I took Eleanor to the pediatrician the next morning. I told her about the sleep, the calm, the eyes. I didn’t tell her about the humming or the hymn. I couldn’t make the words come out.
The pediatrician examined her carefully and told me she was the picture of health. Perfect weight, perfect reflexes, perfect everything.
« You’re exhausted, » she said gently. « And you’re grieving. You lost your grandmother, and now you have a newborn. That’s an enormous amount to carry at once. »
I nodded. I wanted to believe her.
I drove home the long way, past the street where I had first seen the boy. He wasn’t there. I drove past the oak tree where I had seen him the second time. He wasn’t there either.
But when I pulled into my driveway, he was sitting on the curb across the street.
He stood up when I got out of the car. He looked the same as before. Barefoot. Dirty. His eyes were wild and clear.
« You had her, » he said. It wasn’t a question.
I held Eleanor against my chest and didn’t answer.
« She’s in the house, » he said. « I can feel her from here. »
« What do you want from me? » I asked.
He looked at me for a long moment.
« Your husband is going to leave, » he said quietly. « Not because he doesn’t love you. Because he’s afraid. And when he goes, she will come for you. She always comes for the ones who loved her most. »
« How do you know any of this? »
He was quiet for a moment.
« Because she did it before, » he said. « Before you were born. She did it to someone else. »
I felt the ground tilt under me.
« What are you talking about? »
He looked at the baby in my arms, and for a moment, I saw something in his eyes that wasn’t wildness. It was grief.
« My mother, » he said. « She was the first one. She was the one your grandmother came back through. »
I held Eleanor tighter.
« What happened to her? » I asked.
He didn’t answer. He just turned and walked away down the street, and I stood in my driveway holding my daughter, and for the first time since her birth, I understood that the boy on the street wasn’t a prophet.
He was a warning.
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