A Family Affair - Next of Kin (15 page)

“We have travelled from the city to ask if it is at all possible to view the records relating to a birth which occurred twenty-four years ago,” Kane stated.

Nikki squeezed his hand.

“No,” the woman answered, still having not looked up.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“No,” she repeated.

Kane narrowed his eyes. He was not used to being treated that way by a woman, and was not going to go anywhere without further explanation. “I don’t mean to be rude,” he said, in his most gentle voice, “but would you mind putting your pen down for a second and explaining to us why that wouldn’t be possible.”

The woman sighed, and put her pencil in her book before looking up. She took one look at Kane, and almost jumped in her seat.

He smiled at her; the warm welcoming smile he used when older women were contemplating starting an exercise regime at the gym. They usually signed up on the spot soon after.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, her face changing colour. “Sometimes I get so carried away with my crosswords. Do you like crosswords?”

“Er... yes,” Kane lied, trying to keep her on side. In fact, he couldn’t think of anything duller on the entire planet.

“Now, you were asking about birth records from twenty-four years ago,” the woman repeated, putting her reading glasses on.

Sometimes Kane hated that his face and body had this kind of effect on older women. It was unseemly, but in this particular situation useful, he reasoned.

“Unfortunately, the hospital’s records are only kept for a period of seven years.”

“Oh,” Nikki said disappointedly.

“But, you could try talking to Iris,” the woman offered, her eyes still fixed on Kane. “Iris knows everything about this place. If anyone can help, she can.”

“Who’s Iris?” Kane asked.

“She’s a nurse. What’s more, I think she used to work in the maternity wing in her early days.”

“That sounds promising,” Nikki said. “Could we speak to her please?”

The woman looked at Nikki for the first time and scowled. “Well, don’t get your hopes up, dearie. There’s only a small possibility that she would remember one birth among the many in this institution every year.”

“I understand.”

“Let me call her. Go and take a seat in the waiting room please.”

Within a few minutes, a middle-aged nurse with silvery grey hair walked around the corner and surveyed the people in the hospital’s foyer.

Kane nudged Nikki, and they both stood up.

“Hello, are you Iris?” Nikki asked.

“Yes,” she answered, walking towards them with an inquisitive look on her face. “I was told there was someone here to see me. Do I know you?”

“Er... no. We’re sorry to bother you,” Nikki said. “I was born here, and I have some questions about my birth.”

Iris nodded.

Kane found himself staring at the nurse’s large brown birthmark on her shoulder. It was hard not to notice it.

“I was born here twenty-four years ago,” Nikki continued explaining. “According to the lady at the front desk, all of the records would have been destroyed by now, but she thought you might be able to help me.”

“I’ve worked here for twenty-five years,” Iris said. “I’ll be retiring next week, you know.”

Nikki smiled. “Congratulations.”

“But I don’t know why they suggested talking to me. I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast this morning, let alone something that happened twenty-four years ago.”

Kane could see that this conversation was unlikely to go anywhere. He sensed that Nikki was about to be very disappointed.

“Would it be okay if we asked you a few questions, just in case you remember anything?” Nikki asked.

“Twenty-four years is a long time ago, dear. It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to help.”

“I understand,” Nikki said. “But do you have ten minutes to take a walk around the gardens with us, just in case?”

“I’m on my lunch break, so a walk would be welcome.”

The three of them left the foyer and began to stroll over the green grass. They passed a row of tall poplar trees which lined the main driveway, and walked at Iris’ pace, which was slow and steady. She was far from elderly in appearance, but moved like a woman twenty years her senior.

Nikki decided to get the conversation flowing. “I’m trying to find out if there were any unusual circumstances on the night I was born.”

Iris stared at Nikki. “No two births are identical, but I don’t know about unusual circumstances... So, what’s your name anyway, dear?”

“Nikki Lucas.”

“And your mother’s name was...?”

“Recently, I obtained a copy of my birth certificate. It lists Sarah Rush as my mother.”

Iris stopped still, and turned to face Nikki. “I wondered if I’d ever meet you. Yes, I remember the night you were born. It is etched into my memory. It’s amazing how the young babies grow up to be men and women.”

Kane was surprised. This entire trip had seemed like a wild goose chase to him. It was an excursion designed only to please Nikki, but here they were staring at someone who remembered the events of Nikki’s birth. He could see the elation building in Nikki’s face.

“Sarah Rush passed away many years ago,” Nikki said. “I’m not sure if you knew that.”

“Yes, I knew,” she said, turning away.

“You said you remember the night I was born. Can you tell me about it?”

Iris looked away and into the distance. “I was working the night shift. I was just out of nursing school you understand, but I was determined to make my mark and help as many women as possible. My shift was quiet until your mother arrived. From memory, it was after midnight. There weren’t many staff scheduled. There wasn’t time for the doctor to arrive. It was a very fast labour. That was the very first time I delivered a baby without supervision.”

“Go on.”

“After the baby was born, I thought it had been stillborn, and I put it out of your mother’s sight. A few minutes later, I heard a baby’s cry, and I supposed that I’d been wrong. You see, there were no other babies in the hospital that week. I found the baby girl was alive and well when I went to check.”

“Is that right? You initially thought the baby that Sarah delivered was stillborn.”

“It didn’t cry or move, and there was no breath. She was blue, you see. I hadn’t seen a baby like that before.”

“Did you know that Sarah killed herself shortly after I was born? It wasn’t an accidental death.”

Iris looked Nikki in the eye, but then dropped her gaze. “Yes. Everybody knew about it, being a small town. It was shocking to see a new mother take her own life.”

“I know this is a strange question, but I hope you don’t mind my asking…”

“Go ahead. You can ask anything you like.”

“Is there any chance that Sarah suspected that I wasn’t her child?”

Iris stopped still again, her face haunted by a past she could not forget. “It looked like the same baby,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry?”

Iris snapped back to the present moment, and nodded. “She knew that you weren’t hers.”

Kane’s mouth dropped wide open. This was not the revelation he’d been expecting. Sarah had known?”

“How could that be?”

“The day after the birth, we performed a routine blood test. Your blood type would have been impossible to achieve if Sarah was your mother.”

“I’m O negative.”

“Your mother was AB, or A positive. I can’t remember exactly.”

Kane didn’t understand very much about blood types, but Nikki seemed convinced by the information.

Iris kept explaining. “The hospital initially kept it quiet, assuming there had been a mix up. There was a small police investigation after the initial finding. All of the babies born that month were tested, but there had been no mix-ups as suspected. Every other parent had the rightful child with them. There were no babies reported as missing either.”

“I don’t understand. If there was no mix-up, then where did I come from? Where did Sarah’s baby go?”

“I haven’t spoken about this for a long time, and please understand, this is only a theory. There is no proof.”

“Go on,” Nikki encouraged her.

“I remember seeing a teenage boy carrying something. He was in the birthing unit, where he shouldn’t have been. Visitors weren’t allowed in there, and still aren’t to this day. Only fathers are allowed in.”

“And… you think the boy switched the babies?”

“It’s possible. I told the police at the time, but there was nothing they could do. I didn’t know the lad. It was such a small town, and he wasn’t familiar to me. He definitely wasn’t a local. These sorts of things just don’t happen.” Iris shook her head. “I shouldn’t have told Sarah my theory.”

“But you did tell her, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Did she kill herself because of your theory?” Nikki asked.

Iris took a few moments to answer. “Not a day goes by when I don’t wish I could take back what I said. She was convinced that the boy had stolen her child, and believed that no one would help her. The police refused to open another investigation. She was devastated to lose her baby. I’ve never seen a mother quite so sad. Part of me has always felt some degree of responsibility for Sarah’s death, but... it looked like the same baby to me.”

“I didn’t belong to her, and she didn’t want to raise me.”

Iris nodded her head. “She wanted her own baby back. She couldn’t bear the disappearance of her child. I tried to tell her that I believed her baby had been stillborn, but she didn’t believe me. Perhaps the boy had done her a favour.”

“You mean by taking her stillborn baby and leaving her with a healthy child?” Kane asked, perplexed by her statement. “A child that was not hers.”

“God works in mysterious ways.”

Kane shook his head, but bit his lip.

“So, the hospital was happy for Sarah to keep me?” Nikki asked. “Even though both you and Sarah knew I wasn’t her baby.”

“Yes. The police investigation agreed with the hospital’s finding. As far as everyone was concerned, you were Sarah’s child, and they expected you to go home with her. The blood test was unexplainable, but presumed to be an anomaly. The technology has moved on a lot since those days. If this happened here today, the test would be repeated, and a different finding made.”

“I guess that explains why Ken raised me thinking I was his child.”

“Who is Ken?”

“Well, he is the man listed on my birth certificate. Recently, I underwent DNA testing and discovered that he wasn’t my biological father. The doctor suggested to us that there could have been a baby mix-up. I have no idea who my real parents are. I don’t understand how this could have happened.” Nikki was gradually becoming more and more emotional with the new information. “If I’m not Sarah’s child, then whose am I? Why didn’t my real mother report me missing? Someone needs to explain that to me.”

Iris stopped walking again and looked around, as if concerned about the direction of the conversation.

Kane seemed to understand what she was thinking. “We aren’t going to get any lawyers involved or anything like that. You don’t need to worry about speaking to us. We are just trying to locate Nik’s biological parents.” It was a lie of course designed to ease the nurse’s concerns. If Nikki decided she wanted to sue, then sue they would. The hospital should be made to pay for their mistake.

“Is that right, dear?” Iris asked Nikki.

Nikki nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry for raising my voice at you. I know you are not to blame. I promise this conversation is just between us.”

Iris continued walking. “I don’t remember meeting anyone called Ken at the hospital with your mother, I mean Sarah.” She looked away, deep in thought. “Come to think of it, I do remember a man who called the hospital over and over again. Sarah refused to take his calls. That might have been him. I can’t be sure though.”

Nikki wanted to know more about the mystery boy. It didn’t matter if Ken was or wasn’t there – she could ask him those details another time. “So, the only clue we have to my real identity is the boy you saw.”

“I wish I could be of more help, dear,” Iris said. She started leading them back to the hospital. “I will need to return to my shift shortly.”

Kane cleared his throat, disregarding her comment. “This boy... can you describe him to us?”

“Um, no. It was such a long time ago. I only spoke to him for a matter of seconds.”

“Please, this is important.”

The nurse looked away while thinking. “Um... let me see. I do remember a few things about him, but these memories are over twenty years old. I might be mistaken through the passing of time.”

“We understand,” Nikki said, wanting to know every small detail the nurse could remember.

“He was only a teenager, no more than fourteen or fifteen. I think he had dark eyes with dark hair also. It was night time you see, as Sarah gave birth in the wee hours of the morning, but the hallway lights were on. I could see clearly, and I remember certain features about the boy. There was something that disturbed me about him, although I had no reason to think that, you see. It was just the vibe of him. Just being around him made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I’m sorry. I know that isn’t anything to go on. I didn’t want to describe him because I know the information won’t help you. Now I really must go.”