Baby Blue Meadows

By Reed Norman

Baby Blue Meadows - a crime story (9,234 words)

A young girl, Aimee, finds herself coming out of rehab and with a 3-month-old baby. What can she do? Well, she could team up with her old friend Stan and seek some help from his folks, only Stan and his father are not in speaking terms. So they’ll have to come up with a way to persuade them to offer help. Honesty need not apply. 

Morgan, Stan’s father, and notable philanderer, starts experiencing health problems that he fears will mean he’ll have to change his ways. Sex drive need not wane. 

A common link to all of them is Gary, owner of The Garden, a local gentleman’s club. A link that, in different ways, will prove fatal for all involved. Death need not wait.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reed Norman
• Release date: Jun 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513078854

Book preview

Gone were the dreams of true and unending romance, of adventure, of living to the fullest. Aimee knew those notions were only to be experienced by somebody else, someone like the girl she’d seen in the drugstore’s checkout lane the week before. She remembered that girl, with good nails, good skin, good clothes. A taller, thinner girl, who towed along a good looking beau. A girl, likely, with a proper family, which she was sure wouldn’t balk at providing all the support she might need. Aimee never had a chance, to start with, of having anything even close. And now, her chance seemed less likely, what with the baby wanting out of her tummy, one way or another.

The registration process at the hospital went fast, hassle-free. And it is now, barely a few minutes after putting on the paper-thin hospital gown and getting into bed, that she feels the pain reaching deep and staying there. Boring into her. Exploring with adventurous abandon. She’s not caring about the contractions anymore. Breathe in and breathe out, she’s told. But it doesn’t help. Nothing helps.

In the midst of a welcome respite she wonders what it will be like to never be alone, at least for a long while. She hopes it will never be anything like the deep loneliness she sometimes feels in the midst of a crowd, the sad awareness of not belonging. And then in a moment of temporary obfuscation she thinks it’s over, but no, it cannot be. It’s only the beginning.

And she screams as she hasn’t ever done before. Her vocal prowess echoing through the top of her lungs. A brief lull. The nurse storms in, casting glances with intent to do bodily harm. A damn bully, she is. You spoiled brat, she communicates with her intense gaze. Not a bully, a fat cow. And then she feels the sharp pain, cutting her raw, something inside of her, fighting from within; the skirmishes of hours ago becoming a full blown war, aiming to build an everlasting bloody empire.

No end in sight. A new scream comes out with frantic energy, alive. Another nurse walks in and then, disappointed by the everyday nature of the trouble, walks out. Nothing special. But for Aimee, time stands still as the contractions quicken their pace. Anguish follows.

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When Morgan entered the last car the train seemed to shake more than usual. He anticipated the weakness coming back again and managed to grab the back of a seat to keep his balance and weather the approaching storm. He stood there for a little while, fighting the dizzy spell, hoping to shortly regain his strength, unnoticed. When he attempted to walk slowly through the narrow aisle his feet felt a bit numb but he expected the numbness would