Secret Adoption

Date: 12/18/2016

-- Secret Adoption -- I was fooling around downtown with a friend, and we were both drunk, it seemed. I thought about it, and realized that I had never had an alcoholic drink before, so that didn't make any sense. I was parked on the side of the road, and I tried to turn around, but for some reason it was easier to just drive backwards down the street. I stopped at the intersection and everything. Then I saw Mom and other members of the family up by a building on the side of the road. I went up to meet them, and I found them standing next to what looked to be a very old quarry carved out of the rock. It couldn't have been more than 20ft to a side. It was a quarter full of water so murky it looked like paint, and there were some strange, large fish swimming in it. I saw a child jump in, and the fish followed him. Looking at that quarry, I could feel a memory being triggered. It was very dim, but I could remember Mom coming to pick me up. I asked her about it, and she told me the truth--the building that owned this quarry was an orphanage, and I had been adopted. It was a mind-blowing revelation. My life collapsed around me as I realized that everything had been a lie. The patch of red in my hair wasn't passed down to me from Grandma Sharon, my feet weren't Dad's feet, nothing was as I had believed it. I felt the desire to know who my real parents were, but also a dread that prevented me from looking them up...what if they were rednecks or something? Or drug addicts? I didn't know if I could handle something like that. It sounds shallow, but I really feared the possibility that they could be from that part of society. But then again, I thought, they could have been from a unique bloodline, or immigrants from an interesting country, or something. That curiosity, mingled with dread, was the main emotion I felt when I woke up. It was really disorienting, and it took me a minute or so to realize it had all been a dream. Then my emotions changed to a feeling of relief with a slight tinge of disappointment for the mystery that had been lost.