“The Baby,” by David Rutschman (fiction, ’02)

A story by Dave Rustchman (fiction, ’02) appears in Kenyon Review Online:

 

The Baby

David Rutschman

The baby is by itself on a blanket. Expanse of grass, expanse of gray sky. The man flinches, and the flinch becomes a little shiver, a shiver of disgust almost. He stops walking. Baby on a blanket in a tiny park.

The man had been picking his exhausted, miserable way back to the car from the hospital, but now this: the baby turns its head. On the blanket are a few toys.

The man looks behind him on the sidewalk, across the street, but sees no other pedestrians. Cars thrum by along the avenue toward the hospital entrance and the highway on the other side.

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