Delivery book · night of the 14th to 15th

Santa Cristina Maternity Ward · nursing wing

Laboratory analysis

ABO groups and Rh factor · taken this morning

How it's inherited

Instructions

Tap a cot, then the couple you're assigning it to. Only one arrangement doesn't contradict any law of inheritance.

Three cots with no bracelets, and three couples waiting.
Santa Cristina Maternity Ward · 15 January 1948
THE THREE COTS
00:000 of 3 assigned
The three a.m. blackout lasted forty minutes

THE THREE COTS

When the lights came back on, all three identification bracelets were lying on the floor. Nobody remembers which baby was in which cot, and the three mothers have been in the corridor since dawn. All there is to go on is the delivery book, with the blood group of the six parents, and this morning's analysis of the three newborns.