equipment needed to take care of a baby. Over the years all their stuff have been loaned to family members and never returned, or donated by Emily in some of the many charitable events she spearheaded over the last several years. The stuff was rotting in the attic anyway, and they’d never need it again, they thought.
She made a list in her head. Diapers, a Crib, a highchair, a playpen, pacifiers, and a changing table? She didn’t want to get everything all at once, in case there was some solution to this soon. She narrowed it down to the bare minimum they would need. Diapers, a highchair, a changing mat, and a mobile playpen, for her to sleep in. She figured she’d still need to get pacifiers if Emily was as big of a crybaby this time as she was all those years ago.
With that in her head she composed herself and began driving to the nearest store that sold baby supplies. As she pulled into the store she found herself hyperventilating once more, and realized that she looked like an absolute disaster. She took the time to brush out her hair and take some deep breaths before she decided to go in.
As she walked in a saleswoman greeted her.
“Welcome to Baby Co! Can I help you find what you are looking for?” She said with almost too much enthusiasm.
“I think I know what I’m looking for, I’m here to buy some supplies for my Daughter…” Realizing she was likely too old to have a daughter that would need any of these supplies, she continued to add, “…Daughter’s baby shower.” She didn’t want to be the one to give a hint to the public about what happened at the high school.
“Ok, well if you need any assistance, I’m right here!” Sarah thanked the woman and then headed off into the store.
The whole place smelt a little like baby powder, with other aromas drifting around on top of it. She tossed some size 1 and 2 diapers into her cart, not quite knowing what size Emily was at the moment but figured a 12 pack of each would hold them over for a week or so, until they knew what was going on. Grabbed a three pack of pacifiers, knowing that Emily didn’t give hers up until she was almost four, figured this was a necessity. She found a pink floral pattern changing mat, and she also got the few big ticket expensive items she needed, the playpen and the high chair. She remembered something she had forgotten, purchased a car seat for infants.
In total it came out to almost a thousand dollars. She had forgotten just how expensive babies were. Then she realized that this was a fraction of the cost the Harvard would’ve costed, had Emily not got that scholarship. She loaded up the car with these items that she thought were long in her past, and then made her way home.
When she got home she decided to back her car up to the garage, so that it would be harder for nosy neighbors to see the baby supplies that were being unloaded. The neighbors of course knew that Emily went to Marble Hills and had heard that some sort of unspecific occurrence had happened there today. She lugged as much as she could into the house and set it down by the door, hoping her husband would come help her. He was occupied taking phone calls from concerned family members and friends, making sure Emily was alright.
He told them half truths, “Emily is alright, but she’s at the hospital and they’re keeping her overnight for observation” was what he told every person that called. Until he couldn’t take it anymore and told the family members to spread the information themselves. National news was covering what had happened at the school and were yet to receive any official answers, it seemed like the disastrous event had been ruled out, but nothing had been confirmed.
They both stared into Emily’s bedroom, which was well furnished for an 18 year old girl, but useless for a 4 month old. They resolved to leave it intact until they could get further answers, and decided to set up the other equipment in their bedroom, like they had done when they brought Emily home to their small one bedroom apartment.
The setup process was quicker this time around, both because of experience and because of the time pressure. The first time, they had 9 months of warning, this time they had no more than a few hours.
It was the longest day of any of their lives, both the family got reorganized the the furniture did. They were starting to get ready for the sun to rise the next day on a new reality. Mason had been sent off to bed. Sarah checked Emily’s room again, her daughter was still gone. Then she shuffled off into the master bedroom which was now cluttered with various baby equipment that they just spent the last few hours constructing.
She and her husband lounged back in bed, ready for a restless and thought consuming night. They turned on the T.V. to try and unwind a bit.
The T.V. turned on and the saw CNN. Breaking news was coming in, the host said “This may be hard to believe folks, or maybe even impossible to believe, but it seems that the attack on Marble Hills today reduced around 30 people, students and faculty, to babies!” Sarah knew the news was getting out sooner or later, but didn’t realize that it would be mere hours after the fact.
Then it got worse, the host then said that they have the names of the people who were effected, as well as their original ages. They were listed in order as the bassinets were in the hospital.
It scrolled: Jerry Donahue 58, Nancy Taylor 62, Paul Wright 51, … Kaitlynn Campbell 18, Emily Anderson 18, David Ward 18, and Heather Bailey 27.
They decided to turn off the T.V. and close their blinds. Unplugged their landline and set their mobile phones to do not disturb. Tomorrow was going to be a nightmare.
