Short Story

Abandoned

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Muse on Monday where David asks us
to write a story about facing a situation, a dilemma
where there isn’t necessarily a right answer.
Here’s were the prompt took me.

The Prompt: You find a baby alone at a bus stop. There are a lot of factors that could change the situation. For example, what time of day/year is it? What is the weather? Who else is there? What country are you in? Who are you? What do you do next?

Image by Me and Leonardo

The rain had stopped an hour ago, leaving the December air crisp and cold. I found the baby at the downtown bus stop on Pine Street, bundled in a yellow blanket, sleeping in a carrier beside the bench. It was 11:47 PM on a Tuesday.

I’m a nurse finishing my shift. The street was empty, the last bus long gone. I checked around …. no one. The baby couldn’t have been more than two months old.

No cell service and the nearest open business was a 24-hour diner three blocks away …. too far to walk with the baby carrier. I sat on the cold bench, pulled my coat tighter, and tucked the blanket more securely around the tiny face.

A car approached, slowed. My heart raced. False alarm …. they kept driving.

Then I remembered the emergency call box at the corner, installed after the station closed its ticket booth. I gathered the carrier carefully, walked the thirty feet, and pressed the button.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“I found an abandoned baby.”

While I waited for the police, the baby stirred and opened dark eyes, looking up at me without crying. I thought about the person who left this child here …. desperate, terrified, perhaps both. I thought about the baby’s future, now completely changed by this moment.

The sirens sounded. Red and blue lights painted the wet pavement. But in those 15 minutes before help arrived, it was just the two of us at the bus stop, strangers brought together by circumstance, both waiting to see what would come next.


NAR©2025

This is “Your Decision” by Alice In Chains

Muse on Monday – December 1, 2025

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

31 thoughts on “Abandoned”

    1. Exactly! It drives me insane when I hear about these young girls who conceal their pregnancies, give birth while at a party or a school dance, and then throw the baby in the garbage or drown it in the toilet and go on with their lives. I can understand the fear or the shame or the inability to talk to someone but why kill an innocent baby when all they have to do is bring the baby to a church or hospital? Sorry to go off on a rant, but I’m sure you know where I’m coming from. Thank you, my friend.

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    1. Because it happens, that’s why. I wasn’t sure how I was going to end this story; I felt very strongly about having the nurse take the baby home and raise it herself. I also thought about leaving it unresolved but in the end, I went this route. Thanks for your comments, Jody. I appreciate your thoughts.

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  11. Keep this one going, Nancy. This happens frequently in Fort Worth. Young mothers usually leave them at a Fire Station or a church, but I can see how a bus stop would be a place where a child could be found. Who knows why a mother does this: fear of having nothing to offer the child, a horrible relationship, too young and stupid, who knows? But, usually, the baby is better for it. We come into this world against our will and leave the same way; it’s everything in between that shapes us.

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    1. Wonderful comments, Phil. I hadn’t given much thought to keeping this one going; will have to see what develops. I am wholeheartedly with you on young moms giving up their babies for the chance of a better life. It has to be an unbearable situation for young girls who believe they have nowhere else to turn. Thanks for sharing some really good thoughts.

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