The Hunt

42

"Today's class is about our blood and it's types. So do you people know what's your blood group?"

I had opted for the Advanced Biology class this year, and Mr. Stevenson has been one of my favourite teachers since the first day. These days, the only class which I used to look forward to, was this class. Though the teacher's way of making us understand the topics was the main reason to stay interested, there was also another reason to it. I was the only one from my friend's circle here.

No Dan, No Ruth, No Shirley, and most importantly, no Rio.

No one to distract me, and no one who tends to keep an eye on me.

This was the only class I could think to myself and calm down. Yet, the recent face-off with Amyra wasn't something I could forget easily. The flashes of memories from that night stirred me up, pumping adrenaline through my arteries.

The Syndicates were powerful. And they were freely roaming in the streets.
They could still kidnap and hurt innocent kids out there.

Those kids needed to be saved. But how? By whom?

"Hanneli, can you tell me your blood group?"
My thoughts got interrupted. Mr. Stevenson had started asking questions.

The girl next to me, stood up to answer.
"I'm A positive."
"Oh.. nice. So, can you tell us your parents' blood groups?"
"Am I supposed to know that?"
"Yes, you should know it. At times of emergency, you would be able to help your parents by collecting blood for them without having them go through the blood group test again. Though the grouping test's rather easy, still."

Hanneli sat down.
"So, we will be learning about something special. The genes in us. You all know that we have inherited our parental genes during fertilisation right?"
The whole class nodded.

"The blood grouping in us follows the same principle. These are also inherited from our parents' genes."

He started telling us about the different kinds of alleles, and how our blood groups are determined through the selection of two alleles, one from mother and one from father. I tried to shake off those unsettling memories and concentrated in the class.

"Hey, Levi, can you tell us your mother's blood group?"
The guy stood up reluctantly.
"I think it's B positive."
"And your father's?"
"AB positive."
"Okay. Now you can sit down."

Mr. Stevenson walked towards the board, and wrote this information.
"Now, we will find out all the possible blood groups our Levi can be of. After we are done, you'll tell your actual blood group and see if it is in our prediction."

The students naturally got excited.
As he drew all the Punnett squares and showed us all the possibilities, the students started solving it on their own too. I also followed him and scribbled through my page.
The results showed that blood group B positive has the highest probability of appearing, followed by AB positive and A positive.

"So, what is your blood group?"
Levi smiled a little.
"I'm B positive."
The class burst out in cheers.

Mr. Stevenson bowed with his arms in air, like a magician who successfully finished his act. He then circled the words on the board, representing his answer.
A girl raised her hand.
"Yes, any doubt?"
"Umm... so if the parents have B positive and AB positive as their blood groups, their kids cannot have O positive blood?"

He kept the marker on the table.
"No. This was something I was just about to tell you. A couple with AB blood group in one parent cannot have an O positive child genetically. But the kid can still be phenotypically O positive, a very rare condition called the Bombay phenotype. We will study about it in details tomorrow."

The girl nodded and sat down.
"All of you will ask your parents about their blood groups and work out the possibilities just like we did in the class as an example today. I want to see it in everyone's notes tomorrow, got it?"

The students replied with a lazy yes.
I tried to work out the problem, remembering I had a little bit of free time. Mom's blood group was AB positive and.....!
Mom's AB positive?
I'm O positive.
So I'm a rare one? Or maybe not.
Grandpa's words rang in my head in waves.

"She looks just like her mother. She would be so proud of her now if she were here."

The pen fell out of my grip.
My vision instantly blurred due to the brimming tears.
This couldn't be true.
This mustn't.

Maybe I heard my mom wrong. Maybe she wasn't AB positive in the first place. I needed to confirm it, and that could only be done at home.

*****

I went to the kitchen, and watched as Mumma prepared the dinner. She looked quite young for her age, and her dark blonde hair was tied into a messy bun at her nape. Standing about half a foot taller than me, with sharp jawline and high cheekbones, she indeed appeared polar opposite to me.

"Honey, do you want something?" She turned at me, smiling with her twinkling blue eyes.
"No, just wanted to ask a few questions for my biology homework."
"Oh... what is it?"
She lowered the heat under the cooking pot, and looked at me.

"What is your blood group? And Dad's?"
"I am AB positive. Your dad's probably A positive."
I staggered a little bit.
She instinctively held me.
"What happened, honey? You alright?"

I stood straight, and brushed her hand away.
"I'm fine. Don't worry. I feel kinda dizzy in my head."

"Oh Vinnie, I have told you not to work so hard! You should take rest sometimes too. Come on, let's go to your room."

She led me to my room, and tucked me inside the sheets.
"Now close your eyes and breathe slowly, I will call you when dinner's ready."
She kissed on my forehead and closed the door as she went out of the room.

I was glad she didn't notice the trails of tears which ran down as soon as she left.

The next day, after school, I planned to go through all the documents we had at our house. Both of my parents' working hours ended late, so there was no hurry.

I opened the closet in their bedroom, holding the sense of guilt inside. My curiosity overcame my scruples, and I couldn't stop myself from skimming over the papers kept in different files and folders. Most of them were related to property and insurance, but I continued the search. After an hour of futile efforts, I sat down on the floor, exhausted with reading so many papers. I didn't find anything about my adoption. A glimmer of hope surfaced in my thoughts.

I might just be a rare case anyway.

I stacked all the papers in their respective files, and tried to arrange them the way they were kept before. But the files weren't fitting in again. I kept them aside and drove my hand inside the drawer, searching for the hindrance. That's when my fingers tapped on a roll of papers, kept in the farthest corner of the space.

I took it out and opened the roll, without thinking much.
I saw a photo inside, with a smiling baby. At the back, my name and my birthday was written in cursive handwriting.
A pair of sheets were attached with the photo.

Report of adoption. My parents' names. Judicial stamps. Signed and sealed.
My sight blurred, a few drops of tears falling on the paper.

I couldn't believe it. More like, I didn't want to.
I lived my whole life in a lie.

After a while in confusion, I snapped out of the phase. I clicked the photos of the papers, and set the files inside the closet, carefully closing it again.

I went back to my room. The mirror showed a pair of watery eyes, the whole face a shade of red.
I took out my phone again and went through the call logs.

"Hey girl, what's up?"
"Ruth, can I come over?"
"Of course. Oh hey, your voice sounds weird. Did you catch cold or something?"
"No. I'll tell you when I reach your home."

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