On the Other Side of the Door

heart/h/Fragmented Voices/Fall 2021

A very long time ago, an unusual baby was born to older parents. Albert — the tiniest baby, the size of a child’s hand — a baby with transparent skin, glowing like a small, see-through shimmering stone. At his birth, no one knew what to say or do about this strange baby. After a few weeks in the incubator, once Albert showed signs of eating and sleeping and going to the bathroom, the doctors sent him home in the tiniest baby carrier, really just a child’s shoe box, and they wished his parents well.