“No problem,” I said, a bit irked, because we weren’t doing Cally any favors. This was our child. “We have to get used to doing that.”

“Yeah, I guess you do.”

I put her back down on the empty bed and unwrapped her. I slipped her into the pink sleeper I’d brought from Baby Gap. “Look!” I said when I’d finished. “So cute!”

“Yeah,” said Cally. “It’s a little big for her, but . . .”

“Yeah, but it’s better to be too big than too small, right?”

“I guess,” said Cally.

“Well, ladies,” said Hal. “Lordy, I’m outnumbered here, aren’t I?”

We smiled.

“I should go,” said Hal.

“Oh, but you just got here,” I said.

“Yes, and it’s a workday. And I have to get back to work,” he said. “I will see you at home.”

I put the baby in the bassinet and followed Hal out to the hall, kissed him goodbye, and watched him stroll away, waving his hand up in the air the same way he’d done on the night we met. I stopped at the drinking fountain and filled a paper cup with water. I stood and sipped it as I examined one of the bulletin boards hanging on the wall. It had been decorated with the nurses’ photos and “fun facts” about their personal lives. Jenna had a dog named Barky. Bill had a degree in computer science. Kate liked fencing and also studied tae kwon do. The photos were glued onto squares of faded construction paper cut with zigzag scissors. This was a low-budget display.

The clock in the hallway said 1:55 p.m., but I wondered what time it was in Cally’s room. I headed back over and saw new people there. Someone was clearing her lunch tray. Another worker was changing the blue pads under her bottom. I waited outside for a moment before deciding to get some lunch downstairs in the cafeteria.

A couple slices of warmed-up, soggy pepperoni pizza, and I was back in Cally’s room. She had clean sheets, a clean room, and the baby had had a bath. Someone had taken the pink Baby Gap sleeper off and left it in a heap on the shelf under the bassinet.

“Who took off her sleeper?” I asked.

“I dunno,” said Cally, and I knew she must have done it. “Well, they gave her a bath.”

“Oh, shoot. I would have liked to see that.”

“Yeah, it was pretty cute.”

Later that afternoon, a nurse came in the room and announced, “Cally, I have a phone call for you at the nurses’ desk. Did you want me to patch that through for you?”

“Oh,” said Cally. “Sure, I guess.”

“Okay,” said the nurse. “Just answer when it rings, and that’ll be him.”

Him?

The nurse carried the landline phone over to Cally from the small side table near the empty bed.