The Gifts of So Lan Chu

      The two women never looked back and the other woman was totally unaware of Margaret or the baby. The blond woman then whistled and hailed a cab.

     "But ....But!.. Wait!.. Here, the baby!" exclaimed Margaret.  The noise of a passing car drowned out her plea and her voice was lost in thin air. 

      The cab pulled up and sped off, leaving choking gas fumes in the air.  Margaret stood there in shock, thinking about all that she had just been through in the last forty five minutes or so.  Going to the corner market, coming upon this fearful sight of a woman in the storefront, lying in pain on the concrete.  Helping the child be born and remembering her fears as she was witnessing all this.  The memory of the woman, her disinterest in the baby, and the memory of the hardened blond, and the voice of the woman who was Vietnamese, or Chinese, Margaret didn't know.  The memory of her saying,"No boom boom three day!"  Margaret didn't know what that meant.

     The crying of the baby a few feet back in the front of the camera shop brought Margaret to her senses.  She bundled the baby and as she picked her up there was something that caught her attention.................