With a quick defiant glance toward his manager, he folded the list in four quarters and pushed it into his denim pants pocket.
Violet followed him from the room. "I can go with you for this one."
" No. I'll be fine."
" Taking your first baby is not easy. I can be there with you for moral support."
" I said, no." Feeling sorry for being rude to Violet, the only one who has ever tried to be friendly with him, he stopped and turned toward her. "Sorry. I know you only want to help."
Curiously she asked, "How come this is your first baby?"
Daimhin shrugged. "Just been lucky, I suppose."
" I had to fetch a baby after my first decade. I know newbies don't collect babies because it can be emotional, but you have been here for - what?" Her eyes glanced at a point beyond his shoulder as she thought. "Three hundred years?" She looked back at him for confirmation.
" Almost three hundred," he replied dismissively.
>i<
The first time he saw Taylor Fergusson she was cocooned in pink. Everything surrounding her was in shades of pink. He stood next to her cradle and he looked down at her beautiful, peaceful face. There was no way he could make himself reach out to touch her. She was so tiny, he could not justify it to himself why he should take her life, her soul with him when she had not even had a chance to live.
It was almost dawn and he was still standing next to her cradle, staring down at her, trying to convince himself to just do it. He left fetching her until last. Most people believed there was a set time when they are supposed to die, but the precise hour is of no consequence, it is the date which is of more importance than the actual second.
Her tiny fist curled up and her tiny pink lips started sucking on her fingers. She turned her head and opened her eyes. She looked up at him. Her clear blue eyes were framed by long dark lashes. A little frown formed between her eyes as if she was not sure whether she should cry or smile, and then a smile tugged at her pink mouth. A dimple sunk in on the side of her face. As Daimhin looked down at her, he could not help smiling at her in return.
He reached for her, to touch her when she let out a piercing yell as if to stop him. Her sweet little face pinched into a sad wrinkled prune as her mouth let out a sharp wail.