Annie by Deanna Morris
Their baby was already four days old and Mr. and Mrs. Morgan still had not named their child. The nurses kept asking the baby’s name for the hospital records, but the Morgans kept answering, “Not sure yet.” The nurses mumbled among themselves that “they’ll have to call her something to be discharged tomorrow.” One of the nurses started calling the infant, “Baby It.”
Tomorrow came. Mr. Morgan was reading the morning newspaper in the hospital room as Mrs. Morgan packed her things to go home. He carefully folded the paper into thirds, then half over and fingered the air out of the pages. He held up the paper and pointed to the obituary column.
“Annie, we will call her Annie.”
Morgan sighed, “Fine” and wrote “Annie Morgan,” on the discharge papers. On the way home, she said, “Annie, I like the name Annie. I don’t like where you found it though.” Mr. Morgan said he liked it too and “what difference did it make where he found it.”
More tomorrows came, the child grew and, as children eventually do, Annie asked about her birth. She was turning ten next week.
Mr. Morgan rubbed his forehead and looked straight at her. “I will tell you the truth, Annie and, the truth is, you were not planned. It is also true that you were the best mistake I ever made.” Then Mr. Morgan told her about finding the name Annie in the obituary column and how it “just sounded right.”
“Besides, I figured the woman in the paper wasn’t using it anymore,” he laughed.
Annie’s eyes opened wide and Mrs. Morgan walked into the room just as Mr. Morgan was telling her about her name. “It took five days after you were born for your father to decide on a name. I don’t know what took him so long.”
Mr. Morgan looked at his wife and said slowly, “You know, naming something means it belongs to you, that it is yours.”
Mrs. Morgan paled as he added, “I wasn’t sure.”
They both stared at each other, forgetting that Annie was in the room. When they remembered, Annie had retreated to her bedroom and closed the door. They thought it best to leave her alone.
Years have passed now and they have never spoken of the matter again. Not ever. Not even Annie. Especially not Annie. When family and friends ask about her from time to time, her parents say she is “doing fine, really fine. She does, however, seem especially fond of black crepe dresses and she wears no makeup, except of course, for the white lipstick she applies all day long.”
Deanna Morris is a second year MFA student at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her story “Charlie” was published at Subtle Fiction, her story “Orchard” was published at A Small, Good Magazine. Her story “Connections” is published at Clever Magazine and her story “Birthday House” is being published in the upcoming issue of Scissors and Spackle literary magazine. Her poetry credits are “Sewing Room” published in IUPUI’s genesis [sic] literary magazine as Best in Poetry, “Go Now” published at Quantum Poetry and “Ice” to be published at Eunoia Review in May.