Chapter 15
Although the small antique table had only four dinner places set, one would believe a dignitary was arriving. Amarr's wife, Abani, always took the time to acknowledge her husband's devotion to his family, and her daily tradition of a happy home at the end of his day soothed the emotional rollercoaster Amarr would have otherwise carried past the doorway. Out of the hallway two small boys ran screaming and jumping when Dad came home. He marveled at how kids can be so much like dogs, lacking all understanding of time and believing every day that he had been gone for months. Each evening he would walk in and bend down for hugs, and put the memory deep into his cells for when he was old and useless.
"This is a different kind of job for you now is it not?" Abani inquired.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I don't know what kind of person will walk through the door each evening. Today you have a look I have not seen before. Tell me what that look means please."
Amarr knew Abani was not easily fooled. He summoned his thoughts for a moment and started to speak, knowing he was about to tell her something he was contracted not to say.
"The new lab is very interesting. I have never seen anything quite like it. But Mr. Meyer has intentions for this lab that, as a scientist, I cannot understand." Amarr sat down quietly and dropped his head. He nervously fumbled with a rolled paper between his fingers and Abani pulled up a chair and sat next to him, taking the paper and laying it on the table to read. She sat quietly, interpreting the words Amarr signed off on, obviously disturbed by the contents.
"What does this mean? What type of experiments will you be doing on a human?"
"I have not been asked to do anything to a human. I have been asked to create a child. It is my job to find a suitable egg and sperm for the creation of a child whose mother has no blood connection. Then this child will be raised in a white room where everything in it, including our clothing, is white. I don't know why I am so unsettled with this. It is not science; it is something else. I am not privy to what that is or what Mr. Meyer's real intentions are. How can I do what is asked of me when I question it so deeply?"
Abani looked at her husband with the deepest of affection. She held his hands and rubbed them gently, admiring how soft his skin was and how clean he always kept them. She was looking for just the right thing to say, but sometimes, we say what is needed, and this was such a moment.
"I know you do not believe there is anything out there but you and me and the kids, but maybe this is one of those times when we have to stop and ask if there is some other power at work here; some other event or destiny we are part of that we don't need to understand. We just need to respect it. Maybe this experiment needs you to be involved. Maybe you need to stay and see it through. It may change something dramatically and you will be a part of it. Look at me. You are a strong man. Your presence may be the light this child needs in the future. I don't like to assume things are not good. I like to assume everything is good, even the things that hurt. I always learn during the times I hurt. Maybe this is your time to hurt and learn too."
Amarr let the tears flow, and Abani held him while he cried. She ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him and propped him back up, holding his face and staring at him. He could see tears in her eyes, but for a split second, he saw what she was trying to say. In that one tiny millisecond, his thoughts on the experiment shifted.
"Now I know why your mother named you after the Earth. You are my grounding. I was blessed the day I found you. Even if I don't believe in God, I know you and I were destined. I know that now, and I love you so much."
That night, Amarr lay awake for many hours, riveted in new thoughts and understandings of how the planet works, what made it so, and why he was here at this particular time. He was thankful it was Friday so he could reflect all weekend on this novel experience, and the journey he was about to embark on, in the attempt to bring another person into the world; an Earthling that would not know conventional love or family. And Earthling whose journey was yet to be written.
April K. Reeves, Author. Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved. Visit us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/April-K-Reeves/390530011143987?fref=ts or our website: https://aprilkreevesauthor.wordpress.com/