Chapter 27
"This is incredible, I know you're getting tired of me saying that but this child, if she's real, is not just unique but unexpected," said Professor Sparks as he stopped the tape of Maggie speaking. He enjoyed his visits with Dr. Rosenthal: each time she showed up with rolls of drawings under her arms and several tapes of Maggie's many languages, he would react as if it were news.
"She's real," said Dr. Rosenthal. "One day you may get the chance to meet her." Sparks looked over to the doctor to see if he was beginning to crack her protective cover.
A dedicated filing cabinet housed every piece of information the doctor had been leaving behind. This day though, Sparks had laid everything on the table, and they poured over the languages and drawings, looking for the one missing link that would bring sense to the child's world. It was the puzzle piece that would make both of them famous, at least that's what Sparks hoped for. What he didn't know was the truth behind the child.
"We now know there are around fourteen complete languages, twelve of which are spoken here on Earth at this current time. They could have come from the mother teaching her, but two are unique. I've not heard them used before. I'm able to decipher some of the words but it's complex and highly evolved.
"It's unlikely the mother taught her any languages as she has no education," Dr. Rosenthal looked down, choosing her words carefully. "She cleans houses."
"She had to learn them from someone, somewhere. Children can learn languages very quickly if they're exposed to them at an early age. Everyone has a predisposition to something unique. But you're telling me something quite different." Sparks waited for Dr. Rosenthal to release the information he was looking for. It was the first time he knew there was more to this story than what the doctor divulged, and was probably keeping it secret so she could take the glory in discovering the girl.
"It's possible the mother does know these languages and won't tell me," said Rosenthal. She had just dropped herself in a hot pot and knew it. Sparks could feel her apprehension and chose to end the intense but short conversation. Sparks pushed her out the door early to make room for Kent's arrival. Sparks and the doctor shook hands and made a later date, and barely an hour later, Kent arrived with a large brief case.
The two men stared at the table covered in papers. Kent listened as Sparks attempted to explain his recent findings in hope they could collectively find the missing link.
"Apparently the child has taken up sitting cross legged for hours and going into some form of trance," and Sparks showed Kent the photos the doctor had taken. "My biggest question is why the mother has this child locked in a white room, as you can see from the photos, and what are the implications to the child's development because of this?"
Kent leaned back in his chair, tapping a pen against the table. "I'll tell you what I found, but you have to promise me this goes no further than you and I. Not a word to the doctor."
Sparks nodded in approval, grabbing a chair and preparing himself for what he hoped was information that would link the "why" of Maggie's behavior.
"First off, don't believe a word the doctor tells you that this child has never been outside. From the beginning I was suspicious of that. Think about it Sparks, how could this child know about trees and grass and animals and languages after being locked up in a white room? The mother has to be educating the child. No doubt she has her locked up, but use your head. This doctor is not being honest with you, or she knows the mother is lying."
"I'm not sure what to believe anymore," replied Sparks. "I have known Dr. Rosenthal for years and the amount of research she puts into her work. She is well respected in many fields, and has no motive to lie."
"She has a ton of motive to lie," suggested Kent. "After all, this child will bring fame and recognition to the first person that discovers her. I know you've thought about it Sparks. Don't be naïve to think you're the only one. It might be fun and games to figure out the mystery, but when the mystery is solved, someone will come out shining." The room became silent, both men pondering the end result; both men wanting it for themselves. Kent knew it would put him back in good standing at the CIA, but his motivation was much different than Spark's.
"I just want to find the child and work with her. I am aware everyone could be lying. There's nothing special about speaking a dozen foreign languages, except for the fact she's a baby, and where did she get the ancient languages from? And why is she so transfixed on imaginary playmates? I want to solve the mystery of the white room and its implications. Who would raise a child in such an environment without a specific purpose?" Sparks walked around nervously, fiddling with a pencil behind his ear.
"Which leads me to believe the doctor is spending more time with the mother and child than she's telling you. The gold one sees at the end of the rainbow can sway even the most prestigious human to make mistakes. Please keep her at arm's length but continue the project as if you're just keenly interested, as she'll either hook herself or you are on to one of the most amazing discoveries on this planet." Kent rocked in the old wooden chair, staring at Sparks and sizing him up before unleashing the connection the Professor was searching for.
"I know I have to keep this quiet," continued Sparks. "I'll take what Rosenthal gives me and you and I will move forward. Are you interested in that?" Sparks landed hard on an old antique chair.
Those were the words Kent was hoping for. He leaned forward. "Now that you're sitting down and your head's on straight, you need to know about my latest discovery," and he brought out a series of papers and writings on various dialects and languages. "I've been compiling these since our first visit. I think I found a link that I can share with you, but one more time, this is between you and I alone."
Sparks shifted uneasily "I agree."
"She appears to two distinct old languages, but one of them stood out from the beginning. It was the first one the child spoke. She wasn't speaking in broken words. Everything she said was valid, and from the amount of words the CIA has known about for years, I may have found the missing words we've been looking for from the child."
Sparks moved in closer.
"Thousands of years B.C., a race lived in what is now Egypt, that spoke a dialect not even their close neighbors understood. They lived in isolation by choice, and looked physically different. They eventually were encroached upon, and interbred with the other tribes, one of which is called the "Gad", and they spoke this language in a broken style. These are the words we have been able to recover through their tablets and other stone writings. Our team spent years trying to understand what the symbols and letters meant in relationship to our vocabulary. And this is what I came up with to fill in the blanks." Kent unloaded a large brief case of photo across the table.
Sparks leafed through photos of stone tablets and pages of recovered words. Kent pulled out a CD player and began to play the dialect the CIA was aware of, and juxtaposed it with Maggie's.
"As you can hear, the child's pronunciation is crisper than ours, but the words are the same," and both men listened intently. "We never had any spoken words from original tongue to go on, but the correlation is too obvious to disregard. The child has filled in the gaps. We were lucky to find people in Egypt that still spoke fragments of the language and could help us unravel the writings and templates, so we could put it into English format.
Sparks listened intently, often rewinding the CD to go back over the sentences, trying to pick up a flow and struggling to understand what was being said. Half way through, he paused the CD and sat back. Kent looked at Sparks and waited for him to speak.
"I'm curious as to why the CIA spent so much time and had that level of interest in an old language. There are thousands of languages to explore. Why this one?" asked Sparks.
Kent looked at him, realizing this was the moment to divulge over seventy years of work the CIA and the FBI had kept secret.
"We have reason to believe the original tribe that bred with the Gads were interbred with life forms not from this planet. The original Gads may have spoken this language fluently, but once interbreeding came along, the language became mixed. The tablets and writings show the period before interbreeding, but now we have a full set of words we can use to complete the missing structure."
"We?" asked Sparks.
"You and I Sparks," said Kent, and he squirmed in his chair.
"So you're saying this child speaks a language from another planet?" The Professor got up and began to pace the floor again. "You realize how far fetched this sounds? I'm a linguist and a teacher, so I have to stretch my imagination somewhat, but this just sounds like the CIA on drugs. What proof do you have? Is this what you spend tax dollars on? I'm not pulling any punches here Kent. This is serious. You're telling me this girl speaks to aliens, because how else could she have acquired it? I'm sure the mother is from this planet. Could she have acquired it telepathically, or something? What would I know, I'm not a psychologist and I'm sure not privy to alien behavior and I don't work for the CIA." He scratched at his neck as he continued to pace, thinking the conclusion should have been something he could at least respected. "It's just so..."
"So out of this world?" said Kent, throwing a dark glance towards Sparks.
Sparks walked a bit more and then pulled up a chair closer to Kent. "What if you're correct? What if this girl is able to communicate to life on another planet? This takes her right out of the category of 'a few of us that know something about her' to the CIA crawling all over this, am I right?"
"Yes you're right," said Kent. "But it..."
"No, no. You hear me out on this. I called you in for help, and it's gone beyond that now. How do I know the CIA is not involved at this point? What has been revealed today is far more serious than all of us put together could imagine. If we bring this to the world, there's a huge chance the planet will erupt in fear and panic. If anyone else finds out, this girl could be killed. The mother is now in jeopardy too, as I am and Dr. Rosenthal, who has been religiously bringing in these drawings and tapes for only me to see. I'm not a fool Kent. I'm aware of your employer. Why would you keep this to yourself? What's in it for you?"
"I don't want the child or the mother or any of us hurt either," Kent replied. "I'm simply interested in the kid. The CIA has no idea about this and will never unless you and I can figure out how it benefits all of us, especially the girl," and he was winning Sparks over with his authenticity he had refined from years of CIA training. "I suggest we leave it here, and I've made copies of the review and CD for you to continue your work. And keep that filing cabinet locked! Maybe we should transfer it to another place?"
"I've found the most obvious place is the last one they'll look for," said Sparks.
"Hmmnn," Kent muttered under his breath. "Sounds like something the CIA would say." And he smiled and gathered what he needed, shook hands and left quietly. Sparks put everything back in the cabinet and locked it, putting the key in his wallet and not back up on the wall hook. He left the University grounds for the rest of the day, and called in sick for a few days after.
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/