The Stories of an Immortal

The Baby for Sale

It was my 3rd day in the French village and everything was beautiful. Bright blue water shimmered softly in the beautiful summer sun while gorgeous red roses bloomed along the grassy bank. I was on my way to the baker's, excited to buy some delicious treats for my short hike I had planned to take later that day. Unfortunately, I got distracted...

As soon as I stepped into the bakery, I sensed something was wrong (or maybe it was just the fact that there was a woman crying on the floor). I asked what had happened, if there was anything I could do to help, did they want to talk about it? A man, who I could only assume was the baker, told me that his wife (the crying woman) had always wanted a child, yet was unable to bear children herself.

An old woman, who was described as ferociously ugly (but that seems rather rude), had offered to give them a child in exchange for a substantial sum of money, to be delivered by noon the next day. I offered to talk to the old woman and bring them a child for free. They didn't understand what I was to do, but I assured them I would solve the problem for both parties in a perfectly safe way. Eventually, they agreed.

So I set off. First, I had to find this (apparently ferociously ugly) old woman, however I was positive it would not take long. I was right – by sunrise I had found her. How? By asking the villagers, of course! Iwas sure there wouldn't be many unattractive, scary old women about. She lived a little way away from the village centre, in a quaint little cottage which was slightly falling down.

I told her I spoke to the baker and had wondered if there was anything I could do to help that wouldn't involve selling a baby. With glittering tears in her eyes, she told me about how she was running out of money and could no longer afford the rent of her house. She was too frail to work and wasn't the brightest so she thought that she could steal her niece's new-born to sell to a childless couple.

Obviously I explained how that was wrong, but I also gave her a solution. This niece of hers sounded delightful and though they hadn't met and had only exchanged a couple of letters, I was determined that they could live happily together with the new-born, as a family. After booking the old lady into an inn for as many nights as she needed, and telling the baker I was sorting everything, I set off to speak to the niece.

The niece lived only one hour away by carriage so I just borrowed someone's horse and took off, though I did wait until early the next morning. After explaining who I was and what I wanted, the niece was overjoyed!

It turned out she had always wanted to meet her aunt, especially after her mother died. She lived alone with her baby and had enough money for them all to live comfortably as a family. A few hours later, I returned with the old woman (whose name is Colette, which I should have been using from the start, how rude of me) and I can guarantee they all lived happily ever after.

On my way back to the village, I stopped off at the orphanage. I asked if anyone had delivered a baby recently and to my delight, someone had! Thrilled, I asked if I could adopt him after offering them some extra money to help with looking after everyone. I thought they might have needed me to sign a bunch of paper work, but they just looked relieved to be able to have one of the kids taken off of their hands.

Once I got back to the bakery, I gave the baby to the couple. They looked over the moon! They named him Lucas and he looked very happy with his new parents. I revisited a couple of times as he got older, just to make sure he was happy and didn't need anything. I think they all lived happily ever after too.