Some have asked, so here we go.

There was a woman who had 15 kids. Pregnant for over 12 years before 45. She never raised one to adulthood for various reasons. Stayed quiet for some reason, until it was figured out somehow she done did it again. Kid 16 coming. Then she went silent. We could NOT find her. This was terrifying, given how she had lived. Then a break came from a random neighbor. I roll up in the hood in my Protege, and I knock on the door (I’m as whitey as is possible right now. Polo shirt, khakis…), not exactly sure if I will go home tonight. I get let in, because even druggies know better, to find her cradling the newborn (like within the last 24 hours). I call 911, coaxing her to give me the baby, and kicking away idiots. While swaddling the baby in my shirt, through drying afterbirth, blood and all, I ask why she went to such lengths to hide. She said…”I thought if I did it long enough, you’d let me keep her.” I said, “If you had let me take care of you, that could have happened.”

The baby is in High School. Intelligence that could kill us all. She has my sense of humor, which she shares with me by email once in awhile. Sometimes I do feel I made a difference.