"Could you maybe watch her for just a bit?"
Jack nodded. "Yeah, that should be okay..."
"It'll just be for, like, twenty minutes. I've just got to run over to the place quick."
"Ok." Jack accepted the small baby, his niece, from his in-law's hands. Jack was unprepared for the weight of the infant, and nearly lost his grip.
"I haven't done this much," he explained sheepishly to the young man.
"Okay, I'll be right back." The young man left through the large glass garage door.
Jack cradled the young girl lovingly in his arms. She seemed somewhat pudgy, but what baby wasn't? Her hair had not yet made an appearance, and her eyes moved sluggishly behind half-closed lids. He held her and carefully sat down in on one of the long wooden benches arrayed messily around the darkened, open room. Ahead, a television blazed merrily in he darkness, drawing Jack's attention during the moments when he wasn't watching his niece.
After a time, he looked over to see the child being held by her future self, an attractive, dark-haired young woman in her early twenties.
"Ah, that's probably fine, then," thought Jack. He turned back to the TV, meditating on how beautiful his niece would grow up to be.
Just then, a car rolled into the room and a middle-aged woman got out. Jack recognized her as the child's grandmother.
"Hi!" called Jack, realizing with some relief that his duties were over for the time being.
"Hello," she replied busily. "Where's the baby?"
"Right over h-" Jack stopped abruptly. Where the baby and her future self had been, there was an empty space.
"She was just over here, I guess they got up." Jack led the grandmother into the next room, where his future niece was milling about. "There, she has her."
The young woman wandered over and displayed a small bicycle reflector still in its cardboard-backed plastic packaging. "Here's the baby. See?"
"Uh, no, that's not her..." said Jack.
"Yes," explained the young woman. The grandmother frowned angrily.
"You never let go of a baby when you're watching it!" she scowled at Jack. "Now we've lost her!"
"I'm sorry," stammered Jack, "I didn't know..."
Jack began to scrounge around the space, digging through old junk and wondering idly if he'd happen across his old Game Boy. He was worried that something metaphysical had happened to the baby, that perhaps by entrusting her to her future self he'd allowed her to cross some boundary from which she couldn't be recovered. Around him, others filtered into the room, but few of them seemed actively worried.
Eventually, Jack found the baby sleeping in her crib in a darkened room off of the main chamber.
"I found her!" he called with relief. The others went into the room and discovered that that child had indeed been recovered, though also inadvertently awakened by her grandmother's careless crib rummaging.
