Trying to... - 4. Trying to Breathe Easy

“After the break, we return with the breaking news of an adoption scam.”

Tyler stared at the television, his eyes wide and heart pounding; not quite watching the image of the smart lady fade into commercials. Adoption scam? Anything to do with babies, and his mind went on an overdrive. He looked at the clock; he still had over three minutes before the news came on again.

‘Eli,’ he called from the base of the stairs. ‘It’s bed time.’

His daughter was usually not the one to stay up past her bedtime; so when he heard no sounds from upstairs, he just assumed she had slept off early and went to the kitchen to grab a beer before returning to his recliner in front of the TV.

He sat just as an unfamiliar reporter appeared on the screen.

“It is a frightening day for all the adoptive families in the town of Lyddle End as we uncover one of the greatest scams that has this peaceful town in uproar. Earlier today, Mr. Hornby of Thirty-five South End Street, a proud parent of a four month old baby boy, took his son to the Emergency room when the baby showed signs of a bad skin rash.

“Imagine the shock when he was turned away from the only hospital in the town. He was told to take his ‘son’ to Dr. Hunter. Living in a town whose populace know each other almost by their first names, it was no surprise that a referral to the resident veterinarian angered the twenty seven year old Mr.Hornby to no end.

“Shocked, baffled and not to mention pissed off, he demanded to see the Head of the department.

“Dr. Templar, a renowned paediatrician who is in charge of the department, was summoned to pacify the almost hysterical dad.

“Following a quick visual examination, Dr. Templar had to impart very disturbing news to the already antagonised father: his ‘son’ was, in fact, a baby ape. Therefore, to be treated properly, he needed to be under the care of Dr. Hunter, the best their town had.

“Imagine the trauma Mr. Hornby faced when he was delivered with such preposterous news. Not only he had to deal with the emotional pain of having his baby ripped away from his arms, when the Animal Control were notified of the fallacy, but he is also now short of quite a large amount of money that had gone into the process of acquiring the baby itself.”

Tyler’s beer was growing warm in his hand, still unopened as he looked at the flashing scenes on the television, slack jawed and wide eyed.

“After a formal complaint was made, the police tried to check up on the agency. Not only did they not find the perpetrators, but they have not even been able to gather any evidence that speaks for Mr. Hornby’s claims, that the agency had swindled him into adopting a shaved baby ape.

“This is a request from Animal Control that new, adoptive parents should immediately take their babies in for a check-up, and confirm whether or not their children are, in fact, of the Homo sapiens variety.”

The sound of glass shattering brought Tyler out of his reverie; he looked around the drawing room. There wasn’t any sign of broken glass anywhere. He stood up to go into the kitchen when he felt that something was wrong. His legs felt wobbly and he couldn’t walk fast enough towards the obvious scraping sounds coming from the kitchen.

‘Eli?’ He called out; there was only one person in the house, but he still wanted to make sure.

“God, please let my Eli be human!” Was the first thought in his fogged brain, when he didn’t immediately get a reply.

‘Dad, don’t come in!’ Eli called out, a certain urgency in her voice.

‘What? Are you hurt? What happened?’

If anything, her warning just made him rush faster towards her.

‘Broken glass- bare feet- DAD, stop!’ Her voice was a squeal when she saw him hurrying towards her.

Tyler stopped, and looked around. The clock on the kitchen wall told him it was past two in the morning. How long had he been watching the TV?

‘Dad, could you please get me my slippers? It’s beside my bed.’ Eli asked.

‘Huh?’ Tyler glanced around once, still feeling a little out of balance. She was talking; apes didn’t talk in coherent sentences. Relieved, he let out a breath and nodded. ‘Sure, give me a second.’

He made his way up the stairs, rubbing his itchy eyes. Shocked, he realised that he still had his contact lenses on. He made quick work of removing them and hurried back down with Eli’s slippers.

Together the duo started cleaning the broken bits of glass from the kitchen floor.

‘What happened, Angel?’ Tyler said softly as he emptied the dust pan in the bin.

‘I was just getting a glass of water, and I must have spilled some on the floor, because I slipped.’ Eli shrugged. ‘I called out to you earlier; the TV was on. I figured you’d fallen asleep; I thought I’d come wake you up after I got a drink.’

‘I fell asleep!’ The relief in his voice was palpable, he almost felt weak in the knees from the realisation that he must have been dreaming. No wonder his body hurt, he was in an awful position on the recliner.

‘Yes?’ Eli was looking at him with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

‘Nothing,’ he smiled, shaking his head. ‘I just had a weird dream!’

Tyler kissed her forehead and hugged her before he switched off the lights on the ground floor and together they walked up the stairs to get some well-deserved rest.

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