I pulled off at the rest stop just south of Wilsonville. I promised Kimiko that I'd be right back. I put my FBI jacket on her so we wouldn't have anyone looking in the car and calling the police about the 'abused child' and went to get some coffee and cookies. (Blessings upon the volunteers at the rest stops. Their coffee has saved me many a time, so I always leave a generous donation.)

Anyway, back to the car with the cookies. I told Kimiko that I needed to stretch my legs a bit and sauntered off. Once I got behind the building I whipped out my cell phone.

"Yes, that's right Jerry, I need a complete bedroom setup, suitable for a 9 year old girl. Yeah, pink is fine for now. No, nothing on the walls, we'll let her choose after she's settled in."

"Yes, another one. Yes today. In fact, you have two hours. Yes of course I know how hard it is to get all that bought and moved that fast. That's why I pay you the 'big bucks'. Yes, yes, I know, very funny.

"How tall is she? How am I supposed to know and why does it matter? Oh, so you get the right size bed. I see. Ah, she's probably just a few inches over 4 feet tall and on the slim side. Anything else?

"No? OK, then hop to it! You're welcome, bye!"

I know what you're thinking. Maybe I'd had to shut down my private business, but that didn't mean that I didn't still have local contacts that I could trust to handle various things. I was going to have Jane do some very thorough background checks on them as soon as she could though, just in case.

(Geez Mama, sometimes you're SO dense. I did that as soon as I found out what that animal had been doing to you!)

Back to the car and on the road again. I got off at the Aurora exit and took the long way home, past the farms there, then down highway 219 through St. Paul. Kimiko liked trees, so I was going to show her some. Besides it was a great way to kill time.

She had her nose welded to the window as best I could tell. She was making those odd sounds that people make when they're totally enraptured by something. I'd assumed that since she couldn't talk she couldn't make any sounds at all. Guess I was wrong.

Since she seemed to be having so much fun, I decided to go the really long way and took us across the Wheatland ferry. If I'd thought she was excited before, I'd been mistaken. As we went across the river, she was bouncing enough to give Tigger competition.

Jane finally woke up, probably because of the bouncing, and tapped me on the shoulder. I looked in the mirror and she looked back with a question in her eyes. I shook my head a bit, she nodded a bit, then we both settled down and watched Kimiko enthuse.

We went down to highway 22, turned west, and then went down highway 51 to Independence. Then back east over the bridge on River Road, then to Orville Road, and finally up the hill to Skyline, then south to home.

My timing was impeccable as always. (OK, it was just coincidental, but hey, I'll take it when I can get it.) Jerry was just leaving the driveway when I pulled up. He waved me a bow from the cab of his truck and putted off down the road.

We drove up the wide, graveled driveway. Large branches of maple and fir trees overhung it enough that it almost looked like a green cathedral. I glanced over at Kimiko. She'd stopped bouncing all of a sudden, and I was more than a little concerned. Needn't have been.

By the time we curved to the east on the last 200 feet of the drive, she was sitting rigidly upright, with her eyes twice normal size and her mouth open in a gigantic "O". Her head wasn't moving but her eyes were everywhere at once. (Yes I know, major cliche, but, dang, it fits what she was doing perfectly.)

Then she started in, and it didn't seem like she was going to stop very soon either.

"You...you...ya have rhododendrons! And ferns! Oh my gosh, that's R. sinogrande, and that one is R. arboreum var. cinnamomeum. Holy cow, that's a Ghost fern, and a Japanese Painted fern. And there are Arrowhead ferns EVERYWHERE! This place is HEAVEN!"

I knew right then that I was in trouble. BIG trouble. I already had a daughter who was an encyclopedia of trivia about things and people. It looks like I now had another who was just the same but about the natural world. I already had enough to think about. If they both were throwing trivia at me all day, I'd never have any peace at all.

Yes, I know. It's fantastic, isn't it?

<

One thing you don't understand Grgur is parenting. That's natural being what you are, but still, I'd think you'd have learned something about it by now.

When good parents see that their children are excited about learning, they get excited too. But, you have to practice being long suffering. That gives the child an incentive to go out and find some new tidbit to annoy you with. They don't have near as much fun if it turns out that you already know whatever offering they have for you on a given day, so they'll naturally look up the most obscure things that they can find.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

What use is it? Sheesh you're so dense sometimes.

To find it, they have to learn how to research, how to sort information, and they have to learn to organize it well, otherwise they know that you'll just sit there looking unimpressed. And they can't annoy you if you're unimpressed. It's perfect!

Ah, you get it now? Good. Then let's get back to the report.>>

When we stopped, Jane and I got out of the car. After all that had happened, we were both pretty stiff, but we managed. Kimiko, on the other hand, ran across the parking area and started petting the plants and crooning to them. At least I assumed that's what she was doing. To be frank her usual vocal efforts are more like croaks.

I walked over to her and gathered her up in my arms and carried her inside. She squirmed like an eel out of water, but she settled down after a few pointed comments about a lady's hair and stench and real food coming soon after baths.

I didn't bother being neat. After I kicked off my shoes, I just marched both of us into the big bathroom's walk-in shower and turned on the water. The clothes needed washing as much as we did, and I didn't want them inside the washing machine until at least some of the grime and smell were gone.

We both stripped, and I saw a body that had been at least as abused as mine had been at her age. Once the dirt started to sluice off, I could see bruises of varying ages everywhere. Bruises on top of bruises.

"Are you having much pain honey?"

"Damn but you're short. Did someone forget ta feed ya when ya were young? Even for one of my people you're definitely on the short side."

That shook me a bit and I took a closer look at her. Oh....yes.... She was quite obviously Japanese. I should have known from her name I suppose.

OK, most of the actual dirt was gone, time for the soap.

"Just sorta push the clothes over the in the corner. We'll wash them later."

"The hell I will. I'm never wearing that thing again. I expect that I'll have enough nightmares as it is. I don't need them reminding me of...things..."

Naturally that set her crying again, so I just gathered her in my arms and held her until she'd cried herself out.

"Kimiko honey, I have a few questions I need to ask and some I want to ask. I'll start with the 'need to ask' first. We can take care of the others later, OK?"

"Works for me. Shoot."

I started washing her hair. It was almost down to her waist, dark black, and very, very dirty. Obviously she hadn't followed the fad of dying her hair brown as most Japanese seem to do nowadays. Lovely texture it had too. I pulled myself up short and got to it.

"So, Kimiko, ah...how is it that we can talk like this? I mean it is handy, what with you being able to 'speak' to me with your mouth closed. No chance of shampoo getting in that way."

"How the bleeping heck am I supposed ta know? I'm a 9 years old kid, not an expert on the functioning of the human brain. Besides, you and your partner out there are the only ones I've ever been able ta talk to like this.

"My adoptive mother taught me how ta type some, and was starting to teach me how ta write. Nobody back at the orphanage ever bothered with me, except one of the young Sisters. She was teaching me ta read basic Japanese when I was finally adopted last year. She was the only one who figured out that I wasn't another one of the 'developmentally disabled' at the home."

Fortunately Kimiko couldn't see me start to cry. I was trying to wrap my mind around the idea that two people who had recently adopted her, and could hardly have known her yet, had still died trying to save her from the slavers.

"You were adopted when you were 8 years old then? Isn't that a bit old? Or were you a bit older when you were orphaned?"

"Orphaned? Hah! I was dumped there when I was about a year old according to the Sister, probably about the time they realized that I couldn't talk. In Japan they still believe in multi-generational curses. My parents probably were told, or believed, that I had been cursed and that I needed ta be gotten rid of. In the old days they woulda killed me. Now they just dump unwanted kids with the Catholics. They'll take in anybody in need.

"Turn around, I'll do your hair now."

She stamped her foot and glared at me when I didn't move.

"You heard me. It's what we do in Japan. That and washing the other person's back. It's hard ta do yer own hair properly, isn't it?"

What could I say? She certainly was right. I turned around, squatted down, and let her wash my hair. Felt sort of nice to have someone else doing it for me if you want to know the truth.

While I was enjoying her doing my hair, something she'd said a few minutes ago popped into my head. "You said something about my partner. Who are you talking about?"

"That woman out there that you call 'Jane'. She sure as heck can't be your kid, what with her being a tall blonde Caucasian type and you being a short, Black person."

Hello! Anyone home? I fell backwards on my butt and almost knocked Kimiko over in the process.

Jane--Caucasian. Me--Black. All these years I've been passing her off as my daughter and NOBODY ever noticed. Not even us? Somebody, somewhere, I didn't know who yet, but SOMEBODY had a lot of questions to answer.

"Ah...actually Kimiko, Jane is my daughter."

Kimiko looked startled for a moment but then tapped her left fist in the palm of her right hand and nodded.

"Oh, I see. You've already adopted once. No wonder ya didn't hesitate about taking me in too. By the way, I'm probably only gonna say this once, but...thank you. Ya saved me, in more ways than one, and, I am grateful. No, I think I'll be eternally thankful that it was you who rescued me. Ya took me from hell and brought me ta heaven. I'll never forget it."

She looked like she was going to cry again, but she shook herself and straightened up.

"Now, let's rinse your hair. It's time we got out and got back ta living."

Great, all I needed was another bossy kid, but she had given me an idea. I probably could adopt her. In this community, I was now a well-established parent who had successfully raised one child. I could surely do it again. And this time with the proper paperwork.

I was sure that, if needed, Jane could arrange things so Kimiko could stay with us until the formalities were complete.

Yes, we can do this.