The Baby's Angel

"Maxine, get the baby", the voice was hardly audible to her sleep ridden brain.
It had been a long day; Maxine had promised friends that she would care for their baby while they went out. They would be returning the next day so how hard could it be?
Being a toddler the baby had kept her running all day; she had never been so tired in all her young life. By the end of the day they were both totally exhausted.
Maxine bathed him, fixed him a bottle and put him in his crib. He fell asleep instantly not drinking all of his milk. She left the bottle in the crib for him in case he woke up during the night. She had then fallen into bed, just to rest for a moment.
"Maxine, get the baby", there she thought she heard it again; but she had to be dreaming.
The voice, coming from nowhere, sounded like her mother. That could not be, her mother had died two years before. She had suffered a heart attack and died in hospital, hadn't she?
"MAXINE, GET THE BABY", the voice yelled.
She came awake with a start, sitting upright in bed she could only stare at the "person" at the end of her bed. It was her mother in a ghostly white glow. She was pointing at the baby and said once again; "Maxine, Get the baby".
Maxine looked to her right and what she saw frightened her. Sitting on the baby's chest was a rat; it had smelled the milk on his face and was getting ready to bite him. She picked up the book from her bed side table and threw it; she wanted to scare the rat away without hurting the baby. After making sure he was safe she turned back to her mother to say thanks for alerting her but the room was empty, except for the two of them.
She didn't have rats so where had this one come from? She was afraid it would come back so, after cleaning up the baby she placed him in bed with her and vowed to rid her home of the rat. First thing tomorrow she would search for how this one had gotten in; but for now she just lay there protecting her charge. She knew she could sleep because her mother was watching over her.