Page 11 (1/2)

1

EARLIEST MEMORY

HIS environment arm and cozy He wasn't alone He could hear the other inside hiement The need for freedom, the promise of a life that had been lived one cycle already and had been incredible And then the squeezing ca around hi in waves to push him out, to expel hihts At once scents assailed him He couldn't sort out all the different smells, but the other could Blood People Hospital The other remembered the smells even when he didn't

He felt hands on hi, a sharp prick He pried open his eyes and looked around this new environment

"My God, Ryan, he looks like a skinned rat He's so ugly He's skinny and useless to us" The voice was resentful, filled with loathing

He understood the words, orabout hiood, not if that voice

"Shh, Cathy," another voice cautioned "Someone will hear"

"We can't take it home with us"

"We can't leave it here," the deeper voice said

"On the way hoher-pitched voice hissed "I'"

"Don't be ridiculous, Cathy," Ryan said "We can't take a chance that we'll be caught We'll take him home and hire someone to look after him You'll never have to see him"

"This is your fault Daddy warned h to produce one of the special ones I didn't want to get pregnant and have that thing growing in my body, but you insisted I had to carry it Now you deal with it"

"Fine I'randfather" There was ood enough, and he won't like having my whelp named after his father instead of him"

"Na you want, just keep it away from me"

The hatred and loathing in the cold voice gave the infant--newly named Jake Bannaconni--chills, but he refused to cry

TWO YEARS

THE sharp pointed shoe caught Jake in the stomach and he doubled over He should have been faster He had the reflexes The other warned hi for her She was his mother, after all The mothers on the television and out in the play yard held their sons, but she kicked hines

"Get this horrid brat out of ly little rat" Cathy yanked hi in the air and beat hi the shoe into hihs, anywhere she could land a blow on his squirether on her cold face

Deep inside, he felt soers curled under, as did his toes The other hissed to him, cautioned him: Take it Let her hit you Hide what you are She wants what you are Hide Hide He breathed away the fire building in his belly and the itch running under his skin

Mommies weren't like this on television or in the s and kisses Slaps and kicks were all he would get from his mother He watched her on television sometimes, at the parties and fundraisers She looked so different, s his face as if she loved him so much But behind closed doors there was cruelty and hatred and deceit froht him to separate fantasy from reality

FIVE YEARS

"WE absolutely can't keep a governess, or whatever you call that woarettes on him," Ryan complained "There are burn marks on his hands Sooner or later one of the tutors will see and report it"