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It was still raining the next day when the three of them were released from the hospital. Other than being sore and sporting a few bruises, Tasha, Amy and her mother were fine. That evening, Tasha came over. She sat gingerly at Amy's table while Doctor Dave was cooking hot dogs in the kitchen.
"The car is a total wreck," Tasha said as she took a sip of her soda.
"Oh, Tasha! That's terrible," Amy said sympathetically.
"My dad said that the other guy's insurance company will probably pick up the tab and replace the car. I sure hope that happens," Tasha said.
"I hope so. What really drives me crazy is that man who helped us," Amy said as her mother entered the room.
"What about him," Mrs. Hopkins asked.
Amy glanced up at her mom and delayed before answering, "I don't understand how, but I'm sure that he is an enhanced clone." A couple of years before, Amy would never have told her mother what she was thinking when it came to clone issues. Since she had lost her special abilities, however, they had gotten a lot closer.
"You understand why that is problematic," her mother answered as Doctor Dave brought in the hot dogs.
"He is a lot older than the Andys and he is African American," Amy answered.
"The people who orchestrated Project Crescent were racists. They would not have set up a program that would lead to African Americans being enhanced," her mother answered.
"Amy, it's well documented that under stressful conditions, normal people can sometimes do things that would be considered super normal. The man who rescued you could have just had one of those moments," Doctor Dave said as he put mustard on his hot dog bun.
"I don't think so," Amy answered. She took a few seconds to take a bite before continuing."You remember that book of yours that I read, Doctor Dave concerning the Soviet spies and Nazi Austria? The Gestapo had broken the Soviet spy network. The GRU agents just found each other. They didn't know each other, but they could sense when they were near one another. He is enhanced. I feel it."
"Even if that is true, you're not enhanced, anymore. You are like Chris. You are a clone who is now a normal person. Other than satisfying your curiosity, what would you say if you met him again? We all know that he can't be from Project Crescent," said Doctor Dave.
"I don't know," Amy answered.
"Besides," her mother said, "Where would you find him? Granted, he was a very muscular man, but L.A. is full of muscular African American men,"
"L.A. is full of muscular men of every ethnic group," Tasha said with a wistful smile.
Mrs. Hopkins smiled, slightly embarrassed, "Yes. Well that is beside the point. Where would you find him? Even if you could find him, Dave is right. There is nothing you could say without betraying yourself."
"I guess you are right," Amy said, a little dejected. "I don't really know why I want to see him again. Maybe it is just curiosity. You're right. I'll never find him. He could be anywhere."
Later that evening, Amy went online and text messaged all the other Amys and the Andys that she got along with. She told them what had happened and asked if any of them had any idea who the Black Man could be. Everyone was interested, but all they had to offer was speculation.
Three weeks later, Amy and several classmates brought some groceries into a building that housed a food bank and a homeless shelter. The food was from a food drive that her high school French Club had sponsored. As Amy carried her first armload into the building, she saw the well-built man sitting in an old soda shop booth that was near a side door. He was staring into space with a blank expression on his face.
Amy walked up to him and said, "Hello."
The man didn't move. He kept staring into space. If it weren't for the fact that his eyes blinked, one could easily wonder if he were alive.
"Hello," Amy tried again.
"He can't hear you, not when he gets like that," an older Hispanic woman said.
"What do you mean?" Amy asked.
"There is something that is not quite right in his brain. He can zone out like that for days at a time. When he gets like that, we call an ambulance and they take him to the hospital and put him on an IV until he wakes up.. Fortunately, he doesn't lose control of his bladder very often," she said. "What is really scary is that he can go into fits that make me think of epilepsy. The doctors say that he isn't epileptic and he isn't autistic, but he has signs of both problems. There is nothing that they can do for him."
"He saved my life," Amy said stunned. "He pulled me from a car that was about to catch fire."
"Two, three weeks ago? I heard about that. He did that? He never said anything about it," the woman answered.
"I thought that you said.." Amy began.
"Oh, I should have mentioned that he has times that he is totally lucid. When he is lucid, he helps out around here. As you can see, he is extremely strong. Thankfully, he doesn't drink or do drugs. That helps a lot," the woman answered.
"Why isn't he in some kind of care facility?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. He has been like this for four hours. If he doesn't snap out of it soon, I'll have to call the ambulance." the woman said as one of Amy's classmates came up.
"You gonna help us unload this stuff or what?" he asked.
Amy went to help unload the groceries. It took twenty minutes. As they were finished, the older woman walked up to Amy and said, "Andre just woke up if you want to talk with him."
"I'll be back in a second guys," she said and went with the woman.
Andre was sitting with a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked up at Amy and said,"You're one of the girls from the car wreck," he said as a teacher came after Amy. Hearing this, the teacher looked at Amy and said, "Amy it's time to go."
"Just a second. This is the man that pulled Tasha, my mom and me out of the car before it could catch fire. I just wanted to thank him," Amy said
The teacher thought for a second. Any man that muscular, could be very dangerous. The fact that he looked like a denizen of a homeless shelter, didn't encourage the teacher at all. However, they were in a public place. "Don't be long," the teacher said. She went away but she kept the two in view with her hand firmly on her mace.
"So, who's kid are you? Joaquin? Alberto? Gwendolyn?" He shook his head. "No, you are too old to be one of our kids. So you are not Chrysalis. Who are you?" Andre asked.
"You know what I am?" Amy asked cautiously.
"You are a superman or should I say a superwoman? You're the product of genetic engineering. Did Doctor Kaur start up Project Chrysalis again or are you from another project?" Andre asked.
"Another project," Amy answered quietly.
"You are smart to be cautious but nobody cares about what is said here. They think we are crazy," Andre said.
"You said Project Chrysalis. Was that the name of the group that changed you.'
"That they did," he answered bitterly.
Amy didn't know what to say. It was obvious that this was a subject of anger for the man. She didn't want to offend him just to address her curiosity. Andre picked up on her discomfort. and said, "You can tell that I am angry, huh? You want to know why?"
"If it is not a problem, yes. If it is going to distress you... "she began.
"I was born in India in an underground laboratory along with a few hundred others like me. When I was three, almost four, I started having my seizures and I started to "daydream." That wasn't well taken. I was sent to what we called, the Nursery. It was a holding pen for those of us who didn't measure up. Before I went there, I had been taught to read, write and speak eight languages. I can still do it, too. Just before I turned four, they sent me to the Nursery and that was it. They fed me and left me there. Some of the kids were screaming all of the time. Some couldn't walk. Some were severely deformed. I'll never forget the screams. My mother never came to see me nor did my father. The place was somehow destroyed. I wound up in L.A. and I never saw my parents or the other children again."
After a moment of silence, Amy asked, "Can anyone help you?"
"No," Andre answered. "A mother drinks too much and the kid is born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. My parents wanted to play god and I pay the price. Sins of the fathers. So what is your story?"
"Amy, we have got to go, now!" the teacher said.
"My parents and I will tell you the story later," Amy said as she rose to her feet.
"I'll be here," Andre answered.
That evening, Amy and her parents cane to the homeless shelter. The older woman saw them and came over. "I'm sorry," she said.
"What happened to Andre?" Amy asked.
"About an hour after you left, Andre just collapsed. We called an ambulance, but he died in the hospital about twenty minutes ago. The ER doctor thinks it was a stroke. They will do an autopsy to be sure."
"What?" Amy said, stunned.
"What is really sad is that he was looking forward to you bringing your parents. He said that with the biggest smile I had ever seen on him. I asked him why and he said that if your parents were like you, then He would have some friends that really understood where he was coming from. I don't know what he meant by that," the Hispanic woman said
"We do," Doctor Dave said as Amy stanted to cry on her mother's shoulder.
Author's Note: In the Star Trek episode, Space Seed, we are told that Khan and his genetic supermen come from every racial group of Man. However, except for Khan, played by the very skilled actor Ricardo Montalban, we never see a superman who isn't White. No one in casting must have ever seen the scripts. I highly recommend the Star Trek Duology written by Greg Cox ,The Eugenics Wars The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonian Singh. He made the supermen the multiracial storyline as originally posited. In the first volume, you will see where I got the idea of writing this story.