Baby

Baby is Amy Hide’s sister, and her reunion with Amy turns a presumed death into an uncertain but joyful return. She cannot explain what happened to Amy or resolve Amy’s lost memories; instead, she meets her alive, embraces her, and begins again from the relationship they still share. Baby’s marriage and daughter give the meeting a family context, but its emotional center is her recognition that she has a sister again.

Identity and Family Background

Baby is the name by which Amy’s sister is known in their reunion. She has also gone back to Lucinda, and jokingly links that name to Baby Bunting, calling the situation bad luck. The change in names is presented in her own brisk, self-mocking account rather than explained as a formal change of identity. It suggests a family history in which names and roles can be carried, discarded, or resumed, without making Baby’s feelings about that history fully explicit.

By the time she meets Amy again, Baby is married and has a daughter. She describes marriage as fine but also inevitable, the next stage after leaving home, and treats that progression as something one eventually does. Her daughter is called Mary; Baby says she will name the next girl Amy if she has one. The names bring the absent sister into Baby’s present family life, although the intended name for a future child also distinguishes remembrance from replacement: her existing daughter is Mary, and Amy remains the name she has not yet given away.

Baby’s family includes their father, Marge, and George. When Amy asks after their father, Baby reports that he is now completely blind and says Marge and George are wonderful. She has not told them about Amy’s return, and Amy agrees that it is best not to tell them yet. Baby leaves open the possibility that this may change, but neither sister sets a time for it. Their reunion therefore begins as a private reconnection, not an immediate restoration of the whole family.

The Reunion

Baby arrives at Amy’s door, visible as a shape behind rippled glass. Amy decides not to hesitate and opens it; the recognition is registered first through the body, as her heart seems to be everywhere at once, and the women embrace. The scene moves from uncertainty at the threshold to physical closeness before either can explain the years between them. Baby blows her nose and says that she cannot believe Amy is there, adding that Amy looks younger than she does.

Baby had thought Amy was dead. Her response makes the reunion more than a meeting after a long absence: it is the reversal of a death she had accepted as fact. Amy asks her not to say so, because she will start crying. Baby, overcome by the improbability of the moment, calls it ridiculous and asks what happened and whether Amy knows now. Amy does not. She still cannot remember anything for certain. Baby must receive her sister’s return without receiving an account that would make the disappearance intelligible.

The reunion also gives Amy a view of herself through someone who knew her before her disappearance. Baby says that Amy is different, recalling her earlier sullen, challenging, bored look and judging that she had been awful. This is not a complete explanation of Amy’s former character, but it makes the change visible as a difference noticed by a close relative. Baby’s recognition is affectionate and blunt at once: she welcomes the living woman before her without pretending that she is simply unchanged from the sister she remembers.

Relationships and Renewal

Baby’s response holds grief and renewed attachment together. She had believed Amy dead; now she can speak with her, ask after the family, and imagine another meeting. She gives Amy her number and invites her to visit with her man, meet her niece and brother-in-law, and re-enter the family’s everyday life. Baby says that it is good to have a sister again. The invitation turns the embrace into a possible continuing relationship, though it does not erase the uncertainty surrounding Amy’s past or the delay in telling Marge and George.

The two women embrace again before Baby leaves. At the car, Baby pauses and asks, “How do I know I am me?” Amy answers by asking whether they are twins; Baby replies, “No, but I love thee.” The exchange shifts from practical plans and family news to a question of identity, then answers it through affection rather than evidence of sameness. They are not twins, and the conversation does not claim that they share identical lives. Their bond rests instead on love and on the fact of being sisters, even after separation has made Amy’s own history uncertain.

Narrative Significance

Baby’s return gives Amy a human connection that does not depend on recovered memory. Amy cannot yet establish what happened to her, but Baby recognizes her, confirms their kinship, and offers a place in the family’s future. The scene therefore keeps two kinds of knowledge apart: Amy lacks certainty about her own past, while Baby can still address her as a sister and make concrete plans with her.

The reunion’s small details carry that movement from loss toward possibility. A figure waits behind glass; Amy opens the door; the sisters embrace; Baby gives her a number and names the relatives Amy might meet. None of these acts solves the mystery of Amy’s disappearance. Together, however, they make a return possible without requiring the mystery to be solved first. Baby’s final declaration of love is not an explanation of who Amy has become, but it affirms a relationship that can survive the absence of such an explanation.