Okay, I'm back! This took me a little while, but I finally finished Chapter Two!
Thanks so much to AwesomeDisneyWolfChild, Guest, SwimmerNinja13, crazycat056, and kairocksrainbow for their comments on the first chapter. Your support really means a lot.
And about this story . . . as I warned in the summary, this particular book deals with some mature issues. It's not like "M-rated" mature, just a little harder to grapple with than is per usual a typical Ninjago fanfic. It's meant to make you think. That's all I'm going to say, otherwise I might end up blurting out the plot, and I don't want to spoil it for those of you were anticipating this sequel.
Enjoy. And I apologize ahead of time if I make you cry.
Chapter 2: Jay, Did You Know?
Jay was in shock for the second time in the past three week period. His face turned pale, and his hands shook as they gripped his tie, suddenly dripping with sweat. "I was what?!"
The father I had been mourning for wasn't my actual dad?! This thought was the only one in Jay's head as he stared at his mom in dismay, but he didn't dare say it out loud.
Edna nodded. "That's why we don't have any pictures of you since you turned three," she said. "Just that one." She gestured to the the last photo in the album, the one he had looked at before finding the forms. "That was taken the day we adopted you."
Jay stared at the picture. His two-year-old self looked so happy, sitting in Edna's lap and hugging her, he wondered whether he had experienced rejection at some point to make him so grateful to have parents. "Where was this taken?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Ninjago City Orphanage," Edna replied. "The matron seemed to think you were the best choice for our family." She took off her glasses to wipe her teary eyes. "Jay, I think it's time I told you about what happened."
About time, Jay thought. He was a little angry that his parents had never told him he was adopted. If they really cared about me, he thought, they would have told me when I was younger. But then he felt regret. They cared enough about me to adopt me in the first place, he reminded himself, extinguishing his anger and ungratefulness quickly.
"A week before we adopted you, Ed and I, who had been married for just over four years, learned from our doctor that, much to our dismay, we couldn't have children," Edna began, leaning back against the couch. "This was my second marriage, and my first husband had three children already, so I didn't think about having children of my own. But after he died and I married Ed, who did not have children, I began to take the idea more seriously. Both of us were devastated to find out that we couldn't have children, but we wanted one so desperately, that Ed suggested adoption or fostering. Fostering would only be temporary, and it would have broken our hearts to give the child back to their parents.
"So we decided to adopt. Our first choice was the local orphanage in Wintergate, but taking one look at the building, we knew we had to go to the one in Ninjago City, even though it was fifteen miles away.
"After hearing what we had to say, the matron brought you in." She couldn't help smiling through her tears. "You were such a cute little boy, almost like a miniature version of Ed in your overalls and your hands always working at something. You spoke almost as well as a four-year-old, and you had such a sweet smile, so full of innocence, like your beautiful sea-blue eyes."
Edna gently caressed Jay's cheek. "You were an inventor, even when you were little. The day we adopted you, you had built a little toy dog with a mouth that opened and closed when you pulled on its tail. That was part of the reason we decided to adopt you, but the true reason was because of your personality. You were creative, curious, thoughtful, sweet-natured, surprisingly intelligent for your tender age. But you were also sensitive to the feelings of others. After we adopted you, you said you hoped you hadn't hurt the matron's feelings by going away. I could tell she was very attached to you, by the way she spoke about you."
Jay was listening to his mother's words with tears in his eyes. He felt . . . strange. His entire world was somersaulting around him. He'd been grieving over the loss of someone he wasn't even related to, and now he was aware that the people who had so lovingly raised him for what he thought was twenty years weren't even his parents. All the while, he wondered if his biological parents were even alive, that they knew he was safe and well, even though ignorant about their existence.
Edna seemed to know what Jay was thinking, because she quietly added, "The matron didn't tell us very much about your past. Only that your mother had brought you in four months before. She didn't have a very high opinion of your birth mother, I'm sorry to say. When we asked if she knew anything about your parents, she had a slightly resentful, yet strangely sympathetic tone in her voice when she told us."
Jay finally had the breath to speak. "Is she still there?" he asked weakly.
Edna shrugged. "She also told us that she'd been matron at the orphanage for ten years. She was also somewhat young, late thirties, I think. I'm guessing she's still there, because she was very committed to her work at the orphanage."
She stroked her adopted son's hair. "I'm so sorry you had to find out this way," she said. "I'm sure you're probably feeling resentful toward me and Ed for keeping it a secret for so long."
Jay forced a smile. "Naw, not at all," he lied. "At least I know it now." He got up from his kneeling position, his sleeping legs unsteady. "Well, I guess I better go. I told Nya I'd be back at the dojo by five."
Jay didn't immediately go to the dojo. He stopped at Ninjago City Park, leaving his briefcase in the car and taking his custom BorgMusic Player with him. The music player was about the size of an iPhone 5 that worked by voice recognition. Any song the user asked for, he got. Plugging in his earphones, Jay slowly walked to the bench that, unknown to him, his friend Zane had sat not two weeks before, after his father's funeral. No, his adopted father's funeral.
Jay had no idea whether his parents were dead or alive, or that they cared whether he was or not. The thought was depressing, and he had been going through a lot of depression since Ed's death. He sat with his chin in his hands, staring off into the slowly darkening sky, his mind at a complete blank.
He didn't notice his player was still on auto mode from work until an unfamiliar piano tune softly entered his ears. He had his "Christmas" mix going, in the spirit of the season, and when he checked what the song was, it was "Mary, Did You Know?" performed by Danny Gokey. Cole had recommended it to him, and he hadn't gotten a chance to listen to it.
"Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would one day walk on water?" Danny sang, the piano and violin playing a haunting melody in the background. "Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know, that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you delivered, would soon deliver you. . ."
Danny sang the song so passionately, and the music was so sad and so deeply enchanting that Jay felt tears welling up in his eyes. He had never heard this song before, but the message it conveyed, and the way it was delivered touched Jay more than he thought possible.
"Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man? Oh, Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with His hands?" Danny sang.
Jay didn't stop his tears from falling down his face. His mother, if she was alive, probably didn't know what her son had become. She didn't know that he helped to protect and save Ninjago from the hands of the most evil villains the world had ever seen. She probably wouldn't even recognize him if she saw him. "Did you know, that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God . . . Oh, Mary, did you know?"
Jay buried his face in his hands, unable to suppress his sobs.
I recommend you give the song mentioned, Danny Gokey's cover of "Mary, Did You Know?" a listen. I know it's not Christmastime anymore, but it's an impacting song, anyway, especially with the way Danny delivers it.
It was also the song that inspired this fanfic series, so it's special to me in that way.
Thanks for your time.
#God's Not Dead
(edited January 8th, 2018)