“What were you thinking?” Miss Twisty bellowed at Wender who sat in a chair in front of her desk.
“I wasn’t thinking ma’am,” Wender replied. “I just did what I felt was right for Ves.”
“What you ‘felt’ was right ? You’ve no idea what you’ve done!” Miss Twisty said through gritted teeth.
“I’ve done nothing wrong, Ves has a family now,” said Wender with a conviction. He can live a normal happy life now, not the kind of life he lived here —”
“—Shut up!” Miss Twisty snapped suddenly. “You stupid and naïve girl! If you even knew the half of who Ves is, you wouldn’t have —!”

Miss twisty broke off at the sound of a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Miss Twisty answered.

A tall Asian man with shoulder length and braided black hair, clad in an Orem Knight’s uniform walked into the office. He bowed his head to Miss Twisty.
“Good evening Miss Twisty,” he said in his husky oriental voice.
“Evening Eslo,” Miss Twisty said rubbing her forehead; she was developing a migraine.
 “You called for me, ma’am?”
“Yes, I need you to call an emergency meeting with the Seven. Please tell them it’s about Ves Asirin,”
 
Eslo raised his eyebrows slightly.

“Ves Asirin?” he asked.
“Yes. Wender here just had him adopted,” Miss Twisty said. “We need to decide on the way forward. Your urgency on the matter will be much appreciated.”
“Yes ma’am,” Eslo nodded and left the office.
“Ves is going to be alright, ma’am. The Haylens are a delightful couple. He’s in good hands,” Wender said quietly.
“I hope, for Ves’ sake, that you’re right,” Miss Twisty sighed. You’re suspended until further notice, Wender. Please leave my office,”
“… Yes ma’am.”


*    *    *

Ves woke up and sat up in his bed. After looking around for a minute and not recognizing the surroundings of his new room, he suddenly yelled.
The Haylens came running into the room with dumbstruck expressions, wondering what had happened.
“Ves dear, what’s the matter? Are you okay?” Mardri asked.
Ves’ eyes widened when he saw the Haylen’s ‘unfamiliar’ faces. He jumped out of his bed, ran towards the wall and stood with his back against it.
“Who?” Ves breathed out.
“It’s us, Jake and Mardri,” Jake said. “Don’t you remember us?
“No …” Ves said, shaking his head. “Where?” was his next question.
“At your new home,” Mardri said, moving towards Ves, a smile on her face. “You moved in with us yesterday.”

Ves suddenly leaped at Mardri and pushed her back, knocking her to the floor. He ran past Jake and went out of the room.

He ran down the end of the house’s 2nd floor hallway and then went down the stairs, jumping two steps at a time. He got to the front door of the house and turned the knob frantically, but it was locked.

He spun around and ran down the hallway to the dinning room then to the kitchen. Its door was open and he ran out to the backyard. A distance away, he spotted a back door by the picket fence that led to a back street. He ran towards it, almost falling into the pool in the middle of the backyard.

When he got to that door he found it locked as well, and he was just about to climb over the picket fence when Jake caught up to him, grabbed him around the waist and picked him up. Ves struggled to free himself, kicking and punching Jake as he carried him back to the house.

“Ves, come on, calm down,” Jake told him.

Jake carried Ves to the living room and sat him down on the sofa, trying to calm him down so that he and Mardri could explain everything.

“So you see, by adopting you we made you a part of our family,” Mardri said, slowly and clearly, “and that means we are your parents now, Jake and I are your father and mother. Do you understand?”

Ves nodded slowly, though he didn’t look convinced.

“So, this,” said Jake gesturing at the surroundings, “is your new home.”
“What’s with all the racket?” came a voice from the stairs.

A red haired girl stood on the middle step of the stairs looking down at them.

“Good Morning, Julie”, Jake and Mardri said at the same time.
“Morning mom, morning dad,” Julie said.
“Who’s that?” Ves asked.
“That’s Julie, our daughter and your new big sister,” Mardri told him.
“Julie, come and say hello to Ves,” Jake said.

Julie came down the stairs and came into the living room area.  She stood next to her parents and stared at Ves through squinted eyes.

“Morning Ves,” Julie greeted.

Ves returned a curt nod and a grunt.

“Well, then,” said Mardri, “shall we have breakfast?”


*    *    *

It went on for a few more days. Ves would wake up yelling and the Haylens would rush into his room, calm him down, tell him who they were, explain to him that they’d adopted him and  that the place  where he was now was his new home. The Haylens thought that Ves was simply going through some sort of trauma or shock of being away from the orphanage and they didn’t suspect anything more.

On the 8th day, Ves didn’t wake up yelling , he simply got out of bed and went down to have breakfast, and the Haylens were ecstatic.

The Haylens were a great family by many standards. They lived fun and event filled lives. They did everything together; Shopping, picnics, sports games, fishing and went to the movies every weekend.

As Wender had advised them, the Haylens bought Ves a sketch pad and an art kit and he was glad … really happy … but his living with the Haylens was not meant to last.


*    *    *

It was the first day of the new school term. Jake, Julie and Ves were seated at the table in the dinning room having their breakfast. Mardri was frantically running around the house looking for her car keys, which she had misplaced.

“Did you check the bedroom closet?” Jake asked her.
 “I did,” Mardri replied as she searched the kitchen. “I just know I left them in here or the living room. Oh, I hope I can remember where I put them in time or Julie and Ves’ll be late.”
“I can drop them off if you want?” Jake suggested.
“No, then you’ll be late too.”

The phone rang in the living room and Mardri went to answer it.

“Oh, hi mom,” she said. “… We’re all fine, how are things back at home? … How are you, Dad, and rick … great. Yes mom but I have to go, I’ve lost the car keys again and its Julie and Ves’ first day of school and I can’t remember where I –!”  

Mardri broke off and let out a loud gasp as she felt a sharp pain at the side of her right arm. She dropped the phone and raised her arm to see a deep and bleeding cut.

And there was Ves, standing a step away from her with a sharp knife in his hands.

“Oh my god!” Mardri shrieked.

Jake came running into the room and saw the knife in Ves hands.

“Ves, what do you think you’re doing?” Jake said, grabbing the knife from Ves.
“He – cut me!” Mardri said in shock. “When did he get the knife? I mean, didn’t you see him?”
“Sorry, I didn’t,” Jake told her. “I stood up to get my energy drink from the fridge, I had my back turned to both him and Julie for a while, I didn’t even see him walk out of the room after you.”
“ I saw him take the knife,” Julie said, walking into the room.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Jake asked.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what he was going to do with it,” Julie shrugged.
“I was just trying to help Mardri … remember where the she left her car keys,” Ves said.“Pain … helps you remember things.”
“What? Who told you that?” Mardri asked.
Ves didn’t answer her question.
“Was it bad , what I did?” Ves said, an expression of confusion on his face.
“Yes, Ves. You hurt Mardri. Don’t do something like that again, understand?” Jake told him with a frown.

Ves nodded.

 “Tell her that you’re sorry,” Jake said.
“ I’m sorry,” Ves said to Mardri, though he didn’t seem to mean it.
“Now,” Jake said, “let’s take care of that cut.”


*    *    *

At the end of the second week of school, Ves’ class teacher, Mr. Reed, called Mardri to the school to have a private meeting.

“Ves is not performing well in class, Mrs. Haylen,” Mr. Reed said.
“What seems to be the problem?” Mardri asked.
“I don’t quite understand the situation myself and I was hoping that you could shed some light on it,” Mr. Reed said. “Ves does fine with practical activities such as the arts and crafts and other short term or one day activities but he has great difficulties in continuous and progressive lessons such as reading, writing and math.”
“Really? What do you think is the reason?”
“He has a lot of trouble recalling information and I don’t know why that is. He can’t seem to remember a lot the lessons after a day. For example you can teach him how to count from 1 to 10 in one day, but the next day when you try to teach him how to count from 10 to 20 and he can’t remember what numbers come before 10. The few numbers he can remember are jumbled up – 7, 2, 5, – and the other numbers are simply forgotten. And by the third day and forth day he’ll have forgotten all the numbers.”
“Maybe he’s a slow learner,”
“It’s not just with learning Mrs. Haylen. Sometimes Ves doesn’t seem to remember me or some of his other teachers, and he doesn’t seem to get along with the other kids, he doesn’t play or socialize with them. He stays in class during every recess.”

Mardri shrugged and shook her head.

“ I’m … I’m at a loss for words,” she said.
“You said that you adopted Ves recently?” Mr. Reed asked.
“Yes,” Mardri replied.
“ And his files or Medical records didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary?”
“No, nothing. … What do you suggest we do Mr. Reed?”
“Normally, if the problem were limited to learning, I’d suggest we put Ves in a lower grade and see if he improves. But in such a case I think the best way forward would be to contact Orem Church Orphanage and ask them to disclose any additional information about Ves that would help us deal with his situation, I’m sure they’d know more about it than we do. We could also call in a psychological doctor to assess and evaluate Ves.”
“… Yes. I understand.”