• tab "Who do you guys think you are, anyway? Who gave you the authority to put my child through those painful experiments?" The man crossed his arms, leaned forward, and said in a matter of fact tone,
    tab "Who do we think we are? Oh, I'm pretty sure we know who we are. I'm Kevin Smith, leader of the 'Synthetic Skeleton Structure Replica' project."
    tab "Clever name. You think of it yourself?" I muttered, not being able to still my tongue from making quick and sarcastic remarks. Kevin ignored me, and went on,
    tab "This is," he nodded towards the woman standing near my son, "my assistant Laura Williams, and also Jeremy's temporary mother." Laura gave a weak smile, but avoided making direct eye contact with me.
    tab "Temporary mother? Why does my son need a temporary mother?! He has his parents! Me! My wife!"
    tab "Slow down there, partner. I believe I had some other questions to answer." I leaned back a little, rolled back my shoulders, and said in a calmer voice,
    tab "Right. As you were saying..." He nodded, and went on,
    tab "Yes. As I was saying, we couldn't afford to tell you. After all, there was no way we could convince you that these tests would be all right. Isn't that correct?"
    tab "Couldn't be more so."
    tab "So we decided to opt out on informing you, and went about testing without your...'say so'."
    tab "Then why didn't you find someone else who would let you test?!"
    tab "That couldn't happen."
    tab "Why?!" I exclaimed, standing up, regaining my anger. He faltered for a second, paused, and then said a little tentatively,
    tab "That...is confidential. I really...can't talk about it." Great. Add another secret to my life. Truth never came on a clean plate for me.
    tab "Confidential?! I've gone through these past five years thinking my son was dead and now, when you start to explain things, you can't even explain them in full length!"
    tab "Life doesn't always go the way you want it to."
    tab "Yeah. Got caught up on that one awhile ago." Quickly, I changed the subject, and pointed to my son, and said,
    tab "My son! He's a retarded kid! What did you do to him?!"
    tab "Look! Would you rather him be dead?!" I looked at Jeremy. My son. My only son. My lineage. He was crying now, suddenly on a rampage about me not correcting his homework. I looked down, and whispered,
    tab "I don't know...I just...don't know." I really didn't know what to think. A retarded kid who was used as an experimental tool was certainly not exactly what I wanted. But...what about the alternative? Would I rather my son be dead? Could I be so heartless as that?
    tab "And as your complaining about this," Kevin went on, "I need not remind you that your crime has far surpassed...anything I've done. Do you think you're one to speak for justice?" He started to walk away, motioning the others to follow. I looked up at Jeremy one last time. Red stained face. Tears drenching his skin. Puddles left on the floor...I looked at him.
    tab But I can't yet describe how I looked at him. I just...can't. Was it in love? Hate? Disappointment? Happiness? Anger? All I could say was,
    tab "Kevin...I want to know. I want to know the truth." And as the two others walked on out the door, Jeremy dragged behind, Kevin replied,
    tab "Do you really want to know?" And before I could answer to his seemingly obvious question, he stepped out of the room.
    tab I wasn't alone. Not anymore. But I sure felt like I was.