Chapter 145: The Christening of an Angel

As Jessie patted Bjorn’s hand on her bare shoulder she also began to sing very softly to the baby behind that invisible barrier. Bjorn joined in very softly too as did Troy with both offering beautiful harmonies to one of those tunes written by Jock Ramsden. The others all joined in very softly and as best they could too. And so it was that this new life heard for the very first time a choir singing in her room.

Those voices must have somehow penetrated the neural pathways of that young immature brain causing a few synapses to fire that triggered another response that caused the child’s mouth to suddenly open and close a few times in sympathy with the singing. It was Glenda Unsworth that saw this happen and remarked very excitedly, “Look! Look, everyone. She’s singing with us. Our little girl is singing with us. The baby’s eyes also seemed to open momentarily as if to acknowledge the group’s efforts to entertain her then they closed again and so did her mouth.

It was very quiet in that room as everyone looked on at this baby and what had appeared to be an attempt to communicate with them. The nurses of course just brushed it off as just something that baby’s do and in no way very meaningful. Even though Jessie knew that this was in all probability the truth of the matter she still none the less believed in her heart that her girl was singing with them and that’s what she held onto for the rest of her life.

After another period of silence it was Troy who finally spoke aloud with a remark about the baby’s feet.

“Look at her feet” Troy whispered, “well her toes at least. She’s got the same funny shaped little toe on each foot that Carrie had. Carrie was always just a little bit self conscious of those funny shaped toes. She was scared that they would grow longer in old age and become even more deformed and make any open toe, high heeled shoes look hideous. I guess this little girl will have the same problem. Genetics can really suck sometimes.”

Everyone standing about that box both laughed and cried at what Troy had said about the baby and it was in that moment that Bjorn knew what the baby’s second name should be. He quickly backed away from the others and flipped out his smart phone and hooked into the Clinic’s free wi-fi system and began thumbing through internet pages on meanings of names. Eventually he shut his phone down in the full knowledge that his name suggestions were the right ones based on their meanings and on the baby’s biological mother that Troy had just reminded him of.

When the nurses thought it was time for everyone to leave Bryce asked Jessie if she had thought of a name yet as per Carrie’s letter. Jessie looked at Bjorn then at her step-father and said, “I want Bjorn to be the one to name the baby with my only suggestion being that its surname be Bjorn’s surname. If Bjorn is the biological father then I want his surname to be our daughter’s surname. I want her to be an Erikson just like her dad! And in time I will be just as proud to become an Erikson myself to give this child a proper mother and father.”