This a very rough draft of a short story I have started to write and just covers the first two chapters. So apologies for mistakes.
I knew from a young age that I was adopted, and although it should have bothered me, it never did. It may have been because of the quite eccentric way my step mother looked after me and her quite quirky sense of humour, On the only occasion that I asked her about my real parents and why they left me with her, she paused then put her head on one side, licked her lips with a tongue that had cracks that seemed to go all the way through which were hi- lighted by the many bottles of red wine consumed per week. The tongue slithered slowly back into her mouth, and she said with a quite serious look on her face, ‘It was probably because you were quite an ugly baby.’ She stepped back and looked at me closely through glasses fitted with lenses that were as thick as the bottom of a wine bottle. Then said, ‘If I am honest, you’re still ugly now. I think your real parents picked me because no one else wanted to adopt you. They took advantage of my poor eyesight, so I never realized what you looked like; not until months later when I took you out for a walk, and Mrs Pring from Lilac Avenue saw you for the first time and recoiled in horror it was only then that I realized the extent of your ugliness. Then she burst out laughing and ran her fingers through my hair. And I grinned.
I was about one when I was adopted, and I have no recollection of my real parents; it was as if they never existed. Molly, my stepmother, lived on her own and had never married, but she had lots of friends who lived locally and who would often slip in for a cup of tea or some of them for a whisky. She was very old-fashioned in the way she dressed, and nearly always wore a hair-net that was covered by a large head scarf if she went out. When I was young, she spent her evenings watching soaps on television but had a passion for reading. As I got older, the TV would be switched off, and we would spend hours discussing many different subjects. In fact, the one thing that surprised me about her was how comprehensive and diverse her range of knowledge was, considering the way she looked. It was a happy childhood, and I was quite good at school, although I never mixed much, just doing enough to prevent being disliked. It suited me to be in the background; I would never answer a question even if I knew the answer, unless I was asked directly.
I got good grades and passed easily for the local university, but things started to change on my first day there. About forty students were sitting in a tiered lecture theatre. I was near the back. It was a maths lesson, and the lecturer introduced himself. ‘I’m Mr. Clifford, and I am going to do something that you may not have done since you were in junior school. I have put a maths problem written in chalk on a blackboard, and all you have to do is solve it. But, no phones, no computers, just old-fashioned pencil and paper. It normally takes an hour to complete, but it’s not about time; there are different ways to approach this problem, and the way you do it will give me an insight into your strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t matter if you don’t complete the problem; it’s more about me learning your strengths and weaknesses so that I can help you.
I looked at the problem and wrote a single figure on my pad. I was going to work backwards, but a bee landed on my pencil, and the way it tried to remove excess pollen fascinated me. I lost all sense of time and awareness. ‘Harisson,’ The bee flew away at the sound of Mr Clifford’s voice. ‘Is the maths problem so difficult that you haven’t even attempted it?’ The bee had flown off without a single goodbye, leaving me without any sort of excuse.
There were chuckles around the room from the rest of the group.
‘Sorry, I lost my concentration.’
‘For fifty-five minutes, He moved my paper around and looked at it closely, and a puzzled expression spread across his face. How did you arrive at that number.’
‘It’s just a doodle, I did it without thinking, just a small straight line.’
Mr Clifford shook his head, ‘It’s got a tag on the left-hand side at the top, which in mathematical terms makes it into the figure one and there is a minus sign in font of it. Which just happens to be the answer to a quite complex mathematical problem. The possibility of a lucky guess is in the trillions.’ He frowned, ‘But we will leave it there for the time being, but next time please do the working out before putting down the end product.’
I spent the rest of the day trying to be as invisible as I could. The lectures finished, and it was a relief when I pushed through the revolving doors and walked towards the steep flight of steps leading down to the main road.
‘It wasn’t a guess or a doodle, was it? You worked out the answer without having to think about it.’
I turned around and stared at the attractive girl who was smiling at me.
‘And I think this is where you should find a Phone box so you can change into your Superman outfit.’
It was Becky Johnson who had been to the same schools and college that I had been to, and although I had never spoken to her in all that time, she was someone whom I was attracted to, even if it was from a distance.
‘If you’re wondering about the phone box reference, I noticed that your glasses have almost clear lenses with just a slight tint. So I assume they are for cosmetic purposes only, with no practical use.’
She held her arm out, ‘Those are really steep steps, I may need some help getting down them.’
‘Would you prefer to wait here while I find the phone box and fly you down?’ I asked questioningly.
‘I think it’s better if we walk down, there aren’t many phone boxes left in the UK anymore, and I don’t want you to spin round and damage any of the remaining ones.’
We reached the bottom and started to cross the zebra crossing; I sensed something was going to happen, a car sped down on the wrong side of the road and skidded sideways towards us. I pushed Becky out of its way, then it hit me and flung me onto the pavement.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Q,E, Hospital
‘It’s very good of you to take the time to visit us, David, especially as you have such a workload, but as I said in my email, I have never experienced such an unusual set of circumstances before in the whole of my years working in the medical profession.
David Kemp looked at the man sitting opposite. Adrian Shaw had aged quite well; how long was it since Shaw was his mentor and he was a junior, maybe twenty years, perhaps a little bit longer. When he read the email from Shaw, his first reaction was to decline; he was incredibly busy with a variety of government projects, but he had learned a lot from the man who was sitting opposite him and thought he owed him a visit, even if it was a brief one.
And it would be a brief visit, whatever the unusual circumstances were. ‘Well, I am interested that you require my help; if I remember correctly, it was always the other way around.’
Shaw smiled,’ Yes, it was, and it isn’t that my abilities have disappeared, what age has taken away experience has made up for, but this case is beyond me and maybe beyond you.
David was suddenly interested, ‘I think you should explain.
‘It was two weeks ago, we got a call to say that a young lad called Harrison had been involved in a traffic accident, it was a hit and run, and the BMW was being chased by the police. In these cases, you expect the worst but hope for the best. The information we received suggested the impact speed was around sixty MPH with full impact, not just a glancing blow. So we were expecting a badly damaged patient.
‘And’
‘There wasn’t a mark on him, not a single mark. We did an MRI scan, nothing showed up; in fact, he was the fittest young man I have ever examined.’
David frowned, ‘We both know if you’re hit by a car, even at a low speed, it’s inevitable that there will be consequences, and at sixty, well, it could be fatal. Was there any dashcam or security footage?’
‘Both, we got a dashcam from the police car, but the impact was mainly obscured; there was a camera mounted above the exit, which recorded a few seconds of side impact. It isn’t good quality, but then a parent of one of the students came forward. He was parked about twenty metres from the collision point, and facing towards it. The police gave me a copy. If I play it for you, I think you will understand why I asked for your help.’
There was silence as the two of them watched the videos, the silence extended well past the ending.
David thought very carefully before speaking, and when he did, it was slowly as he tried to work out how someone could survive a collision of sixty miles per hour.
‘I assume the speed of the BMW was confirmed by the police car,’
‘That’s right, but the BMW was a top-of-the-range version fitted with an impact recording system that registered sixty-two MPH, and no attempt to avoid Harrison. The car was stolen, and they got the driver a few hours later; he was high on drugs and alcohol, and couldn’t remember anything about the accident.’
‘So we have footage of the accident, and an MRI scan, how about blood pressure, and blood tests did they throw up any unusual results.’
Adrian looked uncomfortable. ‘well blood pressure results were exactly were they should be, but his mother arrived and refused to let us to removed any blood from Harrison on religious grounds. I tried to explain that he had been involved in a very serious accident and we needed to carry out tests and removing him from this hospital could be extremely serious. She looked at me the way my mother used to when I was a small child and said ‘but you haven’t found anything wrong with him have you,’ It wasn’t a question it was an answer; as if she knew already.’ She asked me for a Self-Discharge form and got both their signatures on it, she apologized for the inconvenience they had causes me then they both left. She didn’t act the way she looked. There was something about her.’
David grinned, Glad I didn’t have to meet her . But I am starting to find these events quite intriguing and I am sure I can find time to look at what happened more closely . Do you have an office I could use with a good Wi-Fi connection, I have my own computer, its loaded with an excellent AI system. And could you let me have all the medical information regarding Harrison.
I can supply an office, it has everything you need, a shower and even a small but smart sleeping area and ensuite, but I cant let you have his medical records.’
‘Why?’
‘Because there isn’t any .’Harrison was adopted as a baby and as far as we are aware has never been to a doctor, dentist, or any other medical officials.’
David shrugged, ‘that’s unusual but not unheard of ,most times its cults that restrict access to mainstream services.’
‘Well he was never part of any cult in fact his upbringing was quite conventional, He went to the local school, then colledge and had just started University, it was his first day when the accident happened. All we have is a name and a birth date which may be correct but your never very sure in adoption cases.’
‘Okay I think this is where I start earning my keep show me the office and I will fetch my computer and start working.
The office was seperate from the main building, David got a coffee then switched the computer on.
‘What is it today David, dating sites, or something even more exciting.’ the woman’s voice was husky and evocative.’
‘I can easily replace you with something that has a little bit more respect, there are many other AI systems with the same level of sophistication.’
‘But you wont because we work very well together, we are a team.’
‘As we are a team I want you to do some assessments of a case I have agreed to work on, it involves a young man called Harrison, I will give you all the information I have so far and you check the video footage and see what you can find out about him.’
He was at the end of the second coffee when the husky voice from the computer spoke again. ‘Well its all very interesting, there is far more to Harrison and his life than you could imagine. Shall I start with the video footage. I checked the speed of the car that hit Harrison and it was traveling at 62.3 miles per hour. I have assessed the angle of impact and the way the car hit his body logically he should have died or been severely injured and would have died later.’
‘But he never had a mark on him.’
‘That’s how it appeared but I considered there must be logical reason because if your an AI software and a very good one which of course I am then normally I will find an answer. But.’I have read the medical reports reports and looked at the MRI scan also done some research on his life up to now.’
David stopped sipping the remains of his coffee. ‘And.’
‘If I had to sum up his life up to now it would be unobtrusive, he merged into the background even though some of his teachers considered there was rare signs that he had hidden abilities. As you know he was adopted at a very young age by a Miss Molly Jackson and there are no records of who his really parents are. He has never had any behavior problems and every one seemed to like him even though he had few friends. There are no medical records because has never needed medical help, never went to a dentist, doctor, and from the time he was adopted never showed up on the health system. There was a birth certificate and a date of birth, but without any signature, where he was born or who his parents where. Now we come to the nitty gritty as to how he survived the impact. If you study the video footage you will see that Harrison has an awareness that something is about to happen. If you watch carefully after they have taken the first few steps on the zebra crossing he removes his arm from hers puts it round her waist and starts to move his body sideways carrying her with him.’
David frowns, ‘is that significant.’
‘Yes because at that point the BMW is not in sight and far enough away to be out of earshot, some how he was starting to become aware of what was about to happen.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense. How would he know what was about to happen.’
‘No it doesn’t make any sense, but neither does the MRI scan.’
‘David frowned again. It looked perfect to me, no broken bones, no blood clots, not even the slightest damage to his skin. But I wish we had managed to take blood samples that would have been very useful.’
‘More useful than you think but highly unlikely.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You have heard the saying, ‘you can’t get blood out of a stone.’
‘Yes, of course I have.’ and,’
‘I spent a long time looking at the MRI scan, layer by layer, and everything was perfect. Then, I magnified a cross-section of his body and sharpened the image, and what I found was remarkable. His body appeared to be made of minute particles that mimic the design of a human body in every detail. David, your mouth is open. If I were able, I would get you a tissue. It looks most unprofessional. And of course, this is impossible but I checked all the possible reasons to see if I was malfunctioning and as usual I was perfect. I also checked the patent who was scanned before Harrison and the one after and they were perfectly normal. Perhaps there there is a logical reason for the chain of events that happened to him. But if there isn’t
David attempted to wipe the sweat from his forehead but only succeeded in adding to it as his hands were just as moist. He took a deep breath and asked a question that he had to ask but one that he didn’t want to. ‘What is he.’
There was a long silence before the answer came from a computer whose logic was pointing him in a direction that he didn’t want to go. ‘Different.’
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