The Children's Corner
Chapter 8
In a rare lull, after Rick returns from taking Lily to preschool and the twins are both napping, Kate savors a cup of hot chocolate. She looks up, her nose tipped with whipped cream and a dash of chocolate syrup. Rick smiles, wiping it away with a finger he promptly sticks in his mouth. "So," Kate wonders, "what's your meeting today? More collaboration with Liz?"
"No. We agreed on the outline and the opening scene. She'll be doing the heavy lifting for at least the next few chapters. Then, I'll review what she did, and we'll go from there. Today, I'll be working with the rest of the Author's Consortium on the nuts and bolts for The Children's Corner Black Pawn imprint. I have some ideas for our first offering. It's my project, but I can still use the input. Also, getting upfront approval will avoid a lot of sniping later."
"Oh? The celebrated authors of Black Pawn snipe at each other?" Kate teases.
"You've heard some of the jabs from the writers at my poker games. Perhaps you assumed that my 50-year-old single malt loosed the inhibitions of my comrades of the keyboard. But, actually, if anything, it softens their verbal blows. My fellow wordsmiths can become downright ecstatic at composing a skillfully crafted arrow to the ego."
"Well, then perhaps if the baby gods smile on us, I can do something to soothe your wounds later."
Rick leans across the table for a cocoa-flavored kiss. "I will hold that promise close to my heart as I enter the fray. So other than catering to the demands of our brood, what are your plans for the day?"
"It took a while to set up, but Ryan and Esposito finally had their interview with Jeni Stefonious's adoptive parents. They're supposed to transmit the video to me this morning. Want to watch it together?"
"Are you kidding? The story of kidnapping a cursed baby from Transylvania and raising it as their own? How could I resist? When are the boys supposed to send it?"
"It should be arriving any minute now."
"I don't have to leave for my meeting for at least an hour. So that should work out stupendously well."
The gray-haired couple appearing on the loft's big screen is fidgeting slightly, but their fingers are entwined in support. Kate and Rick can hear Ryan's voice. "Ms. Radin, Mr. Radin, we're very sorry for your loss. And I know that nothing we can do will bring your daughter back, but we did get the man who poisoned her. Still, to build a narrative for a jury, it would help if you told us the story of how she came to you from the beginning. Can you do that?"
Livi and Morris Radin exchange a questioning gaze before Livi nods. "When we were younger, Morris and I loved exploring the world, seeing strange places, and hearing weird stories. We went to Transylvania to poke around the old castles there. We were eating in the restaurant at Cantacuzino Castle when we overheard the conversation of some American tourists at the next table. They were talking about a story they'd heard about a doubly cursed baby in a village not far away.
"They'd been visiting the church and picked up on an exchange between two priests. It was in Romanian, but apparently, one of them understood well enough to get the jist of it. He didn't get all of it, but it was clear that one of the priests thought that the only way to lift the curse was to expose the child and let God decide whether it should live. The other priest didn't approve of doing that to any child, cursed or not. But apparently, he was junior and couldn't overrule his superior.
"The tourist couple, we never heard their names, talked about going to the local police and being ignored. They had no idea what else they could do."
Esposito's voice interrupts. "But you two did."
Morris nods. "We couldn't just stand by and let something like that happen to a helpless child," Livi continues. "So we barged in on the exchange and demanded as many details as we could get. Morris and I went to the church where the other tourists had eavesdropped on the priest. But we had no idea what we were going to do. Then it hit us in the face. We saw a priest carrying a baby into the hills surrounding the village, and we followed him. He just left Chris in a clump of trees and walked off."
"Chris?" Ryan questions.
"Yes, we called her Chris. Once we had a look under the blankets she was wrapped in, we understood about the curses, at least one of them. We didn't think about the fingerprints until later. The name Chris could fit whatever sex she turned out to be. And when we finally had her chromosomes done, we found out that she was a little of both. But she was healthy. So we decided that when she was old enough, she could make the decision for herself. She did. She wanted to be a woman and was planning to get the surgery to match how she felt. Dr. Russo was helping her find the right surgeon."
"So you just picked up a baby and brought her to the United States?" Esposito presses.
"Of course we didn't," Morris retorts, his eyes suddenly blazing.
Livi squeezes her husband's hand. "It was a private adoption of sorts through a Romanian orphanage. They had a few American couples adopting there when they couldn't qualify to adopt a child in the U.S. So, it was pretty much a matter of paying for the paperwork. After that, the American Embassy was willing to issue a passport for Chris. We flipped a coin to identify her as female. And when we touched American soil, she qualified to become an American citizen." Moisture begins to gleam in Livi's eyes. "We thought she'd be safe here, with us. We never dreamed…." The video cuts out as Livi presses her face into Morris' shoulder.
Rick blows a slow breath through pursed lips. "Wow! Chris was on the edge of having a decent life when it was taken from her by ignorance and superstition. And you know what the worst thing is, Kate? It doesn't take a Romanian priest to do something like that. Unfortunately, the good old U.S. of A. has its own crop of bigoted morons willing to harass and even kill people like Chris."
"I know, Babe," Kate agrees. "New York City's had its share of LGBTQ+ bashings and worse. But this is real life. You can't just wave a magic wand and get people to abandon their beliefs, no matter how toxic they are."
"No, I can't. But I can help steer the next generation away from that kind of crap. I've been struggling with deciding what the first book from The Children's Corner should be. And now I know. It's got to be a story about why it's OK to be different. And if I can, I think I'll get Dr. Russo and perhaps Liz also to help write it."
"Sounds like you're ready to go to war. Too bad you can't take your Falchion sword."
"I've got something better," Rick declares. "I've got a story. Swords may win battles, but the right story can change the world."