: Choice (Book 1 : The Nairda Series)

Chapter 4 : The man

He woke up on the floor gasping and found himself in a white room.He couldn't remember how he got there or where 'there' was, his eyes did a quick scan of the room and found that it had no windows or doors.The walls were made of the same marble like substance as the floor.He did a quick scan of his body and was relieved to find he was unharmed.It seemed whoever brought him here didn't like his clothes because he wore a robe with a knot-like belt.He looked like a character from the bible, he didn't mind the robe he was just uncomfortable knowing that someone had probably undressed him without his consent.

"Think of happy thoughts, puppies and rainbows, puppies and rainbows" he muttered.

"Welcome to judgement!" a voice echoed loudly in the room.

"Who said that?Hey man, I need to pee." he tried reasoning with the voice.He didn't actually need to, but he thought the sense of urgency would reviel someone who could explain what's going on.

"Judgement begins" the same voice uttered.

A hologram popped up infront of him and he witnessed a baby being born.Wait,isn't that his mother.Gross!He just saw his mothers' ...he didn't even want to think about it.He kept watching, trying to understand it's purpose, he noticed his parents seemed younger in the video.A doctor connected a needle to his mothers' arm and she visibly relaxed a few minutes later.

"What will be his name?", a doctor asks while handing the baby to his mum.

"Adrian Michael Alfween" says his dad out of breath.It seemed the gravity of the situation had just hit him.

"I have a son, I have a son.Jane we have a freaking child!We'll have to feed him, for like eighteen years!We need to protect him and teach him how to use the potty.What if he falls from his bike?We need to get him some training wheels too.Who's idea was this because I'm not qualified to raise a child!Is there some crash course to this parenting thing?Nurse, why don't you put him back in until I figure out how to dad this,perfectly." his dad asks a nurse who just snickers at this.It seemed his dad was having a panic attack and everyone was trying their best not to laugh.

His mum also seemed to find amusement in his fathers' reaction, her pain forgotten.It seemed the doctors had given her some sort of anaesthetic.When he was alive he read that child-birth was equivalent to stretching the scrotum to the top of the head.He wouldn't be lying there smiling unless he was under some heavy pain medication if someone had stretched his scrotum for hours.

"Sir,are you alright.Why don't you have a sit?" a nurse asks his dad.

"I'm fine" he responds waving her away.

"Babe, why don't you hold the baby" his mum asks holding baby Adrian for him to take.

His dad simply looks at baby Adrian and passes out.Adrian burst out laughing,it was a shame social media had not been around back then because that was quality content.He would have even settled for someone simply recording the whole scenario unfolding. Who knew his dad, the military veteran, the self-proclaimed 'Man of Steel' a man who who once took down armed thieves who had broken into their home without breaking a sweat, would have an existential crisis when his son was born.He now understood why his mother wouldn't stop laughing whenever his dad would make a toast, on his birthday, boasting about his bravery in the medic room.Each year he would narrated the experience and in the story he basically delivered Adrian himself while giving the doctors tips and pointers on child delivery. It seemed he did it to make his mother laugh,an inside joke that had gone on for years between them.

He was a terrible son for leaving them behind.Suddenly a tally appeared, on both corners of the screen.The left tally marked red went up by one, then the right one lit green went up by one as well.