As far back as she could remember, Lindsey had felt something was missing in her life. Something that was there but wasn’t there. When she was ten and playing with one of her classmates from school, the friend asked if she was adopted. Lindsey had said no, but the friend pointed out she didn’t look like her mom or dad. That evening at the dinner table she asked her parents if they adopted her. She didn’t notice the look they gave each other before her father said,
“Why do you ask?”
“Suzie said I don’t look like either of you.”
“Children don’t always look like their parents. If you watch other children with their parents, you will see that they don’t always resemble either their mom or dad,” her mom said.
“Ok I will watch” and she promptly was on to other things going on in her life.
Years later she was in a biology class in high school learning about blood types. Both of her parents were blood donors, and she knew that her dad was AB negative and her mom was O negative. The teacher had said he had the equipment to test for blood types. If anyone was interested, they would need to get a note signed by their parents because they would have to take a blood sample from a fingertip to do the test.
Lindsey was excited because she knew that her blood type had to be A negative or B negative but when she asked her parents to sign they refused. Their explanation was that they should only do such things in a hospital. They were concerned about the sterility in the school. It disappointed Lindsey because her parents were usually supportive of her efforts in education. They both had advanced degrees. They emphasized the importance of education and Lindsey worked hard to always be the top student in any class.
Lindsey became suspicious. It wasn’t only the lack of permission for the blood typing. They had also studied the genetics of eye colour in school. Both of Lindsey’s parents had blue eyes and light complexions. She had dark brown eyes and a darker skin tone than either of her parents. Blue-eyed parents do not have brown-eyed babies.
The next day she went to a blood donor clinic, but they refused to take her blood because her ID showed that she was a minor. She asked them to just test her blood so she would know her type in case she was in an accident. They didn’t cooperate. She was planning on confronting her parents that evening but there was a cute guy helping at the clinic as a volunteer and he asked her on a date. Lindsey had not been allowed to date until she was sixteen. Her sixteenth birthday was two weeks ago.
They exchanged phone numbers, and she said she would call after she had asked permission from her parents. But if they said no, she told him she could still talk to him on the phone if he was interested. She rushed home eager for dinnertime when she would ask her question, forgetting all about the confrontation she had planned. She wondered if a boyfriend would fill the empty spot that had always existed for her.
The food was barely served when Lindsey blurted out she had an important question. She was so wrapped up in her excitement about the boy she didn’t notice both of her usually calm controlled parents become markedly tense. When she said she had met a boy and would like to go on a date, both parents drew a big sigh of relief.
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