| Subject: Like Father, Like Son: Sequel to the Library. Chapters 1 & 2 |
Author:
Jaron
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Date Posted: 19:19:05 12/03/01 Mon
In reply to:
Jaron
's message, "Like Father, Like Son: Sequel to the Library" on 19:17:10 12/03/01 Mon
Like Father, Like Son: Sequel to the Library, part one
May 25, 1998
As soon as I had buckled Rene into his seat, I just happened to look out one of the
airplane windows back at the terminal and caught a brief glimpse of black-clad figure
that seemed familiar to me.
“It can’t be, “ I thought as I watched through the glass wall of the terminal. The figure
in black took long strides and before I could get a good look at the figure, he quickly
disappeared from my sight. The long brown hair brushed back from the face, the
determined and purposeful walk, and the shoulders that swayed back and forth with
each step all combined in my brain and shouted “Michael” to me.
He wasn’t supposed to know, I thought desperately. Maybe it wasn’t him, only
someone who looked like him, I told myself. And if it was him, does he hate me for
the bargain I made with Cold Eyes, the woman with the long brown hair and eyes as
cold as ice, who had watched Michael when he visited me at the Library?
While Rene sat beside me and hugged and talked to his teddy bear, my thoughts
flooded back to that day when the cold-eyed woman came to see me at my home.
“You stole Michael’s child from ?!” I shouted at her. “Just so you could get him to
focus on his job and not on his family? Did you get rid of Simone for the same
reason?” I was shaking with rage.
Cold Eyes smiled. “Well, yes, Michael does focus more now, no more distractions for
him. There is just one more problem now,” she said.
“What is that,” I asked, knowing what the answer would be.
“You!” she replied. “He still comes to you for comforting. You soften him. You assist
him in releasing his emotions. We need him hard and with his emotions in check. We
need him controlled.”
I sat back in my chair and sighed. “So, are you going to get rid of me, like you did
with Rene and Simone?”
“Actually,” and she smiled again, “We want you to disappear and take one of our
problems with you.” She rose from the sofa and started pacing the length of my living
room.
I was stunned, but finally asked, “What problem?”
Her answer, when it came, took me completely by surprise and made me shout
joyfully when she said simply, “Rene.”
“He’s alive! He’s really alive, but ...Michael said he was killed by a hit and run driver.
Simone told him...” A coldness spread through my bones, “My God, she lied to
Michael. How could she? He was devastated by Rene’s death. How could she?” I
cried, not believing that the Simone I knew could ever do such a thing to someone
she loved as much as she loved Michael.
“ She could,” Cold-Eyes said, “ because we told her Rene would be taken away anyway
if she didn’t go along with our wishes. She knew that Rene should never have been
conceived or born. She knew Section policy and both she and Michael ignored policy,
so we gave her a chance to save Rene’s life as well as Michael’s. She took the chance
and helped us to convince Michael that Rene was dead. Michael would never have
given Rene up.”
Now,” she continued, “our control over Michael is threatened once again through
you, so we have to take care of this problem. You need an incentive to leave Michael
and we need a more permanent solution to Rene. My proposition to you is for you to
take Rene and disappear from Michael’s life. He knows that we know about you and
he will believe that you have moved away to remove the threat you represent. I have
already told him that I will take care of you. Your safety is of the utmost importance
to him, so he will follow our orders to not see you again.. The foster parents are no
longer suitable to keep Rene long-term and we need to move him, so it only seemed
logical to take care of two problems with one solution. And that solution is you,” she
said matter-of-factly.
“But I just can’t take Michael’s son from him,” I argued.
“Of course you can. Rene is dead to Michael and if you want to assure the safety of
both Rene, Michael as well as yourself, you will agree to my proposition. What
alternative do you have?” she asked.
I considered everything she said and, in the end, I knew there was only one decision I
could make. I would raise Michael’s son and keep him safe. I could only hope that
Michael would understand if he ever found out. God help me, I thought, I hope he
won’t hate me.
Like Father, Like Son: Sequel to the Library, Part Two
5/25/98
I sighed. Rene seemed to be a well-adjusted six-year-old. The foster parents he had
been placed with after he had been taken from Michael and Simone had apparently
taken good care of him. He missed them, but he told me that he was a lot happier
being with me if he couldn’t be with his Mommy and Daddy. Big tears formed in his
green eyes whenever he spoke of them.
His questions about them had started the first moment I had taken him in my arms at
the airport. At first, I didn’t know what to say. How do you explain to a six-year-old
why he was ripped from his parents as a three and a half year old? But this was
Michael’s son, he was an intelligent, intuitive and wary child. I would not be able to
lie to him, nor would I want to...what to say to explain to a six-year-old something
that I, as an adult, found difficult to understand.
So, I told him in terms that he might be able to understand. I told him a story all
about a brave prince, his beautiful princess, an evil cold-eyed queen and the dragons
that had to be fought.
Rene looked up at me as I checked his seat buckle once again. “Grace,” he said
slowly, “What happened to my Mommy and Daddy? Why was I taken away from them?
Will I ever see them again?”
“How do I tell him,” I thought to myself, then I said to Rene, “Let me tell you a
story.”
And so, I told him a story about a brave prince and his beloved princess who together
fought the dragons that were attempting to destroy the land where they lived. The
queen of the land was grateful for what the prince and princess were doing for the
land, but she was worried that they would decide to stop fighting the dragons as
fervently as they had been doing when they started a family. Because even in the
midst of their battles against the dragons, the prince and the princess loved each
other so much that a son had been borne to them. The little prince was a brave as
his father and as beautiful as his mother. The princess had taken time off to care for
the young prince, and the queen became more worried about her land, which was
threatened by the dragons. Because the brave prince loved his family so much, he
spent as much time as he could with them and still, the queen worried. She wanted
the prince to be more concerned with the fight against the dragons than the welfare
of his family.
The queen worried so much, that she began to plot against the prince and the
princess and to plan how to make the prince focus more on the fight than on his wife
and son. She finally decided that the best way to make the prince do what she
wanted was to send the young prince away from his parents, so they would continue
their fight against the evil dragons who were ravaging the land.
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