Scream Silently through the Dark Night
Part I: How not to carry out a successful alien contact
Derek was what is termed a 'genetic male.' That means he was born a male; yet, in the depths of his soul he knew that he really should have been born female. Derek was also fairly certain that he had been abducted by extra-terrestrials when he was six years old. Add to all this, a strong belief in the paranormal, and some slightly unusual abilities of his related to that, and you have a bit of a personality problem.
Throw on top of that being on the wrong side of thirty, no social skills, relationships that always end up going wrong, major depression and negative self-esteem and you have more than a fairly major problem. You have a walking, breathing social disaster.
The thoughts were going through his head as he walked along the street, trying to find some enjoyment in the fresh summer air. Still, whenever he would pass a store and see his reflection in the window the fact that he was 'wrong' was driven ever deeper into his soul. He had long ago given up any hope of finding happiness in his life; instead, he basically got from one day to the next, wondering when the next problem would arise in his life.
He was stuck in an entirely unhappy marriage. His wife, Barbara, had threatened him with a gun numerous times. She spent his money, ran around on him and paid no attention to his needs, physical or otherwise. The only thing that she was concerned about was that he keep working, and keep bringing in money so she could spend it. He knew that if he tried to get a divorce, though, she would find a way to take almost every penny he had.
Possibly as a result of all of this, he had developed a strong sense of self-hatred and no longer cared enough about himself to try and escape the hell his marriage had become.
His parents had disapproved of his marriage and never failed to remind him of that fact. He knew that, if they found out that he really considered himself female, that they would react with, to put in mildly, extreme displeasure. They would probably disown him.
He had given up on living, basically. He walked through each day like a zombie, doing what needed to be done, hearing but no longer listening to the constant nagging of his wife, going to work, coming home, doing housework, going to bed and getting up the next morning to repeat the routine yet once more.
Derek wished he could believe in magic; he knew that if magic really existed then he might somehow be magically transformed into what he really saw himself as in his minds eye; a young teenage girl, beautiful and smiling, with a loving family and lots and lots of friends.
Fat chance of that happening, he thought, looking down and shaking his head while he continued down the street.
Now, one point of truth is that, if you are looking down at the ground you generally can't see something that is right in front of you which is why he didn't notice the slight distortion in the air just a few feet ahead of him. Moments later he entered the distortion and vanished from the surface of the earth. The distortion itself disappeared mere moments after Derek did.
There had been various paranormal reports of people vanishing from the earth even when being watched by other people. None of those who vanished had ever returned, so Derek wasn't the first to vanish.
He was just the first to really, totally screw up that act of vanishing.
Because, of course, Derek had to vanish somewhere. He might have gone to an alternate dimension. He might have gone into the past or the future. He might have returned to the earth, suffering amnesia and having no idea he got to where he was.
Derek's luck being what it was, though, he didn't do any of these things. He materialized about three hundred miles straight up.
Right into an alien spacecraft.
Derek liked science, so he was familiar with the Law of Intertia. It goes something like 'an object in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.'
Derek tended to walk very quickly, thus building up a lot of momentum. When he passed through the distortion (really a spatial distortion, to be more precise) he was moving at a fairly rapid clip. Thus, Derek managed to plow right into a group of aliens that were waiting there for his arrival.
Now, as far as the aliens go, they aren't part of some vast government conspiracy. When has the government been efficient enough to have a conspiracy
last more than a couple years?
They also weren't planning an invasion. Through their technology all their physical needs were met. No, they were just here observing, learning, some even
students studying earth for their own version of exo-sociology classes.
So, if they weren't hostile, then why hadn't they contacted us?
Because they were disgusted with how people act. The aliens not only had a highly-developed technological civilization, they also had a highly-developed
spiritual/philosophical civilization. The things they saw people on earth do to each other revolted them. Sure, they saw some good things, but they also saw all the wars, the hate crimes, the prejudice, all the ways people have to hate each other and to hurt each other.
No matter how disgusted the aliens were, though, they were not allowed to use force against the Earth. But they could try and manipulate things without force. Thus, their abductions had changed from merely abducting people to find out basic information about humans, to abducting people to try and bring about changes in their behavior.
They had decided that, when they abducted people, they would subject the people to some psychological conditioning and see if that helped the humans to become
less violent and hateful. They had also planned, later on, to carry out experiments seeing if they could physically transform some people, giving them new physical
identities, then returning them to earth and take a more open and active role in getting people to change. (One of them must have watched the series The 4400.)
Now, there's one problem that will affect Derek. People tend to think
that just because aliens can get to earth, the alien's are way, way smarter than humans and have all the answers. Well, they don't. Humans make mistakes and aliens make mistakes. They don't make as many mistakes as humans do, but they still aren't perfect.
Which brings us back to the rapidly forward-moving Derek and the waiting committee. The aliens were set to peacefully subdue Derek, then use their portable
mind-examining machines to check Derek out and see what mental changes they needed to make.
Unfortunately, the alien in charge of getting the mind-examining machine had been watching a female alien that he had an interest in and thus picked up the wrong device.
This one was the experimental model of the body-changing device.
You can pretty well figure out what happened next. Derek plowed into the aliens, everyone fell in a heap, the body-changing device landed on Derek and activated.
Moments later there was a flash of light and, when the
light dimmed, in its place was the absolute cutest
four-year old girl you've ever seen. Derek had been
instantly changed into a female.
Granted, a four-year old female, but still a female. Derek
looked around, terrified for a moment, then looked down
and saw that his fondest wish had been granted.
He, now she, looked down at herself and yelled out a most
enthusiastic 'Yes!'.
Or would have if there had not been one problem. The
body-changing device, as I said earlier, was experimental.
Also, as I said earlier, the aliens were not perfect. So,
the device did manage to change Derek's body almost
perfectly.
Almost.
It left out a part.
Derek's larynx was gone. Totally. It was as if he, now
she, had been born without one. Derek had gotten his wish
to become a female, but he was going to be a little girl
who could not utter even the most minor of sounds.
The aliens were just as surprised as Derek by the course
of events. One of them stepped back in alarm, managing to
bump into a control panel and depressing a button that
said, in the alien language, of course, 'Please do not
press this button.'
Button pressed, space portal opened, and one vanished
short-term abductee.
If they had been given enough time the aliens would have
been able to track where Derek was transported to and
gotten him back into the craft.
Unfortunately there is another law called the Law of
Conservation of Mass and Energy. Basically, it states that
matter and energy cannot really be created or destroyed,
that they can just be transformed into each other.
Einstein's theory is part of this. So, when you take
Derek, who was around six feet one in height and some
one-hundred and eighty pounds, and alter his body to the
size and weight of a four-year old girl you have a lot of
mass that has to be accounted for.
Since the mass cannot actually be destroyed, it changes to
energy. Rather a bit of energy. Enough energy to seriously
hurt the aliens and damage their machinery enough that
locating Derek was no longer possible.
The aliens were too busy just trying to survive; they
didn't have time to try and fix up an error with one of
their experiments.
Part II: Dante was an optimist
Moments later Derek materialized on a side street filled
with beautiful, although slightly older, houses. The
houses seemed to compete with each other to determine
which had the most attractive floral arrangements. Green
grass, flowers of every color and tall trees lined both
sides of the street. There were a few people out walking,
some working in their yards, and a couple just lounging
around, enjoying the sun.
Now, in that type of situation you're used to squirrels
making sudden appearances or neighborhood cats running
after said squirrels, things like that. What you're not
used to is a flash of light and a very young, and very
naked, girl materializing near one of the trees.
(Here's another one of the problems. In Magical Girl Anime
series, the girls change their outfits via magic and
return to their normal clothes via magic. When Derek
changed into a young girl, via actual scientific methods,
his clothes became way too big and dropped off his body.
The clothes, and his wallet, were incinerated in the
aforementioned little problem with mass conversion.)
John Roberts, home for a day of vacation, was the first to
reach the girl. She looked at him briefly, her eyes the
bluest he had ever seen. He bent down to try and talk to
her but her eyes closed and her whole body went limp.
Quickly he picked her up and yelled to his wife to call
911.
A few minutes later a police car pulled up to the curb
followed by the EMS unit.
'Now let me get this straight,' one of the policemen said
after leaving the car and walking over to where John
Roberts stood, watching the EMS unit examine the girl.
'The girl just appeared, poof, out of thin air, right?'
John Roberts shook his head, realizing just how crazy the
thing sounded. 'Yes, officer, she did.' He began. 'Ask any
of the other people around here; I'm sure they all saw the
same thing happen."
"People don't just appear out of thin air," the officer
countered. "She had to come from somewhere. Are you
absolutely positive she wasn't here all the time?"
"Positive," John replied.
The officer's partner came over to join the questioning.
"EMS says that the girl seems to be running a slight
fever. No bruises or contusions, no broken bones, nothing
to indicate physical abuse. They are concerned about their
inability to wake her, though. They're taking her to the
hospital. Once they get done examining her then they'll
call social services."
Another officer appeared. "I've talked to the other people
standing around. They all say that the girl just appeared,
poof, out of thin air."
While they were talking, Jennifer, John's wife, had gone
over to where the girl was being tended by the EMS people.
She looked down at the girl and then gently touched the
child's cheek.
"She's so lovely," Jennifer began. "So young and innocent.
Who could possibly have done this to her?"
"No idea," one of the EMS people replied, "but we've seen
a lot worse. At least she's still in one piece." A few
minutes later the EMS unit pulled away to be followed by
the police car.
****
It was late into the next afternoon before Derek awoke.
Slowly she opened her eyes, rubbed them with the back of
her hands, and then carefully looked around. She realized
that she was in a hospital room. Another bed in the room
contained a child, probably about twice her age. The other
girl's leg had obviously been broken and she lay in her
bed, crying.
Although still groggy, Derek was awake enough to realize
that there had been some changes made in his life. Like, a
total gender switch, to start off with. At first he
thought he was dreaming, since his dreams, usually
nightmares, were extremely realistic, but after pinching
himself rather vigorously he came to the inescapable
conclusion that "he" was now a "she."
It was also quite obvious that she was in a hospital.
Derek knew there would be people asking questions, and she
also knew that they would never believe the actual truth,
not without a lot of explaining. So, her first job was a
new self-identity. Derek in his fantasies had decided that
his "real" name, his feminine name, was Jessica, and for
now, at least, she would use that name to identify herself
with.
Jessica started to get up from her bed and go to the girl
on the other bed and try to comfort her. She started to
call out to the girl but then had her second major
revelation of the afternoon. No matter how hard she tried,
she couldn't make a single sound. Nothing. Not so much as
a whimper.
She tried to recall what had happened, but her mind seemed
to have an empty space, starting when she was walking down
the street and ending when she woke up somewhere else as
someone else. She remembered that she had been male, and somehow ended up female, but the how and when eluded her.
She began to look around wildly, her whole body beginning
to shake as she started to cry. Tears flowed freely down
her face but still no sounds emerged from her at all.
Worse yet, she began to be flooded by internal questions.
Worst of all, she knew that somehow she would have to deal
with the problem of her marriage. Although his wife had
treated Derek with contempt and abuse, he still wanted to
make sure that she would not suffer unduly by his no
longer being a male, or being able to earn money. (His sense of duty was somewhat extreme, basically.)
Jessica did not have long to think about all these things,
though. Moments later she was hit by a migraine. Now, if
migraines could be measured on the Richter scale, then the
migraine that hit Jessica moments later would have topped
out somewhere in the 9.5 range. The pain was instant,
intense and terrifying. She grabbed both sides of her
head, trying to drive the pain out, trying to scream,
trying to do anything to get the pain to stop. The pain
did not stop; if anything, it got even worse. Suddenly
there was a flash of light and Jessica had a vision.
A vision of death and horror; a vision of a shopping mall
exploding, bodies scattered everywhere, blood dripping
from the walls, shards of glass impaling passers-by. A
name flashed through her vision; then her vision suddenly
seemed to focus, speeding her through a smaller and
smaller area until her movement stopped, leaving her
facing an ordinary garbage container. She knew, somehow,
that this was the container that contained the bomb that
destroyed the building.
Or, rather, would destroy the building, for somehow she
knew that the explosion had not yet occurred. Once her
sight cleared and the dizziness passed she ran from the
room, going to a nearby nurses desk. She grabbed a
clipboard from the desk and began to write down the name
of the mall and the location of the garbage can.
The nurse quickly moved from behind the desk, reached down
and took the clipboard back from the little girl. Moments
later she called for an intern to escort Jessica back to
her room.
Although Jessica tried to resist the intern, he was a
grown adult and it was only a matter of minutes before she
found herself back in her room. Another nurse entered and
gave Jessica a shot, causing the girl to fall deeply
asleep.
Out in the hall, meanwhile, the duty station nurse glanced
at the clipboard, saw what was written on it, and realized
that something quite strange was happening. She saw the
name of the mall, the word "bomb", and a simple map
showing the location of the garbage can.
In an instance like this there are generally two paths
that can be followed. One path would have the nurse either
ignoring the message or simply putting the clipboard down,
not even noticing what was on it.
The other instance would have the nurse read what was on
the clipboard, wonder what the writings meant, and call
someone to find out.
Fortunately, for the several hundred persons who would
otherwise have been killed, the nurse followed the second
path. She made a call to her boyfriend, who happened to
work for the F.B.I. He knew that his girlfriend was an
extremely intelligent, wonderful person who would never
even consider trying to pull a prank on anyone.
So, within a half-hour, several agents entered the mall,
just to be on the safe side, checking to see if there was
such a mailbox. They soon found it, just where the map
showed it would be. Within in it lay the bomb, a bomb that
could have killed hundreds but ended up killing not a
single person. The bomb disposal squad arrived, removed
the garbage can with its cargo from the mall and placed it
into a waiting vehicle. The bomb was taken to a relatively
nearby open field where waiting bomb experts swiftly
disarmed it.
A short time later one of the agents made a phone call to
a number that only he and a small, very small handful of
people not in the military knew, a number that would
connect him to an agency so secret that the C.I.A. would
be an open-house by comparison.
Meanwhile, in the hospital, another call was being made.
This one was from one of the relatively impoverished
orderlies who sensed dollar signs dancing through his
head, an attendant who had overhead everything that had
happened and knew the exact place to call: the offices of
the World Examiner, one of the planet's leading, most
sleazy tabloids in existence.
Part III: If we prick ourselves, do we not bleed?
When Jessica awoke the first thing she found she needed to
do was to go to the restroom. She got up and walked the
relatively short distance there, and then she started to
realize the full extent of her physical changes.
She removed her hospital gown, sat down on the toilet and
did what was necessary. She looked down at herself
afterward and smiled at the "physical evidence", so to
speak, of her change. Finally, she was what she should be.
No more trying to live a lie. No more trying to hold down
all the feelings since men "did not cry." No more being
trapped in the "wrong" body.
She smiled, realizing that, not only was she now a girl,
but she would have a full lifetime to experience
everything her gender now offered her, the good along with
the bad.
She stood up, wanting to look into the mirror and see her
whole self. Unfortunately, the mirror was too high for
her, resulting in Jessica stamping her foot once in
disgust then walking back into her room.
The girl in the other bed looked at Jessica as she came
out of the restroom and smiled. "Hi," she said. "I'm Mary.
What's your name?"
Jessica backed away a few steps, her eyes widening. Derek
had been hurt by so many people during his life that he
had finally become terrified of others. He had taken the
X-files saying "Trust no one" to heart. He had lost what
few people he had been able to call friends, and everyone
that he had ever cared for had, at least in his mind,
betrayed him in one way or another.
This fear of others and of being hurt by them was deeply
embedded in Derek's mind and now in Jessica's.
Mary looked at the cute girl backing away, only to be
stopped by the wall. "You can't be afraid of me, can you?"
she asked, giggling. She pointed to her broken leg. "I'm
not going to chase you, you know."
Jessica relaxed, marginally, inching away from the wall.
"So," Mary began, "What's your name?"
Jessica tried to say her name but was quickly reminded of
her condition. She stamped her foot, shook her head and
then hit herself on her leg, hard. "Baka," she said
mentally to herself, hitting herself again. "Baka, baka,
baka."
Which brings up another problem that Derek/Jessica had.
Derek had gotten to the point where he had felt only total
self-hatred. Partially due to this, and partially due to
everything else that was going wrong in his life, he had
begun to practice what is called "self-inflicted violence".
He had abused himself verbally all the time, constantly
referring to himself as stupid, an idiot, and other even
nastier names. At times this hatred and feeling of having
no control over what was going on in his life resulted in
his taking the next step, and that was personal violence.
He would hit himself in the leg or side quite hard when he
became extremely angry with himself.
Things had worsened and gotten to the point where he was
even cutting himself several times a week. The cutting, he
found, was about the only way he could avoid breaking down
emotionally when confronted with a situation that upset
him. So Jessica's hitting herself was pretty much normal
behavior for her.
Jessica calmed down. She saw a pad of paper on a small
counter and wrote down her name and then showed it to Mary.
"Jessica. That's a nice name," Mary said. "Maybe we can
become friends." Mary's smile was wide, warm, and
welcoming, and for a moment Jessica thought she might
actually be able to make a friend.
Which would have been a wonderful start to her life as a
girl if matters had not deteriorated suddenly, for just as
Jessica started to approach Mary's bed bright flashes
filled the room. Jessica turned, just in time to see two
men, one holding out a microphone and another with a
camera pointed directly at her. The reporter, a rather
sleazy-looking character, began barking out questions.
"How did you know about the bomb?" he began. "Do you know
the people who planted the bomb? Were they related to
you?" The reporter and the photographer moved closer to
her, forcing Jessica to back further and further away. He
kept barking out one question after another and soon
Jessica backed into another wall and sat down, drawing her
knees up to her and sobbing, tears running down her face
but yet never making so much as a whimper of sound.
"What the hell is going on here?" a doctor said, entering
the room and finding the pandemonium that was happening.
"Get out of this room right now. This is a children's
hospital, not a TV studio." The doctor grabbed the
reporter and began to pull him out of the room.
"You have no right to interfere with the press," the
reporter yelled. "The public has a right to know about
this girl and how she knew about the bomb. We're just
fulfilling our duty to our readers."
By this time a nurse had entered the room, trying to help
the doctor restore some sense of order.
Jessica held her hands to her ears, trying to block out
the noises in the room. Her body began to shake from the
terror she was feeling. She realized that she had long
fingernails and she began to dig these into her upper
arms, pressing hard and slashing upwards, managing to
break the skin. A steady flow of blood began moving down
her left arm, then moments later her right as she repeated
her cutting on that arm.
Mary watched the adults in the room and then looked down
at Jessica and screamed. "What are you doing? Help her.
Somebody help her."
The nurse looked over and saw the frightened child on the
floor, blood flowing down both arms, tears flowing freely
down her face, her entire body shaking as she again went
back to covering her ears. The nurse ran to a wall cabinet
and quickly removed some supplies. Moments later she was
trying to stop the flow of blood, all the while trying to
talk in a comforting manner to the frightened girl.
Suddenly, there was the sound of several pairs of feet
moving rapidly down the hall towards her room. Three more
men came into the room, one dressed totally in black, his
face rough-hewn, his hair close-cropped and his voice deep
and menacing. With him were two soldiers, fully armed and
looking even meaner than the man in black.
"And who the hell are you?" the exasperated doctor said to
the new intruders.
"Blakeley, FBI," the first man replied, quickly producing
a wallet with his FBI identity card clearly showing his
photograph and identity. "As of now this is a matter for
the FBI and there will be no, and I repeat no reporters or
other unauthorized personnel allowed in this room." With
that, two more soldiers entered from the hallway, grabbed
the reporter and the cameraman, and pushed them out of the
room. The reporter continued to yell about his rights in
the hallway, but one of the men closed the door to the
room and finally some sense of quiet returned.
Blakely turned to the doctor. "As of now your patient is
under FBI care. No one is allowed in this room without my
knowledge and permission. Two men will remain outside the
door to make sure that order is carried out."
"Wait a minute," the doctor said, running his hand
distractedly through his hair. "You can't come into this
hospital and start giving orders. You may be FBI but this
young girl has obviously been through some kind of trauma
and doesn't need to be upset even more."
The nurse, by this time, had stopped the bleeding and was
holding the still-crying girl who clung desperately to
her.
"And we're going to make sure she isn't," Blakely replied.
"My men and I will make sure that this room remains a
nice, quiet refuge for your patient."
"And just why are you here anyhow?" the doctor asked.
"National security," Blakely replied. "This girl knew
something about a terrorist act and we want to find out
how she knew about their plans."
Jessica had watched all of this unfold, her eyes still
filled with tears, showing a growing terror at the events
unfolding in front of her. She stood shakily, her back
solidly against the wall. Mary, meanwhile, kept moving her
head quickly back and forth, trying to watch everything
that was going on in the room, trying to watch Jessica,
trying to watch the man now approaching her and not having
any idea what she could do to help and watching the two
soldiers who had taken up positions by the windows.
"Jessica," Blakely said, his presence now looming over the
frightened girl. "You will come with us as soon as the
doctor says you're well enough to leave. We want to take
you to a facility where you can be protected and we can
have you explain to us just how you knew about these
terrorists."
With that, Blakely crossed the remaining distance between
the two, putting his arm out towards Jessica who stared at
his arm and then suddenly began to silently scream,
seconds later collapsing to the floor, fainting from the
overwhelming flow of emotions coursing through her at the
moment.
Blakely then turned towards the doctor. “And get this other girl out of here and into another room. Now.”
Part IV: "Area 51"
It was several more days before Jessica's doctors said
that she was well enough to leave the hospital. Blakely
had been replaced by a young woman, Agent Johnson. She had
also introduced herself to the hospital staff as a member
of the FBI, her credentials as bogus as those of
Blakely's. Both represented an ultra-top secret
governmental group known by the in-joke name "Area 51."
Very few knew of its existence, yet it had been around in
one form or another since the closing years of WWII. It
was at that time that a few people were found in the
military that displayed unusual psychic abilities. One was
able to get hazy glimpses of the future; another could
describe the appearance of objects including buildings and
people at a great distance, and the third, when she
displayed rare moments of sanity, was able to read minds.
Since there were so few in the group and the ESP
phenomenon was still largely unknown and not understood,
the group did not make any significant contribution to the
war effort. There were those in the military, though, who
felt the idea of such a group was something that should be
pursed, an idea given impetus by the later discovery that
the Soviet Union was trying to train people to use psychic
abilities to spy on the United States.
The Roswell crash in 1947 proved to be their first
excursion into alien technology. The pieces of the crashed
saucer had been recovered and the area thoroughly cleaned
by the military. The pieces, along with several bodies
recovered, had been transferred to Wright Patterson Air
Force Base in Ohio and stored in Hanger 18.
That much, of course, later became a major focus of all
UFO enthusiasts. The military denied there was ever any
crash and explained it away by saying that the object was
a malfunctioning weather balloon. They even eventually
allowed some reporters into Hanger 18 to show them that
there was nothing there except standard Air Force
technology.
The military at the base had actually been telling the
reporters the truth, because there was nothing at Hanger
18 that in any way resembled alien technology. What they
did not tell the press was that such material had, at one
time, been there and mysteriously disappeared. An
investigation had disclosed a wide variety of falsified
documents, leading the investigators to the conclusion
that some group had gone to great lengths to get their
hands on the materials and to remove all traces of them
from the military's control.
The group that did this, of course, was Area 51. They had
spent the intervening years studying the pieces along with
others recovered at various locations, eventually even
being able to tap into the alien computers and download at
least some pieces of information, information about aliens
and mental abilities that became the core of the group's
studies.
The group remained small over the years and was still
known to few. They had, from time to time, found other
humans who possessed abilities like Jessica's and had them
brought into their main facility in the mountains in a
remote area of the northwest. The people were studied,
tested, probed and analyzed to determine the extent of
their abilities and how those abilities could benefit the
U.S.
Agent Johnson did not explain any of this to Jessica, of
course. She visited Jessica daily, trying to win her
friendship by giving her a mother figure to cling to. She
would hold Jessica and rock her back and forth when the
child became upset. She would read to her and play games
with her, all to win Jessica's trust.
The idea, of course, was to get Jessica out of the
hospital and into Area 51's facility with as little
difficulty as possible.
Things seemed to be going well until Jessica finally tried
to explain to Agent Johnson what had actually happened to
her. The agent had listened carefully, then left the room
a short time later.
She dialed the number for Area 51 using a phone they had
developed which scrambled everything so no one else could
eavesdrop on their messages.
"Let me speak to Blakely," Agent Johnson started.
"Blakely here," he replied a few moments later.
"Jessica might be the person that we've been looking for,"
she began. "The one the seer told us about."
"You mean the story about the one 'woman but not born a
woman'? The one that's supposed to have these great
abilities that nobody seems to be able to specify?"
Blakely, although a part of Area 51, was, in effect, the
Scully of the group. He questioned constantly what the
psychics in the group had said. He believed that their
abilities were not really abilities at all, but excellent
guesses and insights.
Area 51 kept Blakely around because of his questioning,
for they felt that his views would help those of the group
who wanted to treat their psychics almost as gods.
"I think I know what the `woman but not born a woman'
thing is. Jessica told me that she was originally a male;
something happened and he was changed into the
four-year-old girl. She has no
memories at all of what actually happened. The
psychiatrist we had examine her told me the child has
suffered some form of crisis that has caused her to
develop selective amnesia."
"So do you believe her story?" Blakely asked.
"I believe that she believes it," Johnson replied, "and
that we should bring her into the group. I think she might
be the one they predicted we'd find."
Blakely sighed. "Ok. As soon as the doctors release her
we'll bring her in for study, but this better not be a
complete waste of our time."
"I don't think it will be," Johnson replied.
In the hospital room Jessica was in her bed, sitting up,
her knees drawn up to her chin. She had gotten her
greatest wish, yet the granting of that wish had not
brought the happiness she expected.
It had also brought loneliness since Mary, the other child
in the room, had been moved out a soon after
the reporters had been removed from the room. No other
child was brought in and Jessica had talked to no one
aside from the single nurse that always seemed to be the
one to check in on her and Agent Johnson, who Jessica had
started to trust, just a little.
Jessica requested one favor of the agent before she went
with them. Despite all the terrible treatment that Derek
had received at the hands of his wife, there was still
some sense of duty within his former self. She got them to agree that their agency would deposit a considerable amount of money in their joint
account, money that should last Barbara for quite a while. They would also tell his wife that Derek had died in some kind of terrible accident, and his body was unrecoverable.
Agent Johnson told Jessica it was time to go. The child
looked around the room and gathered up her few possessions
which included some clothes the agent had given her, a
large stuffed bunny and a small purse with some Hello
Kitty cosmetics in it.
Part V. Another Vision
'If she was a normal child we could just turn her over to social services and they could find a foster home for her,' Blakely began, 'but she's anything but normal. The facility will have some plan for her, and my guess is she won't see the outside of the place for a long, long time.'
Jessica suddenly began to squirm and then started to
thrash wildly. Agent Johnson tried to hold her but the
girl's other arm had gone to her head and her silent
screaming went on and on.
"Another vision?" Johnson asked aloud.
It took some fifteen minutes before Jessica was able to
get calm enough to be able to write down on paper what she
had seen. She drew what appeared to be the space shuttle
with an arrow pointing to a place along the side of the
left-hand booster rocket.
Blakely tried to get more information on what she had
seen, but Jessica was still in considerable pain and she
couldn't calmly write down a detailed description of her
vision. Since she didn't know sign language she couldn't
use that medium, either.
Blakely made an emergency call to the Cape, identifying
himself this time as being from the CIA. He told the
senior controller that the CIA had solid information that
terrorists had somehow sabotaged the shuttle and they
should make no attempt to launch it until they had
inspected it thoroughly. He described the area the drawing
pointed to, receiving assurances that they would
immediately check out the shuttle and then he turned his
cell phone off.
Jessica, meanwhile, had finally fainted from a combination
of the pain from her vision, and from the realization that she had virtually no control at all over what was going to happen to her. She had prayed so much to be a girl, and thought that it would solve all her problems.
It didn't.
For Jessica, she had totally lost her past
and she had no idea where she was going in the future.
Part VI: Into the Darkness
Two hours later the news arrived; Jessica had been correct
again. Workers had detected a structural flaw on the
booster rocket in the exact position she had shown. If the
shuttle had been launched, they determined, the booster
would have exploded, destroying the shuttle and killing
all those aboard.
Blakely had taken Jessica to a 'house' belonging to one of
Area 51's agents. The 'house' was actually a living quarters that on a military base that was out in a wooded area, fairly far from the nearest town.
There were numerous such living quarters, as anyone deemed of 'extreme importance' to the work done there had to remain on base the vast majority of the time, allowed out only under very controlled conditions.
Jessica was to be placed with one of these workers until they were ready to study her to best figure out how to use her talents.
This would have given Jessica a chance for a stable home
environment.
Notice the expression: "would have".
"The agency did not tell me that I would have to babysit
some four-year-old brat," Melanie Rogers said. Melanie had
been working for the agency for over ten years and in that
time had acquired a reputation for being ice-cold,
unsympathetic and without any form of compassion
whatsoever. Her partner, Michael Roberts, was away on a
mission for the agency and would not be returning for
several weeks. He was Melanie Roger's total opposite;
caring, considerate, always willing to help someone out.
Why the two had been paired to pass as an "ordinary"
couple neither one could figure out, yet the pairing,
somehow, had seemed to work rather well.
"Jessica is not a four-year-old brat, as you put it. She's
a sweet, innocent child..."
"Who the agency wants me to babysit," Melanie finished.
"Why don't you place her with someone else?"
"The agency chose the two of you to be her guardians, at least temporarily,"
Blakely replied. "The girl's been hurt physically, and
psychologically she's a mess. She needs someplace to stay,
now; a place where she can at least rest somewhat in
relatively normal conditions."
"Then put her in a damn hotel," Rogers yelled. "Or an
orphanage. She belongs at a place like that."
"We've considered that," Blakely replied, stunning Melanie
temporarily. "But we need to have her somewhere she can be
kept under constant surveillance. You haven't seen what
the visions due to her. She's in obviously terrible pain,
yet she still does her best to communicate what she sees
to us. Further, you are the only two here on the base that are available for a project like this. The other couple is in Washington, being debrief about the child they had been caring for."
"Right. Communicate. The kid can't even said a word. And we're the only two smucks unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
“She can't speak,” Blakely said. “Whatever changed her into a girl, it didn't work perfectly. She lacks a larynx. She'll never speak, no matter how long she lives.'
"She gets her message across well enough using her writing
pad," Blakely continued. "The agency has classified her as
absolute top priority. She could be the one the psychic
council has been looking for."
"Oh, wow, now we're the X-Files," Rogers noted
sarcastically. "That council is as nutty as you are if you
think I'm going to take charge of that girl."
"I am not, as you so nicely put it, 'nutty'. I am,
however, your superior officer and you work for the agency
and will do what you are told. Have I made myself
perfectly clear?"
Rogers started to reply, but then decided that there were
times it was best to just remain silent. The two agents
discussed what Jessica would need, how she would be sent
to the science area to be studied, and a cover story to
explain her sudden appearance in the household.
During the next two days children's furniture was brought
into the house along with an advanced computer system, a
wide variety of books that Jessica had told them she would
like to have and plenty of stuffed animals, especially
bunnies.
"There is a potentially troubling area," Blakely told
Rogers when they had finished setting up Jessica's room.
"The girl is four years old, perhaps five; our lab people
are trying to figure out just what age to place her at. So
physically she's a child, yet mentally she has the mind of
a grown up. We don't know what type of a clash that
might cause in her. She may end up acting very advanced
for her age; but she might end up mentally regressing to
her actual physical age."
"Or she might go stark raving mad," Rogers said.
"Unfortunately, that is a possibility," he replied. The
two agents turned at the sound of a car pulling into the
driveway. "Looks like she's here."
Moments later the front door opened and Jessica entered
the house holding the hand of Agent Johnson. Jessica was
dressed in a cute pink outfit, her blonde hair pulled back
into a ponytail and tied with a Hello Kitty holder. She
glanced warily around the room then at Blakely.
"Okay. You've got the cover story down, right?" he asked
Melanie.
"Yes, chief, " she replied. "This is the daughter of a
dear friend who died in a tragic car accident. Her father
ran off before the child was born and no one has any idea
where he is. We've agreed to adopt the child to give her a
loving, warm, caring home."
Agent Johnson brought Jessica over to Melanie. The young
girl looked up, her deep blue eyes seeming to search into
the very soul of the agent. She grasped Johnson's hand
even tighter. She finally was able to coax Jessica to let
go of her hand and go to Melanie, but when she was there
Melanie just looked at her, then resumed talking to
Blakely.
The next few hours were spent getting Jessica adjusted to
her room, making sure it was stocked with enough pads of
paper and pens so she could write out any messages.
Arrangements had been made to give her sign language
lessons, hoping that she would pick that up quickly and
make communicating with her more efficient.
A week passed by quickly. Jessica had settled into her
new home. Her sign language classes were due to start in
the next couple of days, and she had no further
premonitions. The scientists were beginning to question
whether or not the two that she did have were aberrations
of some sort.
As for Jessica's relationship with Melanie Rogers, things
had not gone well. The agent was cold to Jessica for the
entire week, talking to the young girl only when
necessary; never touching her, never making any real
effort to get to know the girl.
One night, while alone in her room (as usual), Jessica was
thinking about what had happened so far.
"What's happening to me?" she wondered. "The agency just
wants to study me and Melanie hates me." She sighed. "I thought that finally
getting to be a girl would be wonderful, but everyone
either wants to use me or hates me."
She looked out her window, holding her white and brown
rabbit, Mrs. Tilliwink, tightly to her.
"I never know when one of these visions will happen. I'll
never be able to talk to anyone again. I'm a freak and
when I start taking those classes I bet the kids will hate
me just like they did when I was a student before."
She looked down at Mrs. Tillliwink. "All I wanted was to be
what I was supposed to be - a girl. I wanted lots of
friends, maybe a sister or two and what do I have? What
I've always had - just me. Alone. Unwanted." Tears were
beginning to flow from her eyes.
"Can't I even have a little bit of happiness? Can't I
enjoy being a girl?"
Jessica finally cried herself to sleep. A little later she
had a nightmare. Nightmares had become a common event for
Derek. Sometimes he even had several in the space of one
night. So far they had not bothered Jessica, but with the
strain of her relationship with Melanie and worry over
about how the other kids would react to her, it was only a
matter of time till they started up again.
Melanie had gotten into the habit of doing a routine check
on Jessica each night. When she felt she could take a
short break from other things she was doing she would
check in on the girl just to make sure that she was all
right. Not that Melanie really cared about the girl
herself; she just new that if anything went wrong she
would be the one that Blakely blamed.
When she walked into the room she saw Jessica wake
suddenly, sitting up in her bed and trying to scream.
Tears were pouring from her eyes and her whole body was
shaking.
Melanie looked at the child for a few moments, then she
approached her and stared into her eyes. She had never
seen anyone cry like this. This wasn't any "normal"
crying; this was the weeping of a soul beyond hope. Seeing
the child falling apart right in front of her melted the
ice that had been around the agent's heart and she held
Jessica tightly against her, rocking the child back and
forth. Tears began to flow from the agent's eyes now and
she realized just how cruel she had been to this child for
the last week.
Melanie had been told the story of Derek's life and hadn't
been impressed by it at all. In fact, she considered that
Derek should just have faced his problems in a manly
fashion. That he was TG and felt that "he" was really a
"she" did not impress her at all.
But now, holding this young child in her arms, realizing
that she carried the emotional scars over from her life as
Derek seemed to be the event that finally allowed Melanie
to accept Jessica in her own heart.
The next day Melanie escorted Jessica to her sign language
lessons. Since Jessica had shown no signs of any further visions, and since Melanie could pose as her adoptive mother, they felt it would be safe to allow Jessica to attend sign lessons at a place off the base.
The lessons were being given at the local mixed school off the base. Since there were not that many families on the base, and only a limited number of rural, non-military children, the school was actually a K-12 type of school.
One room had been set aside for the sign-language classes, and there were children of a variety of ages in the classroom, Jessica being the youngest one there. The
teachers were known to be patient and understanding and
worked well with all the children. After talking to the
teacher and being assured that Jessica would be fine she
returned to her home and started to work on her latest
report for the agency. The students had a two-hour period for sign-language lessons and then spent the rest of the day in regular classes.
The younger sign-language students were given a recess period during their
lessons so they could have some fun and relax a little.
Jessica followed the others outside, enjoying the
sunlight, the puffy white clouds drifting across the sky
and the sounds of the birds coming from the nearby grove
of trees.
There was a small play area reserved for the children with
several swings and a jungle gym. Several of the students
were climbing all over the gym while the rest were either
on the swings or nearby. Jessica remained by herself,
afraid to join in with the others, afraid of being
rejected by them.
She was watching the other students so intently that she
didn't notice the high-school boy approaching her.
"Now who do we have here, cutie?" he said. "You too good
to play with the others?" he smirked. Jessica turned and
looked at him, growing fear evident on her face.
"Maybe if you don't want to play with them you'll play
with me, instead." He waited for her to say something but
when she didn't he took a quick look around, making sure
that the other students were not looking in his direction.
He saw that the teacher was on the other side of the
playground working with a student and looking the other
way, so he reached down and grabbed Jessica's arm, pulling
her behind him.
"You too stupid to even cry?" he asked. "Or maybe you like
being treated this way." Then he pulled her around the
corner of the building and stepped behind some large
bushes.
He grabbed her and tried to force Jessica to kiss him but the
girl kicked out, accidentally hitting the boy in his most
vulnerable spot. He dropped her and she started to run
away.
Blinded by his pain and his arrogance he chased after
Jessica, grabbing her when she had gotten only a little
distance away. They were still in some tall bushes and
remained hidden from the view of the playground so he
continued his assault on the girl.
"You bitch!" he yelled out. "Now we play by MY rules."
With that he grabbed the girl and spun her around,
gripping her top and tearing it off in one move. She fell
to the ground and tried to crawl away but he continued
tearing at her clothing and within moments she was left
with only her panties, and then not even those.
By this time students were looking out the windows of the
high school, drawn by the boy's loud cursing. Although the
bushes were tall, effectively screening him from being
seen by anyone on the ground, he had forgotten that people
could see into the bushes from above. A couple of the
students had gone to get help, and two of the boys raced
from the room to try and help the young girl. Before they
could arrive to rescue her the students saw him grab
Jessica and pull her towards him, reaching his hand
between her legs and trying to force them apart while he
tried to kiss her.
Moments later the two boys ran from the door and straight
into the bushes. One of them grabbed Jessica away from her
attacker while the other tackled him, holding the student
down until security was able to get there and take the
student into custody.
A short time later, Melanie was in the nurse's office
trying to comfort Jessica. She had become furious with the
teacher for not taking better care of her child. Security
had told her that they had everything under control and
that her attacker would be suspended immediately and
possibly expelled. The matter had also been referred to
the police.
"What do you mean 'possibly' expelled?" Melanie angrily
said. "My god, the child's only four years old! That piece
of garbage should be kicked out of school forever!"
The security man told her that they had to follow
established school procedures to make sure the rights of
the students were protected, and that he had the right to
a full hearing before they could actually expel him from
the school.
Jessica was released from the hospital later that night.
Melanie started a bath for Jessica and put the girl into
the tub, making sure the water was just the right
temperature and not too deep. She was even using some
fragrant bath salts that she felt the girl might enjoy.
Just then the phone rang. It was Blakely, wanting to know
how Jessica was doing. Melanie had called him on their way
to the hospital, giving him a very brief description of
what had happened.
Now she gave him a more detailed explanation, including
how the boy had been stopped by the two brave young men
and then turned over to security. She also told him about
the conversation she had with the school's principal when
she called him from the hospital.
She had talked to the principal, telling him that she
wanted to see the boy permanently removed from school, but
the principal had explained that the boy was the child of
the head of the school board and that made it a very
delicate issue to handle.
"Delicate, my ass," Melanie had said before she slammed
down the phone.
Suddenly she realized that she had left Jessica in the
bathroom alone. She ran to the room and opened the door,
then screamed. Jessica was in the bathtub, streams of red
flowing from both her wrists, turning the bath water a
pinkish color. Melanie grabbed the child and pulled her
out of the water, noting as she did the razor blade that
the child had found in the medicine cabinet.
She quickly grabbed two of the smaller towels and wrapped
them around the child's wrists. then rushed her out of the
bathroom. Placing her on the couch she called base security and a
few minutes later the house was surrounded with flashing
lights as the emergency squad tended to the girl. They put
her on a stretcher and took her out of the living room,
down the front steps and into a waiting ambulance.
Melanie followed them, closing the door quickly behind her
and climbing into the ambulance with Jessica.
Part VII: Defiance and Resolution
It was almost a week before she was released from the
hospital. By this time Blakely had gone to the school and
questioned a number of people. He praised the two boys
that came to her rescue and was told that the boy that
attacked her had been expelled for ninety days, but that
his father was fighting the expulsion.
Jessica was scheduled to return to school a week later but
Melanie was told she would first have to meet with the
principal.
"Please, Ms. Rogers, have a seat," the principal said,
pointing to a rather worn desk chair. "I'm glad you've
come for our little talk. The assistant principal and I
have decided that Jessica should not return to this
school."
"Why?" Melanie asked, her eyes becoming slits.
"We feel that her attempt to kill herself would be a
distraction to the other students. We've reluctantly come
to the conclusion that our school is not really able to
serve your child's needs."
"And just what are you talking about?" Melanie asked.
"Jessica is obviously a very disturbed young girl..."
"And you're worried that her behavior might contaminate
the other students?"
"It's not that at all, Ms. Rogers. Jessica is a very
special child. We feel that she deserves more attention
than we can give her here. We're just a small base school, Ms.
Rogers, and we can't really devote the type of resources
to your child that she needs."
Melanie looked down for a moment, thinking. "In other
words," she began slowly, "the head of the school board
told you to get rid of Jessica."
The principal looked stunned for a moment. Being a
consummate politician, however, he quickly recovered.
"Let me assure you, Ms. Rogers, that there is no truth in
that accusation at all. Our decision was based purely out
of our concern for the needs of your child."
Melanie rose and left the principal's office without
another word. She knew that the most difficult task lay
ahead, and that was telling Jessica that she wouldn't be
returning to the school.
She knew that having Jessica attend a school where she was
not wanted would not help the child at all.
Even if the teacher and the students were receptive to
Jessica's returning, the principal was in a position to
bully them into following his lead. Not only him, of
course, but the head of the school board would be applying
pressure to the teachers to force Jessica out.
This would create a bad situation for everyone involved.
Jessica already carried over myriads of problems in
dealing with others; putting the young child into a
situation where she might be resented could harm her, and
that was something Melanie didn't want to happen.
Later that evening Blakely came over and the two of them
had a long discussion about Jessica. When Melanie
suggested that they find another sign-language class to
enroll Jessica in Blakely revealed that he had already
looked into the matter and received the same answer from
each school he contacted; they could not accept a child
with such "special" needs as Jessica. When he asked how
they knew about her "special" needs, none of the people he
talked to would answer him.
It was obvious that, in effect, Jessica had been
blackballed from the entire school system.
"Then what can we do?" Melanie asked.
"I don't know," Blakely replied. "The agency has already
told me that since Jessica has not shown any more signs of
her premonitions that their interest in her has ended. And
that means your interest in her will end, too. They have
decided to have her placed in an orphanage."
"They can't do that," Melanie said, rising from her chair.
"They can't do that to that child. She deserves something
better than being tossed aside like some used dishrag."
"You know that I agree with you, Melanie," Blakely said,
"But there is nothing I could do since they've reached
their decision. We will just have to hope that she will be
able to find some parents that would love her the way you
do."
Melanie was crying now. "But I don't want to lose her. I
love her; she's such a sweet, innocent child."
"The agency doesn't judge by love; it judges by
usefulness, and in their minds Jessica's usefulness has
come to and end."
Neither agent noticed that the door to Jessica's bedroom
was opened, or that the child had left her room and was
standing on the opposite side of the wall to the living
room.
Jessica turned and walked back quietly to the room. She
had been expecting something like this for a long time. It
was the same pattern as it had always been; get a glimpse
of happiness and then have reality come crashing down
around you. To know her, she thought, was to hate her.
She even had her doubts about Melanie. Maybe the woman was
just putting on a show to impress Blakely.
Jessica had prepared for this day. She knew it was only a
matter of time until everyone wanted to get rid of her.
That was the way it always was and always would be.
She returned to her bedroom and closed the door softly
behind her. She took her purse from the top of the
dresser; she had a small amount of money that Melanie had
given her the last time they had gone shopping. She knew
that if she ran away she stood very little chance of
surviving alone on her own but she didn't really care. Not
any more. The grown-ups just didn't understand her at all.
She had tried to kill her self once; why couldn't they
understand that she no longer cared to be alive at all?
Her dream of becoming a girl and having a happy life had
turned out to be a nightmare in the end. The only reason
anyone had ever put up with her was to see what they could
get out of her, and now that her powers seemed to have
gone away they wanted nothing further to do with her.
She picked up a bag and put Ms. Tilliwink into it. She
would not leave her favorite bunny behind, no matter what.
She moved her chair near the window, then took one last
look around the room and opened the window carefully. She
would cut across her backyard and get onto the next street
down from her own.
There was an interstate bus terminal just a short distance
away. She could make her way to the bus station and try to
follow another family on board a bus, hoping that the
station personnel would think she belonged with them.
After that, well, she'd deal with that later.
She climbed onto a chair and then out the window. She quickly made her way across her yard and before long was on her way to the bus station.
The world looked a lot different at night when you were a
four-year-old girl and not a grown man. Everything was so
much bigger. It took longer to get anywhere, too. By the
time she arrived at the bus station she was already tired
and more than a little scared. Still, what choice did she
have? The agents would ship her off to the orphanage,
anxious to get rid of her. She'd probably stay at the
orphanage for years; who'd want her, anyway? Certainly not
with her little lack-of-a-voice problem.
There seemed to be several women with children getting on
the bus so Jessica made her way nearer to the group and
fell in behind a tall, dark-haired woman who was leading
two young girls after her. The woman and her daughters
boarded the bus and Jessica followed them, climbing the
bus steps with difficulty. She took a seat near the woman
and then looked down, trying to make herself as
unnoticeable as possible.
The bus door closed and the driver began to pull away from
the station. Seconds later, though, the bus jerked to a
sudden stop. Pounding was heard on the door of the bus and
then it opened. Jessica looked up and there were Melanie
and Blakely.
Melanie ran to Jessica and grabbed her, crying as she held
the child close to her. "How could you run away?" Melanie
said. "I love you. I want you to be my daughter for the
rest of your life."
Jessica pulled away and angrily opened her purse,
withdrawing a pad of paper and a pen. "LIAR!" she wrote on
the pad, turning it so Melanie could see the word.
"YOU DON'T WANT ME!" she wrote on a second piece of paper.
"But I DO want you, honey. I love you," Melanie replied.
"NO YOU DON'T," Jessica wrote. She then began to write
down a longer note. She kept crossing out words, getting
more and more upset at herself. Finally she finished and
handing the note to Melanie.
"I heard the two of you talking about sending me to an
orphanage," she had written. Jessica quickly wrote another
note. "You don't love me. You never did. You just want to
use me, that's all." By this time the commotion had grown
considerably. Station personnel had crowded around the
bus; the passengers were asking what was going on, and
flashing lights indicated that the police had arrived.
An hour later they were back at Melanie's home. Blakely
had told Jessica that they were able to track her by using
a tiny homing device they had planted in her body. Both
Jessica and Melanie had become angry when told that, but
Blakely explained that the agency wanted to be able to
keep track of its "property" at all times.
It had been then when Michael, Melanie's husband, returned
from his assignment for the agency early, having completed
it in half the time they had estimated.
Melanie filled him in on everything that had happened and
he greeted Jessica, who was at first frightened
of the large man and kept away from him. Melanie told him that, in time, Jessica might warm to him, at least a little.
"You must understand," Blakely explained. "With the latest
things Jessica has done the agency has determined that she
is too unstable to continue to consult. She has to be
placed in an orphanage and the two of you need to return
to your work."
"So she's no longer useful and you intend to throw her
out, just like some kind of trash, is that it?" Melanie
asked, her temper obviously rising.
"We have to look out for our own interests," Blakely
responded. "With Jessica as unstable as she is we don't
know if she'll ever have any other premonitions or if they
will even be close to accurate even if she does have any.
We also can't keep trying to cover up her actions. The
agency must, and I emphasize the word 'must', remain
totally unknown to the public at large. There's been
enough media attention about Jessica already and we can't
take any chance that some reporter might find out anything
about the agency through their investigation of Jessica."
"And have they even come close to finding out anything
about the agency?" Michael asked.
"No," Blakely replied, "But we simply cannot take that
chance. We must separate Jessica from ourselves and the
agency before it's too late. We can either do that by
placing her into an orphanage, or committing her to a
mental institution."
That did it for Melanie. "You bastard!" she screamed at
Blakely. "You'd put an innocent four-year-old child into a
mental institution simply because she might inconvenience
the agency? What kind of a sick person are you, anyway?"
"Let me repeat myself," Blakely said slowly, his own
temper beginning to become evident. "The needs of the
agency must come first above all our own personal needs.
The agency must be protected at all costs, and if that
means putting Jessica into an orphanage or mental
hospital, then that is what we will do."
"No, you won't," Melanie said very slowly, venom dripping
with each word she uttered. "You will not separate Jessica
from me. You and the agency be damned!"
"I don't think you understand," Blakely said. "Jessica goes and you two will carry on your duties for the agency. 'If you choose to keep Jessica, then the two of you were be permanently removed from the agency.'
"What do you mean 'permanently removed'?" Michael asked.
"It means you will both be fired from the agency. Any and
all contact between you and the agency will end. You will
be monitored for the rest of your lives, and if we ever
feel that you are about to endanger the agency in any way
we will take any and all necessary steps to stop you."
"So we have to choose between Jessica and the agency,
right?" Michael asked.
"You will have to find new jobs; find a new place to live;
basically, start your married lives all over again."
"You know, Michael," Melanie said, turning to her husband,
"I think starting over might be fun. The THREE of us," she
said, with special emphasis on the word 'three', "could
all get a fresh start together. I don't think that's such
a bad deal at all, do you?"
Michael looked at her and smiled. "Nope, not a bad deal at
all. I've always wondered what would have happened if I
had become a college professor of psychology like I
originally wanted to be and trained for, and this would
give me the chance to find out. Professor Johnson, the
psych professor I had in college, told me that if I ever
wanted to teach there I would only need to call him and he
was sure they would hire me. I've always thought Seattle
would be a nice place to live."
"This may sound old-fashioned," Melanie said, looking down
at Jessica who had returned to her, and smiling as she ran
her hand through the child's hair, "but I think it would
be really nice to be a housewife. My loving husband would
go off to work in the morning and I would take care of our
house and our kids."
"Kids? As in plural?" Michael asked.
"You don't expect I'd let Jessica grow up without a sister
or two, do you?" She hugged the child tightly. "I think
the orphanage is a good idea, except that instead of
putting Jessica in the orphanage, I think we should get a
couple of young girls OUT of the orphanage. Jessica could
use a couple of sisters!"
Jessica's eyes brightened and her smile illuminated the
room. She was so excited she was bouncing up and down on
Melanie's leg.
"I know it won't be easy," Melanie said to Blakely. "I
know that Jessica has some special needs, but I feel that
with the type of home life that we could give her, Jessica
would finally have a chance at the happiness she deserves."
"If she ever has any more premonitions you would be
expected to inform the agency immediately; I'm sure you
understand that," Blakely noted.
"There would be no problem doing that," Michael answered.
"We're not mad at you or the agency." He stood up and
moved over to Melanie, getting her to stand up with him as
she held Jessica. "I think it's time we have a real
family, the three of us; or four; or five." He laughed
then kissed Melanie. He leaned down and kissed Jessica
lightly on her forehead.
Blakely stood and then turned without saying a word and
left the house, making his way to a black car waiting by
the sidewalk. A few moments later he was gone from their
sight.
Melanie closed the front door and a new chapter in
Jessica's life began.
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