He Came Out of Nowhere, Holding Something in His Hands — I Wish I’d Never Seen It (3 of 3)

He looked at the shoes, then back at me. “She was just sleeping,” he whispered. “I only looked away for a second…”

And then, as quickly as he appeared, he dropped the shoes — gently, almost tenderly — onto the road. He turned and began walking toward the woods, his figure fading into the darkness as if the night itself swallowed him whole.

We sat there, shaking. Neither of us spoke for a full minute. The headlights still illuminated those little shoes, their laces twisted and dirty, resting on the cracked pavement.

Finally, my sister exhaled. “Call someone,” she whispered.

The police arrived twenty minutes later. They searched the woods for hours, but they didn’t find him. What they did find was an abandoned car by the embankment — engine cold, driver’s door open, and in the backseat… a baby’s blanket.

To this day, I still see his face every time I drive at night. I still hear his voice — that quiet, broken plea echoing through the glass. And sometimes, when the road is empty and the air feels too still, I can almost swear I see those tiny shoes lying in the middle of the road again…