The Genetic Code

Chapter 19

I thought that would be the end of it. However, it only got worse from there. Leaving the house is unspoken of, what with the three news vans permanently stationed outside, filled with throngs of unrelenting reporters just waiting to jump out and attack. Each time the car left the garage, there would be swarms chasing after the vehicle, and at least one of the vans would trail closely behind, just at the off-chance that I was inside.

By now, they've adapted to our weekly routine. Dad leaves at five on most days for his night shift, while Mom leaves at eight in the morning on certain weekdays and on the weekends. The reporters know not to follow them out at those times, since it's most likely a futile attempt to catch me. Still, one or two desperadoes will trail behind every day just to be completely certain that I'm not present in the car.

I don't even try to think about what will happen when I go to school in two weeks. Every time the idea of school pops up in my head, it causes my heart to freeze in my chest, and a feeling of hollow dread to gnaw at my stomach walls. I won't even have the moral support from my friends, or have Alex be my personal bodyguard. When I step into the East Wing, I'll be all alone, thrown into the pit of man-eating sharks and venomous snakes. They'll never think of me as a 'Perfect', no matter what is written on my ID. All they'll see is a peasant wearing robes and trying to masquerade as royalty. Well, I guess that isn't too far from the truth, but I'd rather not be reminded of the fact every second of every day as I sit trapped within that jewel-encrusted prison.

I haven't been in contact with Alex, Athena or Colette, who are all on vacation at different corners of the globe. Colette flew to Japan, Athena is in Greece visiting relatives, and Alex is in South Africa on a mission trip to build a playground for less-fortunate children. I am in my room with the air-conditioner on full-blast to pretend that I'm vacationing in Alaska.

At the beginning, Colette and Athena were sending frantic texts asking me what was going on, trying to get some sort of explanation for the inconceivable pandemonium surrounding me. When they didn't get a single response for weeks, they eventually gave up.

Alex, on the other hand, has been texting me consistently, even after over two months of deafening silence as the only reply. He sends me photos of himself in Africa, and the things he's built; He asks me how I've been, what I'm doing, whether I'm bored at home; He tells me when he's seen something new about me in the news, asking if it's true, often having to answer himself in place of my silence. It hurt me most ignoring all his messages, since I knew they were genuine concerns of his, but I couldn't give answers to questions I was asking myself, and I also wasn't ready to answer the questions I did know the answers to, which he hadn't asked yet, related to all the things I never told him about my past. Why didn't you tell me you were adopted? Did you feel like you needed to hide it from me? Aren't we close enough for you to tell me these things? All these questions that were bound to arise led dangerously close back to the truth, which I was never ready to reveal if it wasn't forcefully exposed first.

All of this just added onto my stress, which I never vocalized but was pretty evident in the way I constantly paced the room, had less of an appetite and didn't talk as much. Mom and Dad could sense this change, which probably worried them to the point that they made the decision to pull me out to the living room that evening, sitting opposite me, interrogation-style. I was afraid they were going to start asking me questions, and made a quick decision to feign ignorance of anything pertaining to the orphanage, my real parents and my origins, accounting my young age for the lack of memories.

However, what they actually spoke about that day completely shocked me, as it was something that had never even crossed my mind in those two months of idling and pondering up in my room.

"What would you think of taking some time off of school?" Mom started.

Dad quickly added, "Not completely, you can be homeschooled. Nowadays the content you can get in homeschooling-kits is nearly up-to-par with whatever you can learn in school."