Free Adopted Son by Dominic Peloso

easy to manipulate. Janice figured that there must be something unsaid that was bothering him. Something he didn’t want to talk about just yet. She would get it out of him sooner or later. She had a way with these things. She would keep subtly bringing the issue up until she found out what was wrong, neutralized the threat, and got her way. She didn’t consider herself so, but she was really a very manipulative person. She dropped the subject for now. Colin just went wordlessly into the bedroom, leaving Janice to turn off the lights and close up the house for bed.
    She went back into the kitchen and put away the rest of the dishes. Then she walked through the various rooms and made sure that the lights were off and the doors were locked. On her way to bed she stopped by her son’s room. She opened the door quietly as to not wake him. It was dark, but the moon provided enough light to make out the outlines of the crib and furniture. She moved towards her child instinctively. She could hear him breathing lightly under his covers. She stood there watching for a while, thinking about Colin’s reaction. She had always wanted many children. She didn’t think it would be fair to only have one. He’d grow up so lonely. What could the problem be? Colin had always expressed a desire to have several kids. That’s one of the things that first attracted her to him, he was a family man.
    Was he sick? Maybe that was the problem. Maybe he had come down with cancer or something and he hadn’t told her yet? That would be like him, always trying to play the hero, always trying to be the strong one in times of adversity. Janice quickly dismissed the thought from her head. No, he wasn’t sick, he couldn’t be. Perhaps the thought was too horrific to finish, perhaps she subconsciously believed that she understood her partner enough to notice if he was sick, but for whatever reason she dismissed the thought.
    She considered other possibilities, sexual dysfunction, money problems, fear of nuclear war. Nothing made sense. She eventually decided that it was just the stress of his job that was bothering him, and that he would go back to his old self as soon as he stopped working so much overtime. Perhaps she would suggest that he find a new job. There were a lot of places a biochemist like Colin could go. Maybe move out of the DC area, somewhere with better weather. She looked down at her son. Her maternal instincts were revving up again. She had been feeling a strong desire to have another child for some time now. Almost since she gave birth to her first one. She considered the possibilities for a long time. She thought of all sorts of ways that she could approach the subject again without riling Colin too much. She considered different things that she could do to change his mind. Eventually, after almost a half hour of standing in the dark, she had formulated a plan. Everything was going to be all right. She headed off to bed.
     
    A few days later, at the residence of Dr. Heinrich Mensen, Potomac, MD
     
    After cleaning up from dinner, Dr. Mensen was just sitting down in a big, comfy, leather chair in his wood-paneled living room. He had just poured himself a snifter of brandy and was about to settle down with a good book for the evening. He needed to do some relaxing after a difficult day. He had always wanted to be a scientist, to probe the secrets of life itself, to help people. But more and more he found himself to be just an administrator, just a middle manager. He shouldn’t have to spend half his day begging for grant money. That job should be left for someone better qualified at schmoozing. He needed to get back to the lab. He had been thinking lately that he might resign his position as department chair and go back to pure research. But thoughts like that could wait until tomorrow he decided. There was not point in ruining a perfectly good evening by thinking about work. He settled down into his chair and picked up his