CHAPTER ONE:THE SUN NEVER CAME UP(unedited)
"O.K., this is getting ridiculous", Samantha grumbled to herself as she turned the last busy street corner before she entered the 3 story building which was home to her new job at Jones & Associates adoption agency. The weather was hot & she was running late(late to Samantha meant she was only 10 minutes early instead of the usual 20), but neither of these independently annoying situations was at the heart of her unusually aggravated attitude. What was getting "ridiculous" was that some kid, maybe 8 or nine years old, had been popping up in front of her apartment building & following her to work for the last 3 days. He wasn't even polite enough to try to hide it. Every morning he would be standing on the front side walk, staring at her. Then, when she began to walk, he would give her a 10-12 step head start and then fall in line behind her. After work, it was the same drill. He never said a word, just stared & followed her home, or to the post office, or to the corner store, & then home. Stare & follow; at first she thought maybe he had a little crush on her, or maybe he thought she was someone else, but by day 3, it had gotten creepy, &...well...ridiculous.
She was thinking about how to handle the boy as she begin to step off the curb & cross the street, when she felt a tug on her shirt sleeve. Slightly startled, she turned to see that the little guy had caught up to her and was now looking in her eyes with the biggest snaggle-toothed smile she had ever seen outside of a cartoon show. All four top middle teeth, gone. Samantha didn't know whether to laugh or call a dentist.
"I have to save you. You can't keep living like this. The sun never really comes up you know." The child said the words as if he had been practicing it all week, & it caught Samantha so off guard that she forgot all about running late & could only manage to stutter the words "The sun?".
The young boy, standing on the corner with the same clothes on he had been wearing the days before, though they seemed freshly washed & ironed, smiled even wider and said, "Sure, they say the sun "comes up". But it never did, never has, never will. It's a lie, but everyone's accepted it, so it's damned near like the truth, but not really." Now the child smiled his biggest grin yet & he looked at Samantha as if he expected applause for his great statement. Instead Samantha looked sternly at him & said "Don't curse. Where are your parents?"
"Don't be simple", the boy snapped back.The smile instantly vanished from his face and all of a suddenly Samantha wished she was somewhere else. His light brown skin seemed to grow darker, and it seemed like the air around them got thicker and harder to breathe."The sun sits in the middle of this solar system. The people who raised you are not your parents. The earth rotates & revolves causing days & seasons. Your name is Rashanna.The sun doesn't rise, the earth rotates. You would have died today, but you have more potential than you can imagine and you need more time. Accepting small lies has allowed you to accept many other more dangerous ones. By themselves the little lies seem harmless. Together they create a false reality. How many lies do you tell yourself every day without thinking about it?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
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