“I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that, Dad. Should I even call you Dad, anymore?”
If Laurel felt like she was out of place and had no real place to call her own before, the feeling was ten times worse now. She literally had no place to call her own. Her parents weren't even her parents. What was she supposed to do with that?
Her father worked on consoling her mother and telling her that everything was going to be alright. Apparently, her mom, or whoever she was, was upset that she had found out. Laurel knew that if she hadn’t found out that way, she probably never would have found out at all.
She didn't know what to say to them. They didn't even feel like her parents, anymore. They felt like strangers, which was in itself unbelievable. She had known them her whole life and trusted them more than she had trusted anybody. To suddenly take that all away was hard for her to come to grips with.
“You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking. You have to be joking. This can’t be real. I feel like I’m being punked or something.”
She knew that they weren't joking, though. She could see it on their face, the guilt that just soaked into their skin. It made her sick. Why had they lied to her for so long? At any time they could have told her the truth. Why didn't they?
Laurel asked that very thing, but her mother just started crying a little bit harder, and she found herself annoyed more than anything else. She got up and told her dad that she was going to go take a walk around the block.
“Are you going to be okay, Laurel?”
“Yes,” Laurel said, even though she really wasn't sure if she would be or not. She felt like it was all just a lie. How was she supposed to get over the fact that her parents had lied to her the whole time? Did she even want to forgive them?
The air was getting colder outside, and she pulled her coat tighter around her. Laurel wished so much at that moment that she could be something other than herself. If she was a dragon, she would fly up into the sky and never be bothered again. It sounded perfect.
She wasn’t a dragon, though. She wasn't anything. She was just a human, and now she was a human that her own parents hadn't even wanted. What was she supposed to do with that? It explained a lot. It explained why she always felt like an outsider, but at the same time, she was no closer to figuring out who she even was. She was even more of an outsider, now. Not knowing who her parents were or if she would ever figure it out.
Laurel didn't plan to take that long of a walk. She had just started and then kept going. Block after block, and then mile after mile. By the time she had her head on straight enough to even realize where she was, she was already about five miles away from her house, maybe six.
She was tired from the speed and just from the emotional baggage that she now had on her head. She wanted to go back home, but she didn't want to take the long way as she had getting there. Instead, she called her father, asking him to come get her and knowing that he would. He had always been there to save the day. She really wanted to believe that he still would be.
It wasn't long before her father was there at the pay phone she’d called him from. He had a grin on his face, but it wasn't big and wide like it usually was. This time, it was pulled back some, and he did not know how to react to her. That much was pretty clear.
They drove home in silence, and it was perfectly fine with Laurel. Just like her father didn't know what to say, she didn't either. There was much that she wanted to ask him but knew that her best bet would be to give him time and let him talk. He would tell her what she needed to know.
Laurel noticed rather quickly that they weren't going back to the house. She had an unreal feeling that she was just going to get dropped off somewhere. She didn't know why she felt that way, just that it was all suddenly a possibility, now. They weren’t her real parents, so they could pretty much do what they wanted, right?
“Where are we going, Dad?”Laurel realized she had done it again.
“I'm sorry I keep calling you that. I don't know what else to call you.”
“I will always be your Dad, Laurel. I know that this is a lot for you to take in, and your mother isn't helping, because, well, she never does with these kinds of things. But, we did want to tell you. Many times. We just didn't want you to feel the way you do now. Like you don't belong, or like you don't even know if you can call me your father. I will always be your father, and I will always be here for you. We both will.”
It was good to hear, but it just felt hollow to her, now. How would she ever be able to trust them again? Whether they thought they were doing it for her own good or not, it was not something that she would be able to forget about right away.
“So, are you going to tell me what really happened?”
“We did.”
“So, you're going to stick with the story that I was dropped off on the front porch?”
He shook his head. He was still driving and was paying attention to the road, probably because of the subject matter that they were talking about. Laurel knew her dad always got uncomfortable when it came to important subjects. He was definitely uncomfortable at the moment.
“It actually wasn't the front porch, it was the back. You know the part that is right up against the woods? It was the strangest thing. We were just finishing dinner, and you know how your mom likes to watch that one show with all the singing and stuff?”
“The Gaithers?”
“Yeah, those. Well, she was flipping it over, and I accidentally unplugged it when I was coming past. She was sitting there cursing me and as soon as she stopped, we heard you.”
“You heard me?”
“Yeah, just as clear as day. You were wailing like somebody had just pinched you and when we went out there, sure enough there was a baby sitting in a little basket just like you see on some of those movies. Just like Moses.”
She looked at him a little wary. Was she really supposed to believe that?
