Baby's in the family way."

This news from the youngest of us five siblings came as a pleasant surprise. First Baby became a doctor and then she got married and then of course the stork came calling. Baby had indeed grown up. But she continued to be Baby for all of us at home -- even as she waddled kangaroo-like, her pouch growing bigger as D-day neared.

When the four-year-old of the second sibling came visiting, he wanted to know why Baby Auntie's stomach was so big. Because there is a baby there, we told him.

"So no boxing-boxing with her or jumping on her or pushing her," his mother reminded the rambunctious imp. "Or else the baby will be hurt."

"But how did it get there in the first place?" he asked.

"All God's doing," the mother sighed, amidst giggles and snickers from his elder, teenaged cousins.

Science and how a child is created have been explained to him in the simplest possible way, but the imp revels in asking these questions over and over again.

Another day. He caresses Baby's protruding bulge. "Why is your tummy getting bigger? Who made it so big?"

She looked down at him, a haze of love about her -- Papa was seated close by and her embarrassment was palpable. Hugging the irrepressible brat she told him, "There's air there. Just like your balloons."

Laughter all around and the warm air of expectancy filled the room.

At times, Baby took out her stethoscope to hear the foetus's heartbeat. She let me hear it too.

"Quiet," she told me, "concentrate and you will hear it."

I protested that it was her heart I could hear thudding, not the kiddo's. But when I did go quiet and strained my ears I heard the thud-thud-thud of the little one ensconced warm within her.

She guided my hand to her big belly. "See, this is the foetus's leg," she said. My palm connected with a firm, soft paw pressing into her insides, almost as if clamouring to come out.

Despite being a doctor, Baby did not want to lose the magic by knowing what the sex of the child was. All of us agreed with her and kept the will-it-be-girl-or-boy debate very alive.

The eldest sis said it was going to be a girl; the four-year-old wanted a younger brother to bully around; for the rest of us, girl or boy, it didn't really matter.

And, finally, one cold, wintry evening, a little angel did find her way into this world. But she was destined to remain an angel, to fly away from our consciousness forever.

As long as my hand, fair, silky fluid-slick black hair on a distended head since she had to be expelled from the womb), she looked lovely curled up in the tray, wrapped in a red cloth, the umbilical cord snapped and blacker than any abyss. I wish I had looked into the eyes -- maybe there was a smile there for us.

She will remain an angel stilled at birth, never to smile.

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