The Switch

Night shift

I'm 24 and live never felt like I belong anywhere. Not in my house. Not in my own skin. My mother always said " be grateful,Eva". But grateful for what? for a face that didn't match theirs?

The basement of mercy General smells like bleach and secreats. I work night shifts, filling records no one checks.

2:13 AM.Arhive Room 4B for overtime pay. The sign above: MATERNITY WARD -DELiVERY . Pointed over, but still there.

I opened a box labeled 2002. My birth year.Hands shake.

File: CARTER, MAGARET.MALE.STILL BORN 4B.2:20 AM.MARCH 18,2002.

magaret is my mom.march is my birthday.But is says male.

second file:BABY GIRL.No NAME.ROOM 4C 2:17 AM attending Dr.H.Hale.

Three minutes before my 'death'.room 4C sealed nursery.

NOTE: Thomas-she needs a mother. you need a daughter.No one will check.This is mercy footsteps "security? who's is in 4B?

I keep the note.I was born 2:17 AM in the ROOM 4c.Margaret son died 2:20 AM in 4B I'm not theirs . My breath caught in my throat ."mercy" like I was a mistake they fixed . Margaret son died three minutes after me, and no one told me for twenty - four years. I wasn't Margaret's. l was a switch