Strawberry Birthmark

Molly looked at Raya’s strawberry birthmark on the left side of her ribs. Her little daughter had brown ringlets, long fingers and a small, puffy reddish birthmark. The same one Molly had on her own left side. An angel kiss separating them by 43 years.

She snuggled her two-year-old as she carried her to the bathroom for the nightly routine. Raya was squealing, excited to splash in the warm watery cocoon with her red truck and a huge yellow ducky. As Molly eased the child into the water, she noticed a red streak on her hands.

Looking for blood from a cut or scrape, Molly glanced at Raya’s birthmark. It was gone.

Raya, not even noticing, was eager to play and get wet. No tears, screams, just giggles and water everywhere. Puzzled, Molly smoothed the skin on Raya’s belly, side, legs and arms pretending to wash her but looking to see if the birthmark moved or migrated to a different spot.

She sped up bathtime, book and singing, gently tucking her into the toddler bed with a 20-pound, soft plush toy named Doggie. Raya was asleep in minutes thanks to weeks of painful and loud sleep training.

Molly open her laptop to search for strawberry hemangiomas and incidence of fading or dissolving. Lots of trustable medical sites popped up. Often not appearing at birth, these birthmarks emerge when the child is three to five months old. They can disappear by the time the child is five to nine years old.

Absentmindedly, Molly lifted her white muslin shirt, and felt her own birthmark, smaller, less puffy and red than she remembered in grade school.

This is crazy. How can a birthmark disappear?

Her heart beat faster, she climbed down the stairs to basement. A white metal filing cabinet stood as a sentinel. She quickly opened a drawer marked Raya’s Birth. She pawed through manilla file folders with hastily scribbled headings in purple magic marker: First sonogram, pregnancy wand test, birth records, hospital bracelets (mom and baby) and finally first Polaroids pics. There were several tiny photos the nurse took of Raya and Molly, nursing, swaddling – everyone look so happy.

She scoured the photos looking for Raya and a birthmark. There was one of a nurse helping Molly put her thick blond hair in a chignon to ease with nursing.

Molly was a “geriatric mom” at age 43 using invitro with a sperm donor, having harvested her own eggs when she realized her PhD might stifle dating, marriage and baby making in her biological time frame.

She never thought anything of Raya’s brown ringlets and her own blond straight hair. Maybe donor dad had curls? Did he have a strawberry birthmark? Molly hiccupped, forcing a deep breath.

She scoured the birth records.

Child’s Full Name: Raya Hannah Swan

Date: October 19, 2023 1:01 AM

Place of Birth: Pine Ridge Hospital, Pine Ridge, MA

Birth Weight: 7.5 lbs.

Sex of Child: Female

Eyes: Blue

APGAR: 9

Birthmarks: None

This seemed so strange – her mind racing. She called her best friend who was at the Raya’s birth.

“Sally, this is so weird.” I was giving Raya a bath tonight and her strawberry birthmark came off. No blood, no scrapes, it just came off like grape jelly.”

“Maybe they just dissolve – she is two years old.”

“But mine is still on my body, it has shrunk, but still there. Plus, my AI search said they fade away if anything, not slide off like slime.”

“Weird.” said Sally.

“Do you remember what she looked like at birth? The birth records show she didn’t have the birthmark,” Molly asked.

“I don’t remember a birthmark, but I remember that head of curls!” Sally shared.

“This is crazy Sally, I’m scared. Did I do anything to hurt Raya? I don’t remember anything from the birth. It was a blur.”

“Hey Molly – you were so out of it, they had to do an emergency C-section. It was a rough time; they thought your uterus ruptured, remember?” Sally gently asked.

“No, my memory is fuzzy but I do absolutely remember the strawberry mark on her side – it matches mine. She always had it.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter – she is yours with or without the birthmark,” Sally said. Pause.

“I’ve got to figure this out. Gotta go.” Molly ended the call.

Still confused, Molly, laid down on her comfy bed. She reached for a Shutterfly book, Introducing Raya. Photos of tightly swaddled Raya in the ubiquitous hospital blue and pink stripped flannels blankets. There is Raya with swirls and swirls of brown hair.

Molly looked happy, exhausted, but not with the bulging eyeballs new moms have from the painful pushing. One quick C-section slice and Raya was out.

She turned the page; a huge piece of the page was ripped out. “What! Who did this!” she screamed. The opposite page was a photo of her nursing Raya skin to skin and there it was… the beautiful bulging strawberry birthmark.

She scrambled to turn the page. A photo showed an aide in the nursery holding up Raya for the photographer. But behind her was another baby being changed on a table. Long brown ringlets, pink feet and a noticeable strawberry blister on her left flank. Who is that baby?

Molly examined each photograph closely, seeking another angle maybe with the name on the Lucite crib of that bald baby with a strawberry birthmark.

Nothing. She picked up the black and white video monitor that lived on her side table. Raya’s little arms were stretched around Doggie in a tight clasp as she slept soundly.

Who was that other baby with the identical strawberry birthmark and curly brown hair? Why was a photo torn out of Raya’s baby book? Who was the toddler asleep in the next room with the removable birthmark?

Molly’s eyes, were tired and itchy. She typed one last line into Google.

“Public record of live births Pine Ridge Hospital, Pine Ridge, MA October 19, 2023.”

She pressed enter.

Five births were recorded between October 19, 2023- 12 midnight to 12 noon.

Her eye caught the first entry:

Multiple births born to same birth mother on October 19, 2023 1:01 a.m. and October 19, 2023 1:04 a.m.