He’s been with Search & Rescue for years. I’ve watched him pull men twice his size out of mudslides, watched him crawl into collapsed roofs without hesitation, dive blind into dark water when the sonar failed. He was unshakable, steady—the kind of man who never carried fear on his face, no matter the disaster.But when the photo came through on my satellite phone, I saw something different. His hands trembled in the frame. His eyes, usually sharp and focused, looked distant—haunted.He’d written just one line beneath the photo:“We pulled the baby from Building 6.”Only I knew what that meant.Building 6 used to be a bakery, long ago. Then it was converted into temporary office rentals. It hadn’t been occupied in months. No tenants. No families. No cribs. No reason for a baby to be there. And the main door? Reinforced. Padlocked. Still sealed when the team arrived.Yet there, in his photo, was a baby. Alive.I stared at the image, my pulse quickening. The child was wrapped tightly in a fleece blanket patterned with stars and clouds. My breath caught. I knew that blanket.It was identical to the one our aunt had hand-stitched six months ago. She’d made it for her daughter’s son, the baby who never took his first breath. Stillborn. We buried him with it.And yet, here it was.I wanted to tell myself it was coincidence. A mass-produced design. Some stranger’s child, lost and miraculously found. But the stitches in the corner—the uneven hem our aunt always left when …
He’s been with Search & Rescue for years. I’ve watched him pull men twice his size out of mudslides, watched him crawl into collapsed roofs without hesitation, dive blind into dark water when the sonar failed. He was unshakable, steady—the kind of man who never carried fear on his face, no matter the disaster.
But when the photo came through on my satellite phone, I saw something different. His hands trembled in the frame. His eyes, usually sharp and focused, looked distant—haunted.
He’d written just one line beneath the photo:“We pulled the baby from Building 6.”
Only I knew what that meant.
Building 6 used to be a bakery, long ago. Then it was converted into temporary office rentals. It hadn’t been occupied in months. No tenants. No families. No cribs. No reason for a baby to be there. And the main door? Reinforced. Padlocked. Still sealed when the team arrived.
Yet there, in his photo, was a baby. Alive.
I stared at the image, my pulse quickening. The child was wrapped tightly in a fleece blanket patterned with stars and clouds. My breath caught. I knew that blanket.
It was identical to the one our aunt had hand-stitched six months ago. She’d made it for her daughter’s son, the baby who never took his first breath. Stillborn. We buried him with it.
And yet, here it was.
I wanted to tell myself it was coincidence. A mass-produced design. Some stranger’s child, lost and miraculously found. But the stitches in the corner—the uneven hem our aunt always left when her hands grew tired—were there. Clear as day.
My stomach turned.
I didn’t want to say anything. Didn’t want to put words to the impossible thing staring back at me. My cousin, her grief still raw, didn’t need this. My aunt, who sat for hours running her hands over scraps of fabric just to feel close to the baby she’d lost, didn’t need this.
And yet… the baby in the photo looked so peaceful. Eyes shut, lips parted slightly, chest rising and falling with the fragile rhythm of life.
I closed the phone. My hands shook.
What do you say, when the impossible touches the living? When the dead seem to return, wrapped in the same cloth you buried them in?
I didn’t tell him. Not yet. Some truths—if that’s even what they are—can tear apart more than they heal.
For now, the photo stays in my pocket. A secret heavy as stone. A reminder that not everything pulled from the rubble belongs to this world.
And maybe… some things are better left unsaid.
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