Free Haru (2)

Becoming Human

The doctors were surprised to find that if little Haruka really did come from the sea, it was a huge stroke of fortune that he had washed ashore virtually uninjured. The boy was surprisingly calm, even as nurses had to perform blood tests and make sure he was stable. They had him stay for several nights, just in case. So far no one came to retrieve the boy, and Ken and Sorae grew worried.

"You think he may be an orphan?" Sorae murmured to her husband as they sat in the waiting room.

Ken furrowed his brow. "We don't know much about him, really. Doctors couldn't dig up any records on him. Not even a birth certificate. I heard that he can barely speak. At first the doctors thought it was because he was weak, but as days passed and he began to recover, they figured that it might just be the way he is." He stared at the tile floor and frowned. "A quiet little boy with no last name, and no parents..."

"Poor Haru..."

"Haru?"

Sorae chuckled. "I guess I got attached to him pretty quickly. I can't help but worry." She and Ken had been spending more time in the hospital than at home lately, for two reasons. One: the room reserved for the baby they desperately wanted was a painful reminder of what could have been, but only ended in tragedy. Two: the couple couldn't get out of their minds the boy they just rescued from the shoreline. For days they mulled over how he could have ended up there, and more importantly, where he could go when he recovered. So far they received no answers for either question.

Ken softly broke the silence between them. "I think we should go talk to him."

Sorae turned to him with a surprised expression. "Are you sure?"

"Maybe he can open up and make light of the situation. I wonder if he really is alone. I'm worried that no one has come to claim him yet."

"I'm worried, too..."

They rose together, walked down the hallway, and hesitantly entered Haruka's room. The dark-haired boy laid awake in his bed, his blue eyes transfixed on the fan attached to the ceiling. His gaze moved to the Nanases as they quietly came in.

"Hi there," Sorae said with as much soft warmth as she could muster. "Do you remember us?"

Learning what he had seen from interactions between doctors and nurses, Haruka substituted a "yes" with a little nod.

Sorae smiled. He may be quiet, like the doctors had said, but at least he could listen and understand.

"We found you alone on the shore," Ken said. "We wondered if you have any family out there who might come get you."

Haruka took a few seconds to ponder over this. The chances of finding his mother and his pod were incredibly slim. He knew from an early age how the worlds of humans and animals were vastly different, so he had doubts that the couple would believe his story if he told them about his true nature. With sorrow in his heart, Haruka came to the conclusion that his mother was as good as gone, wherever she was now. Finally, he said "No."

Ken and Sorae exchanged a concerned look. Meanwhile, Haruka stared down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them as he was still unused to the movements. Where could he go from here? He couldn't simply return to the ocean. It was a wild and merciless place, where survival of the fittest was the law that reigned supreme. Even the greatest predator of the ocean could become the prey if he was small enough. A lone, young orca like himself could easily fall prey to hungry sharks, more rough weather, or fishing boats whose nets could suffocate him, intentional or not. Haru was safer on land.

Sorae said with hope tinged in her tentative tone: "If you'd like...if you have nowhere else to go...you can come live with us. We'd love to have you as our son."

Haruka was surprised by the couple's kindness. He supposed it'd be rude and senseless of him to refuse. "...Thank you," he finally managed to say.

Ken and Sorae's eyes lit up with joy. Their problem had been resolved. The couple spent many nights taking care of legal paperwork before Haruka could be discharged from the hospital. The boy spent much of his time learning how to walk. The doctors had only assumed that he was weak from his ordeal during the storm. They had no idea that the concept of walking was completely strange and foreign to him. All his life up until now, the young Phaser swam in the water with his tail moving up and down. It took him a while to get used to how humans moved around. Over time he began to like the freedom of his new legs. He could do so much with just one, and even more with two. It was not uncommon for the adults to notice how he'd spend hours simply staring down at his bending knees, flexing feet, and curling toes. Once he got acquaintanted with walking like a normal human, Haruka could hardly keep still in bed. The doctors took this display of quiet energy and strength that the boy was read to go.

The day he was released from the hospital was also the day he officially became known as Haruka Nanase, affectionally called Haru by his new parents.

Sorae had to show Haru how to strap his seat belt. As Ken drove the car home, the two would often glance at Haru from the rearview mirror. The dark-haired boy acted as if he had never been in a car before, which was quite true. He sat straight in his seat and his hands clutched at the seat belt. His eyes were glued to the window. He looked more fascinated than scared. The young Phaser couldn't comprehend how he could move at such a fast speed without doing anything himself. In the ocean, it was sink or swim. He remembered his mother telling him how sharks always had to swim, or they'd sink and die if they stopped moving their tails. Haru lowered his gaze from the window to look at the couple who sat in front of him. He couldn't grasp how the car was moving so fast if they didn't appear to move at all. Then again, he couldn't see Ken's foot on the gas pedal, and even if he did, he still wouldn't understand. The car came to a slow stop in front of a garage. Just as Sorae had shown him, Haru made a deliberate effort of unfastening the seat belt and climbed out of the car.

"Well, this is our home," Ken stated. "I hope you'll like it here."

It was the first time Haru had ever seen a human house. Of all the flora and fauna in the ocean, only kelp and coral stuck to one place. Orcas were migratory animals that never stayed in one place for long, moving with the currents and wherever there was plenty of food. Haru wasn't sure how he'd feel about living in a human house. Then again, he didn't have much of a choice. It didn't seem that bad, either.

Ken pulled out the keys and unlocked the front door. "I want to test out the new grill we just bought. What do you say to grilled mackeral for dinner, Haru?"

The boy's eyes widened at the mention of mackeral. He didn't know that humans ate that kind of fish, too. The couple chuckled when the boy nodded vigorously.

"Okay, I'll go make dinner."

Sorae took Haru by the hand. "While he's doing that, I'll show you to the room you'll be having."

The boy let his adoptive mother lead him into a small room, which was painted in bright pastel colors and had a crib littered with stuffed toys.

Sorae made a sad smile. "My husband and I wanted to have a baby, but..." Sorae couldn't bring herself to finish, and she turned to her adopted son. "Anyways, I'll have everything moved out soon enough, so you can have a room of your own, okay?"

Haru continued to study the room without uttering a word. There was a certain quietness and calm to him that made Sorae sense that he seemed more mature than the average boy of his age.

"Well, I won't move everything out if you see anything you like here. Go on, have a look around."

Haru slowly walked forward, curling his toes on the soft rug. He was used to the cold, hard hospital floor. He made for the crib and stood on his tiptoes to peek over. He reached in to pull out the plush toy of a killer whale, one almost as big as himself. He nearly tipped over and fell from its size and weight.

"You like it?" Sorae asked.

Haru hugged the toy tighter to his chest, and Sorae took that as a clear yes. She smiled. "Of course you can have it."

The boy set the plush orca carefully on the rug and returned to peeking over the crib. Sorae noticed that he ignored the toys of land animals, and pulled out only the toys based on marine animals. Soon a plush starfish, shark, penguin, and dolphin joined the orca on the rug. Sorae thought this very interesting. She figured that due to nearly drowning at sea, he wouldn't want to do anything with it. What he did with the toys seemed to indicate the opposite.

"Mackeral's ready!" Ken called from outside. "Come and get it!"

"We'll be right there!" Sorae called back. She looked down at Haru. "My husband loves to cook. That's partly why I married him," she joked. She took Haru by the hand again, this time he held the toy orca in his other hand the best he could. Ken looked up from his work by the grill and he smiled at the sight.

"Oh, looks like Haru made a new friend."

Sorae chuckled. "Yes, he really likes the orca for some reason."

At the backyard table, Ken pulled up an extra chair the same time he set down the plate of grilled mackeral. "Your orca can sit here, Haru."

The boy promptly placed the toy orca into the seat and settled down next to his new parents. He stared curiously at the plates and silverware laid out before him. Haru had never seen cooked fish before. His mouth watered when he got a whiff of its delicious aroma. Ken and Sorae saw that Haru didn't know how to use chopsticks, so they got him a spoon and planned to teach him later to keep him from getting hungrier. The fish and rice made for one of the best meals he ever had. The last meal he had this good was when his pod had a feeding frenzy over a school of tuna. He had a new family now, and he knew from the couple's kindness that they'd take good care of him.

Ken and Sorae in turn were overjoyed that they could finally raise a child of their own, even if Haru wasn't really theirs by blood.

When Haru finished eating, he remembered his manners. "Thank you for everything," he stated.

With firm affection, Ken placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. With tears tugging at the corners of her eyes, Sorae replied, "Welcome to the family, Haru."

Haru was glad that he adjusted to human life at the early age Ken and Sorae had found him. He assumed that he'd look very strange trying to learn the basics as an adult. Ken and Sorae almost never got angry with him during their years of raising the boy. The closest they had ever gotten to anger was when Sorae had to scold him for bathing too long and wasting a lot of water. She initially stopped by his room to kiss him goodnight when she found Haru sitting in the bathtub, head submerged underwater for minutes on end. Sorae panicked and thought he had drowned. Haru emerged soaked and confused over why his mother worried over him. While relieved, Sorae had to give him a little lecture before having him get changed and ready for bed. When Haru went to sleep, the couple stayed up to review their bills that had come through the mail.

"I thought that he didn't like water because of that stormy night," Sorae said. "It seems I'm wrong. On the contrary, he loves water, almost to the point that it'd be a problem if we can't restrain him from staying in it for too long."

"Haru would run our water bill off the roof if we didn't teach him to keep his baths and hand-washing short," Ken said with a laugh. "There's got to be a healthy outlet to his hydrophilia."

Sorae's face brightened and she clasped her husband's hand. "Ken, I have the perfect idea. After school, I'll take him to go watch a swim team practice. I'll bet my mother's hand-made good luck charms that he'd love it."