“Mommy, where are we going?” Rane asked, jamming two of her fingers on her right hand into her tiny mouth. Her mother pulled a thick down coat around her and wrapped a scarf around her neck. The wool brushed against her cheek and she pushed it away. Her mother swatted her hand away. Next came the boots. They were two sizes too big and made for the rain, not for two feet of snow. Her mother still hadn't answered her, refusing to look her daughter in her large blue eyes. When kittens are first born, they have blue eyes. Hers were the exact same shade. Her mother pulled her fingers out of her mouth and fitted her hand around Rane's. “Mommy?”
“Be quiet.” Her mother sniped, shooting down Rane's next question. The sun wasn't up yest, purple sky swollen with snow that was soon to fall. Her mother hastily buckled her into her car seat. Rane had insisted a million times that a four year old was too big to be in a baby seat. But her mother had the final say. The drive was long. Every time Rane tried to ask her mother what was going on, she was hushed. She eventually stopped asking questions and was lulled to sleep by the car's smooth path down the highway.
* * *
June pulled her daughter out of the car, begging the Lord that she would stay asleep through this whole process. She had tried to love Rane, she really had, but it was just too hard. She was a mistake. She wasn't wanted. Every day she mourned. Rane could have been a cute little girl if she weren't hers. She pulled Rane close, hunching over her. She couldn't get sick. June and her husband had arranged to give Rane to the government for substantial compensation. Five hundred thousand dollars. To give up a child she could never love. She trotted evenly to the large, imposing gate. Behind it lay her money and her daughter's new home. It was a government funded research laboratory. The guard buzzed her in and another escorted her up the long, intimidating drive. At the door she was stopped. They took Rane from her and she was patted down, sent through a full body scanner. They did everything security related except a strip search. Thank the heavens. She had stopped working out after Rane and had started staying late at the office, ordering fast food and not working it off. She wasn't hefty, she had just started to get a paunch is all she often attempted to convince herself. But she wasn't that stupid. She was getting fat. And she blamed Rane.
The scientists took Rane to a large room with a rectangular metal table, setting her down on it. She stirred but didn't wake up. Dr. Frenton pushed his long, spidery fingers into her abdomen, probing her body for any growths or abnormalities. Determining she was healthy, he motioned for his assistant Dr. Grey to take the girl to be serialized, a process in which they record and retain all personal data, giving the patient, in replace of a name, an ID code. A serial number. They lifted her up and carried her, bridal style, to the next stop. Across the hall, June was sitting in a much smaller room opposite a thin, balding man in his forties. He still lived with his mother when he came home from the lab, which wasn't often.
“Now Miss Gallager-” He started, before June cut him off
“Mrs.” She corrected, fingernails snapping against the wooden frame. This man made her nervous for some reason, like his cold, hungry eyes could snatch her up and shove her down his greedy throat.
“I cannot thank you enough for allowing us to perform tests on your daughter. Now about the compensation.” He began, searching with those ravenous eyes for a weakness, a blind spot. Five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to be spending on a child with no particular gifts. Five thousand, maybe. The man's name was Dr. Embleson. He was itching for a way out of this room with this woman. He wanted to start trying out brain performance. None of the other 'donations', as he liked to call them, were cut out for this. But the girl was, he believed. “I believe we owe you four hundred thousand?”
“Five.” Again, she contradicted him. He was beginning to wear on his nerves. Like the rest of him, they were stretched thin.
“Should I point out to you that selling your child is illegal, Mrs. Gallager?” He smiled, his pointy teeth protruding at odd angles from his papery lips.
“So is accepting them, doctor.” She grimaced back, her teeth bleached white and perfect from six terrible years of braces with head gear.
His grin soured as he realized his competitor was as evenly matched as he was. He throttled the urge to start screaming, swallowing his detest for this woman and her wits. “Five thousand it is.”
“Pleasure doing business with you.” June's lips raised in triumph as she stuck out a hand. Turning away, the good doctor pulled a blank check from his leftmost desk drawer. He scratched his name and the amount of five hundred thousand dollars and reluctantly handed it to her. She snatched it from him and walked out of the door with nothing more but a single wave. A wave he did not return.
June walked back to her car, glowing. Her car blinked twice at the click of a button on her key chain. She delicately placed herself into the drivers seat and sighed contently. She looked down at her growing belly and whispered “Did you hear that, little one? Mommy just got you a lovely childhood.” And she drove off without a look back at where she left the daughter that loved her. Goodbye, Rane.
