Stolen

A midwife all my working life, I am haunted by how much our mothers do not know about changelings.

The first I encountered was at the start of my career. I was about to leave a blue-eyed new-born in the nursery while her mother slept, when I noticed a shimmer, like wings, out of the corner of my eye. Freezing on the threshold, I turned – and blinked. The child no longer wore the pink gown I’d dressed her in, but was swaddled in a filigree of cobwebs.

I darted across the room, unwrapped the baby, and slipped another pink gown over her head. The hairs on my arms stood on end when dark brown eyes twinkled up at me.

Every night I dream of the babies that were stolen, and wonder how their mothers didn’t notice that changelings had been left in their place.

Kim M. Russell, 9th September 2024

Image by Jernej Graj on Unsplash

It’s Monday and time for Prosery at the dVerse Poets Pub, with our host, Melissa, and  we are writing very short pieces of prose or flash fiction that tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, in under 144 words, in any genre, and including given lines without changing word order or adding any words. We may add or change punctuation.

Melissa has selected a line from a poem by Tina Chang, an American poet, educator, and editor, and daughter of Taiwanese parents. The poem is called ‘Love’ and the line is: “I am haunted by how much our mothers do not know.” 

31 thoughts on “Stolen”

  2. 😱this gave me the heebie jeebies, Kim! I think about that sometimes, I’m sure it happens that children do get switched at birth, in the nurseries. The added otherworldliness of how she is taken, that only added to the scary feeling.

    Side note: have you seen the movie Changeling with Angelina Jolie? I know you like a bit of horror.

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  10. This was beautifully written, Kim. Gave me the willies, but that’s the sign of a good write! While not in the same vein, there was a switching of babies in “Midnight’s Children”.

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