LOGAN WITNEY IN:
Lakonian
BY
RED WOLF






prolouge:
the summer of '84



Tom and Jane Witney had a problem. they couldn't get pregnant. after a year of trying and failing they had finaly gone to see a doctor. apparently, when Tom was a boy he had a disease that had rendered him sterile. so now, in a fit of desperation, they were walking through the doors of a building they had thought never to enter; an orphanage. they stepped into the lobby and stopped, they didn't know what to do next.  a man behind a desk at the other end of the lobby looked up from the magazine he was reading and smiled, "hello" he said, all perfect, professional joviality. "how may i help you?" "uh, well, um..." Tom stuttered, she didn't have much more luck, "well, we, uh, you see..." he just smiled and said "follow me, please" he led them back to a waiting room and then handed them a card, "now, just wait here, and when they call this number, go back through that door" he said, pointing at a door of to the right. after he left and they had sat down she turned the card over and stared at it;



13

she shuddered. thirteen, she thought, why thirteen?
thirteen was not a lucky number.




they had waited for about fifteen minutes before their number was called. she had shuddered again at the sound of that number; nothing good had ever happened to her when that number was involved. now they sat in a room looking across a desk at an older woman with graying hair, and blue eyes, dressed in a red blouse and matching dress. she put down the papers that they had to fill out before coming back here and looked at them. "well," she said, "despite the fact that you have never had any children, you seem to be good people" she stared at them a moment longer, then stood up, "follow me," she said. she led them through a door into a room that turned out to be a playroom, there were children everywhere, every single one was adorable, and every single one was over five years old. she looked over at Tom, who looked over at the woman, "we were, well, we were looking for, well, something a little, er, younger..." she stared at him for a moment, then said, "how Young?" Jane answered her, "certainly not over a year" the woman frowned and stared hard at them for a long moment. her eyes narrowed, then; "there is one child here who fits that discription, but i don't know if you would like him, as fair haired as you both are he would stand out in your family." Jane smiled and Tom said "we don't care about that, all we want is a child." the woman nodded and led them back to a nursery, she stopped beside a crib and they stepped up and looked; a child lay there asleep, bigger than a newborn, but still a baby for sure.  Jane reached down, then stopped and looked at the woman, "may I?" the woman nodded, and Jane picked him up very gently. he stirred softly, and as he did so she saw that the woman had been right; his hair, what little of it that there was, was as dark as a ravens wing.  she smiled down at him, and Tom stepped behind her, "what should we name him?" he said, as though the child were already their's.  she looked down at the little bundle in her arms, thinking that maybe thirteen wasn't such a bad number after all, and said; "Logan."