Alice woke up and prepared to go to work. She got into her car and left. While she was on the road to work, she realised she had left something in the house and did a U-turn.
When she got to her house, she saw her door was slightly open, even though she had locked it when she left. There was no sign of forced entry, and she called the cops before she entered the house.
She went to the kitchen and grabbed the closest thing, which was a wooden rolling pin, to use as a weapon. She walked slowly, looking for the person who had gotten into her house.
She went to a room and saw a person standing there holding a present. When the person turned around, she felt something familiar but couldn't explain why.
Her mouth moved before she could think.
"Michael."
She didn't know why she said that, but as she looked closely at Damian's face, she started to deny what she was seeing. She walked backwards slowly, trying to deny what she was seeing.
She didn't want to believe it and walked closer to Damian to look at him up close. Before she knew it, her hand started touching Damian's face, and she began to cry as she smiled while looking at him. She thought she was seeing a ghost, but when she touched him, tears started coming out.
Tears started flooding out and ruined her makeup altogether.
She hugged Damian in silence for a while. After a few moments, the cops arrived at the door. She began to explain that it was her son who had broken in, and the cops left afterwards.
She didn't go to work and called in sick that day. She decided to spend time with Damian, but she didn't know how to start the conversation, and Damian realised that.
"What's my name?"
Alice realised that Damian was trying to break the awkwardness.
"It's Michael. Michael Jefferson."
"I'm black?"
She chuckled afterwards, and they started to converse well. She didn't ask Damian any inappropriate questions and just let the conversation flow naturally.
Damian would make jokes here and there. He started staying with her, and they got along just fine. Alice cried that night after she met Damian when she went to bed, and Damian heard it. It felt like a pain had been released from her chest.
She bought Damian clothes and did the grocery shopping with him. Damian learned something while he was staying with her.
She was married to a biracial man. Her ex-husband was half-Black and half-White. She told Damian that she was happy when she became pregnant with him.
She started dating him when she was 20, and after 6 years of their relationship, she found out she couldn't have kids. That scared her a lot because she thought he was going to leave her afterwards, but he proposed knowing full well she couldn't have kids.
They got married.
While they were married, she felt insecure and afraid, but not because of her husband, because of herself. While watching her husband, she felt he deserved better and started asking around hospitals.
She brought up adoption to her husband, but he said he was fine the way they were. She asked around hospitals about ways to get pregnant, and someone told her about Vought Clinic, which could help with that.
She told her husband, and he supported her choice. She became pregnant afterwards, and that brought relief and joy to her.
After her first trimester, she started buying children's stuff and coming up with baby names. She started preparing the room for the child. The husband built the wooden cot, and the wife painted the entire room.
She was happy while she was pregnant.
Then she gave birth on January 31, 1977. The baby died at the same time she gave birth, and that destroyed her. She held the dead child for 12 hours, thinking it must have been a mistake. The baby was taken for cremation, and she was given an urn afterwards.
She didn't know why she was forced to cremate her child because she wanted to bury him. The neonatal death of her child changed her afterwards.
She became detached from everyone and everything. When she was told to accept the death of her child, she would lash out at everyone.
She started to get better after a few years, but her husband filed for divorce afterwards. He told her he could no longer feel emotional support, companionship, or love from her. She didn't argue because she knew things hadn't been going well after the loss.
She wanted to move out, but her ex-husband left her the house and the car. She celebrated her son's birthday every year all alone. When she was married to her husband, she celebrated with him, but he left after the divorce, and she didn't know if he still celebrated or not.
She thought about going to a therapist, but she couldn't afford it. She found a free group therapy program instead. She shared everything with everyone, and she started making friends.
She would call her ex-husband from time to time to tell him how she was doing. Her ex-husband started seeing someone, and she didn't cause a scene or anything of the sort; she just congratulated him.
He eventually got married to his partner, and she was invited to the wedding. She became friends with her ex-husband's wife, and they got along just fine.
Years passed, and she was doing just fine. She didn't expect she'd meet her dead son 13 years later, and she felt happy while staying with him.
Damian would go to the orphanage when his mother went to work. He "asked" the director to make him legal identification documents, and he did. He would play with the kids there and said his goodbyes afterwards.
He grabbed his bat and documents since he didn't have anything else at the orphanage. He visited David and Gloria to tell them he was leaving the orphanage but that he'd visit them. Damian thought about something.
Since Damian could now lift 1 to 2 tons, he stole enough weights from a store to make about 1 ton and asked Gloria to merge them into the bat. After Gloria did it, he left and went home.
He celebrated his 14th birthday with his mother alone. It was his first time celebrating his birthday.