Mahina Has A Glitch!

Since That Day

Dr. Trevor Hunter was a practiced therapist, on loan from the CIA to handle a case that was out of this world. The agent's words, not Trevor's. He had received the case in November, seeing real fast the need for his assignment.

The girl had turned seven not long after her adoption was finalized. She had already gone through three therapists in this time. The first- according to the report- had been terrible underqualified, the second had left because of a family issue, and the latest had left because she hadn't approved of the girl's adopted parent being an alien.

Yes an alien.

Trevor wanted to say he'd seen weirder but that would be a lie.

As he read more of the file, he knew he was stepping into something that was a really big deal. The girl had seemingly been left alone on the streets to fend for herself, living out of a box and having to steal food. Neither of her birth parents could be contacted, her grandmother was on the other side of the country and way too old to take proper care of her, leaving her a practical ward of the state. She had been involved in something labelled classified, before being adopted by the alien. The photos of the two of them made his species obvious- he had a purple head and four eyes, for crying out loud.

She'd been exceptionally bright. The agent who had found her made notes that when she had tested for schooling, she'd surpassed her age group in droves. Yes, she'd failed a majority of the questions, but it was noted that she had been suspected to purposefully get questions wrong so as to hide behind her knowledge. So another level of intelligent.

Trevor had an introductory session after reading the file. Mahina Jookiba had been evasive in her answers, occasionally being too upfront with the answers. Trevor wasn't a high-level genius like her, but even he could see when someone was hiding something. The girl was good, near mastermind. Trevor's skills lay in seeing the behavior of masterminds. Hence his recommendation for this case.

He had found better ways of getting her to talk. Mahina would tend to babble if she was given something to work on during a session. Over the months, Trevor had seen her work on a lot of things. A record player that could play music based on emotion, a toaster but for eggs, upgrades on a hover car, etc. Those were just the most memorable. Mahina didn't seem able to think about her mechanics while also coming up with easy lies.

He'd had joint sessions with the adoptive father as well. Jumba was a mastermind in a whole other way. They both would work on whatever machine Mahina had brought. As Trevor asked Jumba questions, Mahina would add in some mathematical equation problem. Jumba was much more open during the talks at the first than Mahina had been.

His disguises were actually worse than the file had shown. He hadn't even tried wearing a fake wig.

They were coming up on 10-months post adoption. Trevor knew that anniversaries were a big deal. To the Jookiba's, any sort of mention on emotions had them veering away from the topic.

Trevor remembered their holiday session. Mahina had just been excited Christmas was coming- nothing about how this was her first Christmas with a new family, or first Christmas out of the box, or just anything anyone thought was a normal reaction. Trevor was just surprised to see Mahina so excited and open. That was the closest she'd had to a normal seven-year-old's reaction the entire time he'd been her therapist.

The door to his office opened.

Trevor looked up. Mahina wasted no time for a greeting, just walking up to the small coffee table to drop her notebook on it. She was sketching out designs for- Trevor didn't have any idea what it was. He could see it when Mahina dropped it down on the coffee table to work on it.