"Ah, Trae thanks for coming."
"What do you want?" Trae asked
"We have cloned our first child. She has had a rather disturbing past that we don't want her remembering. That is why I can't be the one to see her. But you are the perfect one for the job. She needs love and care from a family," The Colonel explained.
"But why do you want me?" Trae asked
The Colonel sighed and said, "Well, you do work at the day care center in the city and so you are used to working around kids. Not to mention you were once a father yourself."
Trae looked away when the Colonel said that. The Colonel sighed and said, "I know how hard it must be, seeing that you lost both your wife and child in that car accident. Trust me, I think about my granddaughter often. But just think how this girl feels, she has no family."
Trae put his head in his hands and rested them on his knees. He sighed and then said, "Fine, I'll talk to her." He got up and turned to walk out of the room. But his father's voice stopped him, "When you do talk to her, make sure you don't mention I'm your father. I was in her past and I don't want to trigger any old memories." Trae nodded and walked out of the room.
Trae walked up to the large white door. Two guards were standing stationed in front. They smiled when they saw Trae walk up and one of them stepped forward to a small keyboard by the door. He typed onto it and, with a click, the door unlocked. Trae couldn't help but wonder why there were guards stationed outside and why they need to guard the girl inside. But then, he took a deep breath and stepped up to the door, turned the handle, and quickly stepped inside.
A young girl was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. She looked up as Trae entered the room and Trae stared into her eyes. He was surprised to see that her eyes were a deep, dark blue; so dark that they almost appeared black. She wore a long black dress and her black hair was hanging down and came to her waist. She didn't look as young as the Colonel had implied, she seemed to be around 13 or 14 years old. Trae walked over to her but she backed away quickly with a look of fear.
Trae stopped walking as he watched the child scurry away. He knew exactly how to handle this type of situation for he had to do this many times with the children at the day care center. Trae sat down in the middle of the room and pulled out a deck of cards. He shuffled the cards slowly and then placed one of the cards down, facing up, and six more cards to the right of it, facing down. Then he placed a card face-up on top of a face-down card and next to the face-up card. Then lay five more cards, facing down on top of the five remaining face down cards. He repeated this step until he had seven cards facing up at him on top of a different number of face-down cards. As he began the solitaire game, he heard the girl moving closer to him. He continued playing as the girl crept nearer and nearer.
Trae stopped and slowly stretched his hand out in front of him, toward the girl. She backed up against the wall and gazed at him like a frightened child. Trae sat there, with his hand outstretched to the girl. She stared at it for a minute and she looked up slowly at Trae who smiled reassuringly. The girl slowly stretched out her hand and placed it in Trae's hand. "My name is Trae; do you know what yours is?" Trae asked. The girl seemed to think for a moment and then shook her head.
"Well, I think, that it might be Ali," Trae said, not taking his eyes of the child.
"Ali?" the girl asked in a soft voice, "My name…is Ali?"
"Yes," Trae said and Ali smiled, "I want to help you," Trae then said.
"Do you know what happened to me?" Ali asked slowly and she looked up with eyes full of confusion, "Do you know where my mommy and daddy are?"
Trae hesitated before saying, "I really don't know, Ali. But, if you want you can pretend I'm your daddy."
"I don't want parents," Ali said and her eyes momentarily flashed with hatred. Trae wondered what had happened that would cause her to hate her parents. But then he was more concerned about what would happen if she did remember? He asked carefully, "Do you remember your parents?"
Ali shook her head no. Just then the door behind him opened and one of the guards stepped inside, the session was over. Trae stood up, surprised at how quickly time had gone. But then he felt a tug on the sleeve of his shirt and he looked down to see Ali holding on tight to his hand.
"You will come back, right?" Ali asked and her eyes no longer held hate, but loneliness.
Trae smiled and crouched down in front of her, "I promise I'll be back tomorrow. And I might even be able to bring you a teddy bear if you would like."
Ali's eyes momentarily flashed and Trae could have sworn that he had seen the hint of hatred again.