Farm Tales- Chapter 3 “The Register”
The child began to cry out loud again, probably shaken by everything that had happened. Ben was trying to calm the child down by offering more milk and Bea was trying to distract him with makeshift toys like stuffed toys that Chloe had found in one of the closet drawers.
– Calm down, baby… Grandma’s here. Shhhh… Calm down… Come on my lap. She took it and let it lie over her shoulder. ‘Tomorrow, very early, Grandpa Ben will go into town to buy you a baby bottle and a pacifier, and several other things too. Don’t worry, okay? My beautiful baby… What should I call you? Hmm…
– Hey, Bea, didn’t you hear that voice? His name is George. G-E-O-R-G-E — she spelled it out. — George.
– Argh… All right, all right. — Bea decided to accept, even though she wasn’t very much in favor of that name. “But we don’t even know who or what that voice was. Do we really need to follow what she said?
– I don’t know either, but I think it’s better to leave it anyway. George. It’s a nice name,” Ben commented, looking in awe at the little boy who had fallen asleep.
- Right. Let’s call him George.
The hours passed and, at night, the new inhabitant of that house slept with his newest family.
The next day, Ben and Bea went to the police station located near the farm. Their goal was to seek out and get any kind of information about George. Upon arriving there, the police asked questions about the child, after all, they had known the owners of the farm for years and were surprised when they heard them refer to the baby as “my grandson”. Then the farmer explained everything that had happened the day before. Hiding only the part of the necklace and the mysterious voice. He didn’t want to be called “senile old man” or anything like that. Some police officers gathered to search for files on the child, but, as expected, they found nothing.
– So that’s it, cop? There’s no records about him? No documents? — Bea asked, frustrated for having spent hours inside that police station to get nothing in the end.
“Yes, Miss Bea, none,” the policeman replied.
Everyone was completely silent for a while. Until, suddenly, Bea seemed to have a good enough idea to almost make her jump out of her chair. Then, excited, she asked:
– Can I adopt him?
Ben immediately scowled, but Bea noticed and put her index finger in her mouth before her husband could say anything, urging him to be quiet. The policeman replied:
– You should go to a city registry to see how the process would be, but I think so.
- Understood. Thanks for your help, cops. She got up with George in her lap and pulled her husband over. — Ben, let’s go to the registry.
The farmer scowled again but said nothing. Together, Bea and Ben left the police station and went to the registry office downtown. They spent good hours solving some bureaucracies and signing a lot of documents, but even with Ben being a little against the idea at first, it was all worth it. George was registered as their grandson and was now officially part of the family.
