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John lit up a cigarette while pissing on the dumpster behind Pop’s. Usually dumpsters are disgusting, but this one was the worst of all. John has seen many dead bodies left in dumpsters, but still this one needed a dead body to improve it. John reminded himself to tell Pop to get professional help to clean the dumpster next time he would go there. As John was swaying side to side trying to keep himself up, he heard an unusual sound.
John has heard a lot of the usual noises of people yelling, swearing, fighting, and glass shattering after last calls, but this noise was not any of them. He swore he heard a crying infant. John felt he must have had enough to drink that he was beginning to hallucinate, so he slapped himself in the face a few times and the noise was gone. John then decided it was time to leave this place. The crying sound began again as he was walking towards his car and this time John knew he was not hallucinating. John covered up his nose with his shirt and used the light from his cell phone to search the premises.
Inside the dumpster, John found the source of the crying. The crying came from a small infant wrapped up in a pink cloth with her tongue larger than most, eyes smaller than most, and cheeks larger than most infants. The infant was wet, shivering, and covered in her own feces. John felt sick to his stomach, and it was not because of the alcohol or the smell of the dumpster. John has seen a lot of terrible things in his life, but this was one hit a nerve in his heart and the bottom of his stomach. John took his head out of the dumpster and immediately was reconnected with the alcohol he drunk that day. John then wiped the remains from his mouth and grabbed the baby from the dumpster. He covered the wet and cold infant with his own coat and called Bob from dispatch.
“Bob, it is John. I have a 10-65: infant found,” John said trying to sound sober.
“10-65? Is it alive?” Bob said concerned.
“She won’t be unless you get me an ambulance at Pop’s right away,” John annoyingly said.
“Right away,” Bob said.
John knew he needed to get the infant to somewhere warm. John knew a bar would not be a place for her, so he started his car and held her tight. The infant looked into John’s eyes and stopped crying. John tried talking to the infant to reassure her that everything is ok, even though he knew that if the infant lived, she would be growing up in a tough world that would eat her up alive just because she looked different. John felt sadness for her. A few moments of life and she was already disposed of like a piece of garbage, and it will not get any better for her. It was then that an officer knocked at his window. John rolled down the window and it was Bob who responded to the call.
“We did not have any officers available, so I came with an ambulance,” Bob said.
“Thanks Bob. I will go with her to the hospital,” John said as he handed the infant to the paramedic.
“I do not think that is a promising idea, John. You reek of booze and shit. You need to go home and rest. We got it from here.” Bob said as he told the paramedics to leave.
“Are you kidding me? There is no way that is going to happen. Ok, I will just follow the ambulance to the hospital.” John said as he slurred his words. John was well known for seeing cases through and this was the kind of case that he was not going to leave in the hands of someone from dispatch.
“John, you are clearly drunk, and I will not let you operate a vehicle under your condition. I will drive you home and you can pick your car up in the morning. If you and I are going to have a problem, then maybe we will need to take this downtown,” Bob said very sternly. Although Bob was primarily working dispatch, he was a young officer who took his job seriously.
John could not argue with Bob and agreed to let him drive him to his house. Bob did tell John that the infant would be at Children’s Hospital for when he sobered up. Bob also warned John that officers will be stationed at the hospital, and it would be a bad idea for John to show up there in his current state. John agreed to visit the infant in the morning.
Tonight, was not going to be the night that John would get any sleep.