2 The Truth

    Rain continued to thud against the roof as John pulled out his laptop. He thumbed the flash drive nervously. What would there be on it? Some kind of document? He briefly pondered how the man knew how to use technology with as old as he had been. The thought made him grimace. He shouldn't be thinking of the recently deceased in such a way.

    John plugged in the flash drive and a window popped up on his screen. The flash drive held a single video. The thumbnail was Balthazar sitting in a chair staring toward the camera. Was this some kind of will? John played the video.

    "John, by seeing this it means I've passed. I won't bore you with the don't-mourn-me speech or anything like that. I know you; you'll bounce back anyway." Balthazar chuckled. "Oh, John. There's so much I wish I could have told you about; so much I should have warned you about. There's many things you need to know, and I don't have the time to tell you. I need you to understand that despite the circumstances of your life before coming to my children's' home, your life matters far more than you'll ever believe. The most important thing I need for you to know is your real name. Not this 'John Smith' the state gave you upon entering the system. The name your mother had given you - yes, I knew your mother. I'm sorry for not telling you, but this is not the time for that.

    "John, your real name is Jeraziah Cain." 

    The video hit static. Upon a cursor over, the video showed it still had some time left before ending. There was more to the video, but it's been messed with. Jeraziah Cain? John Smith? He always knew John Smith was just a generic name the state had given him. His name was Jeraziah Cain.

    It took a few moments for his thoughts to condense instead of being a storm of conflicting emotions raging around in his head. Balthazar knew his mom. What about his father? Was... Was Balthazar his father? Couldn't be. They looked nothing alike, even in some of the photos from Balthazar's younger years. No, while Balthazar was the closest to a father he ever had, he wasn't his father by blood.

    Thoughts and conflicts continued to swirl around Jeraziah's head late into the evening, even when he tried to watch some shows on his TV. Finally, he head up stairs and went to bed. His room was the last door on the left of the hallway. The first door on the left after coming up stairs was one of his roommates' room; it has a large hazardous waste symbol poster. The first door on the right was another bedroom, and the second, and last, door on the right was the upstairs bathroom.

   Jeraziah's room had white walls with an off-white carpet. The walls had posters of video games and cars. There was shelves with random paraphernalia he had collected since his time at Balthazar's Home for Unfortunate Children. Jeraziah stripped down to his boxers and plopped himself on his grey-covered twin-size bed. It was not difficult to fall asleep.