The baby blinked as his mommy vaporized. His daddy had not been around, and now his mommy vanished. His little life was already very confusing. His head wobbled as he turned to look at the person who was holding him. Yeji looked down at the tiny human in her arms. He gazed at her and she started cooing at him.

  Bhuwakul, Seulgi, and her father just stared. All three of them knew different aspects of her, but a quasi-Madonna mother figure was not one they were prepared to see. They could almost see Yeji backlit by a halo while holding that child.

  Yeji and the baby turned back to the incredulous band. “What?”

  “Oh, nothing. Let’s get going. She left the baby’s car seat?”

  “It’s right here, along with all of the normal baby bag stuff with diapers, powder for the baby bottles when he’s hungry, some toys, and such,” Yeji informed them.

  She is going to be such a good mother, they all thought.

  Said sharper, “What?” with just a touch of threat.

  “Nothing,” all three chorused.

  “Get that bag, Bhuwakul, and let's get moving.” Yeji lead the way out to the car park. Once at Seulgi’s car, she put the baby’s car seat into the middle of the back seat and secured it, while Seulgi held the little boy. She amused him by unknowingly making some of the same faces that her father made to her as a child.

  Once the car seat was secured, the baby was added and the rest of the impromptu family cmored in. They followed Gillian at a much more sedate pace. They would be meeting Jack’s mother at the hospital as well. This would be a first for all of them, as they have never met the woman. She should be an interesting person to raise someone like Jackson. Yeji added that she had heard that they were a single-parent family, which in turn made it that much more incredible.

  They got to a familiar hospital. They parked in a familiar parking lot and entered a suspiciously familiar hospital entrance.

  Then it clicked.

  Seulgi, Yeji, and Bhuwakul all noticed that Jackson’s room was not too far from where Wendy stayed when she was there. They even got waved to by some of the night staff nurses that they knew.

  They asked the nurses where the room that Jackson was in. They got directions to where the room was, then shuffled off to the room in question.

  When they got to the room, the door was closed. No one was wanting to enter just then because they could hear Gillian sobbing. Then they heard Jackson comforting her.

  Not wanting to intrude, they sat around the waiting room until things settled down inside. The only one who wanted to go in was the baby, but he was overruled.

  They heard the tac-tac-tac of heels ccking down the hallway towards them. A tall woman, tall for an Asian woman, who was impeccably dressed was walking toward them. She was in a bck skirt and a red shirt with a high neck that went nearly to her chin. She wore a bck bolero jacket on top of that. She also had long ebony hair that was so dark it would have absorbed the light if it had not been so shiny.

  She had that aura that was intimidating. She had a cssic beauty as well. Both Yeji and Seulgi felt dimmed just by being in her presence. Neither were used to that. They both nearly bristled in jealousy just by looking at her.

  Then the oddest thing happened.

  Seulgi’s father said, “Sonja, what are you doing here?”

  She lost composure for almost half a second. “Alfred? Fancy meeting you here.”

  Seulgi blinked. Her father’s name was not Alfred.

  When he stood up and kissed both of her cheeks in an Italian fashion, if Seulgi had not been already in a chair, she’d have colpsed in shock. Her father. HER FATHER just kissed another woman.

  Sonja said “We haven’t seen each other since…”

  He said “Kosovo. It’s been a while.”

  “I’d stay and make small talk, but my son is in that room there, I need to go see him.”

  Another voice spoke up. Seulgi said, “How do you know Jackson?”

  Sonja simply said “He’s my son. Who are you to ask?” There was a challenge in her voice.

  Before Seulgi could respond, ‘Alfred’ said “That’s Seulgi. She’s mine. And she works with your son.” There was nearly, but not quite a hint of a warning to mind her manners.

  At that, Sonja lit a thousand-watt smile that blinded everyone who saw it. Even the nurses down on the other end of the hallway felt the effect. One even had to sit down.

  “Oh! So, that’s why you are here. Sorry, dear. My dear boy is not feeling too well, so he’s in here right now with his wife. So, if you excuse me, I really need to go in and talk with them.”

  “Hold on, Sonja. You should stay here and chat with us for another five or ten minutes first. She…” he looks a question at his daughter

  “Gillian, poppa” he was answered.

  “Yes, thank you. Gillian needs to cry herself out first. She sounded like she was nearly done. And Jackson?” He looked over at Seulgi again, who nodded in confirmation. “Yes, Jackson is awake and comforting her.”

  She started to puff up and say something, but instead gustily exhaled and sat herself down. Still, she looked unruffled and proper as she sat with her ankles crossed next to ‘Alfred’. They started chatting, much to the bewilderment of everyone else.

  The baby started squirming in Yeji’s arms, so she set him down on the floor. This same baby started crawling over to Sonja. Seulgi, Yeji, and Bhuwakul all watched in fascination as the baby crawled over the woman, and then tugged on her leg.

  Sonja stopped what she was saying and looked down. The baby looked up and blurted out a long stream of baby babble.

  Sonja said to the baby, “Oh, really? What makes you think that?”

  The baby looked confused for a moment and let loose another string of baby babble.

  Sonja looked surprised and said, “That does make sense. What else?”

  Much to the surprise of the rest, they became raptly focused on this interpy and watched it for about nearly half an hour.

  “Sonja?”

  “Sorry, Al, I was just talking to my grandson. What is it?”

  “I do believe we can go inside now,” he said pointing to the room.

  Sonja reached down and pulled the child up as she stood. She headed to the door with total assurance, but not arrogance, that someone else was going to pick up the baby bag and follow. The child focused on the voices from the other side of the door and started reaching with both of his chubby little arms for those voices.