Buc’s Journal

August 1993

Hearing the knock at my door, I went to check to see who it might be at this early hour. Outside, a large bread basket was sitting on my stoop with a large napkin covering the treat inside. Curious, picking it up, the basket shifts in my hand. Glad I didn’t drop it from the surprise, I pick the napkin off of a small tiefling that promptly starts screaming bloody murder.

Looking around again, I call out to whomever may have ditched the kid. “Alright, Alright, I think I have some milk or…something.” Bringing this child into my home, I knew was going to cause issues. Between the stigma of having a cursed child and the Simic probably wanting to experiment with it’s heat resistance, I wasn’t sure if I could or should keep…checking diaper…him a secret, find him a home away from here, or raise him publicly and get him a good education.

I found some milk and made a make-shift bottle out of a syringe for him to drink out of. Looking around I find a notepad and first make a note “4 oz milk 8:00am” then I take another page and quickly scrawling another note “Under the weather, please let Dr. Romath know that I will not be aiding in class today.” Walking back out I call out for an errand boy and send them off with a couple of copper and the note.

The note wasn’t a total lie, I wasn’t feeling amazing, I had some type of allergy that was ailing me. Probably the new algae we were experimenting on the other day. Grabbing some cloth for diapers and filling a few more syringes with milk for later in the day, I tap my pencil against my notebook and stare into the eyes of this little creature that has entered my life so abruptly.

I sneeze, loud, thinking that I would have scared the baby, I looked over, he’s giggling and reaching out towards me. I fake sneeze again, and again he giggles and reaches out. Well “Achu” is as good as any other name for him. Achu it is. “Now little one where did you come from and what do I do with you?” Sitting and tapping my notebook a while longer, I make the decision to call the midwife.

Calling for another errand boy, I send him with a few coppers and a couple silver to go first to Midwife Trea and then to the market to get whatever she sends him for. “Midwife Trea, I find myself with a newborne, please send this errand boy to the market for whatever I may need and come at once to my house. I hope for the utmost discretion until I have more information.”

Then I vacillated between sitting and staring at “Achu” and pacing around the room, thinking about how I’m going to have to clean it up before Achu starts crawling, or maybe he can already crawl? By the time Midwife Trea gets here, I realized that I had already decided to keep the child and that I would need to formulate a real plan of action before others found out.

Buc

Midwife Trea