My memory did not return, and it began to seem to me that I had made up everything about the wolf and the boy. I became an ordinary child. Mary studied better than me in almost all subjects, but I was more given to observing and helping the doctor in his laboratory.
I called Mary's mother Paulina by name, not really feeling her warm disposition to me. But Dr. Rainier, whose last name I now bore as his daughter, I easily managed to call Dad. I often stayed late after school to stay in the laboratory and look through the microscope, read thick books about science and biology in the doctor's office. I felt comfortable with him.
Henry Reindir studied the side effects of the drugs given to the children at the orphanage and the composition of my blood. In his research on medicines, he found a way to protect children, and this was a breakthrough.
At least the infant mortality rate has decreased over the past year and Duplessis has temporarily forgotten about the orphanage. Of course, now the tested drugs brought him a huge income from sales to the rich of the country. Therefore, he was in no hurry to introduce new vaccines and pills for testing. This pleased Dr. Reindir.
But there was also something that upset him. In the research of my blood, he did not advance far, or rather did not advance at all.
–What do I miss every time? –he often said, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt, when the truth eluded him. This gesture betrayed his disappointment in his competence. The mountains of books that he studied and multiple samples did not give him an understanding of what and who I am by blood.
I liked living in Rosemary Village, in a quiet place surrounded by rosemary thickets and pine trees. And we were lucky with our neighbors. Our house was located next to the house of a literature teacher. He and his wife, who also taught music at the orphanage, often came to tea with us. And then we all went for a walk together, walking our dogs. It was a happy time for me.
And then one day Dr. Henry Reindir received an invitation for the whole family. He was invited by his mentor to the annual fall graduation dinner of the university. It was just on my tenth birthday. We decided to celebrate my birthday on October 31, the day I arrived at the St. Hope Orphanage.