Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Runaway wives -- Fiction; Sportswriters -- Fiction
Peter obeyed at the moment, but he grew to have a certain contempt for
all established canons of good form in regard to holding a baby. Indeed
he eventually wrote an article for one of the magazines in which he
maintained: "There are one hundred and fifty-two distinctly different
ways of holding a baby--and all are right! At least all will do." He
based this contention on the fact that the body of a small baby is soft
and pliable and that a person with a strong pair of hands can get a
grip pretty much any place he chooses. Still, for the moment he obeyed
instructions implicitly and went down the stairs gingerly and out to the
taxicab.
"That's a fine husky kid you've got there," said the driver. "Is it
yours?"
"Yes," said Peter somewhat ashamed and annoyed by the fact that a
suggestion of pride crept into his voice quite against his will. "It's
my son."
"He certainly knows how to yell," said the driver. "I've got five but he
beats 'em all."
Curiously enough the child ceased crying the instant the taxi started.
The motion of the journey and possibly the sight of the trees and the
river and the ships seemed to have a certain interest for it. The mouth
opened into something that might have been a grin.
"That's Grant's Tomb," said Peter before he realized that whatever
interest in the proceedings the child actually had it could hardly be
pinned down to the particular. Climbing the two flights of stairs which
led to his apartment, Peter knocked at the door briskly. Somehow or
other the baby had begun to slip through his fingers and he found it
impossible to reach the pocket in his vest where he kept his keys.
There was no answer. Peter knocked again and still nobody came. Heaving
the baby up over his shoulder he found the key after trying three wrong
pockets and went into the flat. There was no one about. Kate had not
arrived. Peter was alone with his son.
Panic descended upon him. He remembered, "His skin is very sensitive. A
pin may be sticking into him," and he wondered if in the event of such
an emergency he could possibly locate the trouble. He was still more
doubtful of his ability to do anything else which might be necessary.
Even in the taxicab, Peter had not felt wholly alone. After all the
driver had said that he was the father of five. This was reassuring to
Peter. He had a mind which hopped ahead. He had been quite alive to the
arrival of a contingency upon which he would find it necessary to tap
upon the window and say, "Never mind the car for a minute. What should I
do now?"
Fortunately, the conduct of the baby was more admirable than anything
Peter had yet known. He put it in the middle of the bed where it
promptly went to sleep. Peter sat in a chair close by and watched.
Suddenly something happened which startled him. Without waking the
child rolled over and buried its head in the pillow face downward. Peter
knew that it would not smother. He had slept exactly that way himself
for twenty-five years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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