Faultless

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

           An hour later we’re all sitting in Lisa’s living room and we had just finished telling her our side of the story and all that had happened to us. I could feel the tension grow between the three of us as silence filled the room and we waited for Lisa’s approval or disapproval.

           “Wow,” she said, nearly speechless, “I can’t believe this. I mean your story, how you’ve escaped. I mean it would make perfect sense that my son could have been taken for these projects. Do you have a picture or anything? Can I see what he looks like? Maybe that will help determine if it could be him.”

           “No,” I said, “I’m sorry we don’t. I wish we did.”

           “It’s okay,” she said, “I understand.”

           “Mrs. Campbell,” Arnold interrupted.

           “Oh, please, call me Lisa!” Lisa Campbell was warm and welcoming to us. After she realized we weren’t prankster kids out to get her, she warmed up quickly, welcoming us into her home, which seemed really pleasant. Although she seemed very scatterbrained, she was very nice and I couldn’t see her harming us in any way.

           “Lisa, can I ask you question?” Arnold asked.

           “Of course, dear, ask me anything.”

           “What happened that day? The day your son was taken?”

           Immediately Lisa launched into her story, “I was 20 when I became pregnant. I was just married to a man named Dorian Carver. Our son was conceived on our honeymoon and he was not planned.”

           “Honeymoon?” I question, “What’s that?” We had nothing called that in the Division.

           “Oh that’s right. I forgot they keep you locked up and you can’t leave, so I guess you wouldn’t have had those in the Divisions. It’s like a vacation that people take after they are married and a vacation is when you travel to a different place. Kind of like how you guys traveled out of the Division. So this is like your vacation, but vacations are a lot more fun than what you’ve gone through. Make sense?”

           “Yes,” I nod.

           “Anyway, I was young and I thought I was in love, but I could tell Dorian just wasn’t as excited about the baby as I was. We had been together since high school and I would have sworn to anyone that he was the one true love of my life. A lot of people didn’t think he was right for me though. He was very…different. Our relationship basically epitomized the rule of ‘opposites attract.’ He was very quiet, shy, and driven by his work while I was more outgoing and more of a go-with-the-flow type girl, as you can probably tell.

           “He was very into his work. He had just completed his bachelor’s degree for chemical science and was going back to get his master’s. At the time we had hardly any money. We were actually living in a trailer park. And the whole thing was just unexpected. My parents, his parents, and everyone, including him, urged me to give my baby up for adoption despite my better judgment and what I really wanted. But I went through with the process anyway and by the time my due date came, everything for the adoption was practically set up.

           “I remember the day I went into labor and went to the hospital to have him. As soon as he was here, he was placed into my arms and at that second I knew I could never give him up. He was supposed to be Henry Michael Carver. Later I fell asleep with him in my arms and the next thing I know is I wake up and he’s gone and the nurse’s tell me the adoption agency came and took him claiming I sighed the final papers, when really I hadn’t. And that was it. There was no getting him back, no matter how hard I fought. Nobody could find the people who took my baby.