Collin had finished making the keys and then started concentrating on Lily’s pending arrival. He straightened the living room and set out the colorful flowers he had picked up on the way home. He knew he couldn’t make dinner up to Lily’s standards but she did always tell him he was great at grilling. So he cleaned up the grill and got it ready. He tossed a salad and put it in the fridge.
When he heard Lily coming in the door he nervously stood in the middle of the living room not wanting to rush her but wanting her to know he was ready for her entrance. The door opened and she came in.
Lily looked up after closing the door and Collin could see she had been crying. He ran up to her and asked, “Sweetie. What’s wrong?”
“Oh. Collin. I didn’t know you were here.”
“Lily, have you been crying? Please come sit with me and tell me what is going on.”
They sat on the couch. Collin put his arms around Lily and kissed her gently on her forehead.
“Why are you home Collin?”
“I am making a surprise dinner for you!”
“You didn’t have to do that. It’s not a special occasion or anything.”
“Lily, what’s wrong? You have been a little sad for sometime now. Did I do something to make you unhappy?”
“No. It’s so awful. I just couldn’t talk about it. Then I was thinking about it all the way home today. A few weeks ago a woman came in to deliver her baby. You know sometimes it doesn’t go well. Things happen.”
“Yeah, I know. But you have always been able to deal with it. Was the baby a stillborn?”
“No. Oh, Collin. The baby was born with no eyes!”
“Oh my.”
“And it was worse because the woman kept saying all through labor that her baby was going to have beautiful eyes.”
“What?”
“Yeah. She was in labor for ten hours and off and on through the time she would say that. At one point she said ‘They’ had promised her a boy with blue eyes.”
“They? Who is they?”
“I don’t know. And she and her husband both had brown eyes. It wouldn’t be normal to expect their baby to have blue eyes. Then when the baby was born she excitedly asked about the baby’s eyes.”
“And the baby didn’t have any eyes?”
“No. He didn’t. It was awful. She demanded to see her baby’s eyes. When she saw she started screaming. I can’t get those screams out of my head. She kept saying it wasn’t possible. That ‘They’ had promised her. And she was so upset.”
“Wow, that is just horrible. I’m so glad you told me. I was feeling at a loss on how to help you. I thought it was my fault.”
“I’m sorry. I should have told you but it was just so awful. I feel better now that we have talked. Did you say you were making dinner? And look. Did you bring me those pretty flowers?”
“I did! I’ll put the food on the grill and be right back. Maybe you’ll let me massage your tired footsies?”
“That would be wonderful. I’ll go change my clothes. Do I have time for a shower?”
“Yes, certainly.”
Lily went to change her clothes and take a relaxing shower. Collin was putting the chicken on the grill. He would wait a bit before he put the vegetables on. While he stood at the grill he was thinking about what Lily had said. He wondered if he was going too far but could the ‘they’ the woman had referred to be some group messing around with genetic manipulation? Some group that could ‘fix it’ so brown eyed parents could have blue eyed children? Some group like Gene Search? If so it sounded like the experiment went horribly wrong. It made him curious and worried him about Shelby and the other girls. He was becoming anxious about his upcoming trip to the islands.
Chapter Seventeen
Gene Search: A Collin Carter Mystery Page 16