horse and buggy thinking part 5/ draft 1

horse and buggy thinking/ part 5/ draft 1

 fiction
edward w Pritchard

Sometimes it's possible to be the only person in the world to know something with absolute certainty.

I am the only person who knows without a doubt that the girl in Pakistan, Aara is not my Grand daughter. Her Grand Mother, Afareen and I were not intimate enough on our two dates way back when to produce a baby. We sat together in an old red over stuffed chair on our first date, listened to music and shared Chinese food together, and a few days later we were interrupted by Hassad and his friends at the beginning of our second evening together before things properly started.

I decided to help the girl in Pakistan, Aara never the less and it looked like the best way to do that was to lie to the American General who had contacted me from Kabal, Afganistan.

I wanted to see that the girl, Aara who had become a unique special individual to me through my research, and whose future became important to me, was properly educated and had a chance to blossom as an young woman and have a decent quality of life. I wanted to treat Aara like I had treated my own only daughter here in America when my daughter was a young girl. Although I had never met twelve year old Aara and never would visit far away in Pakistan I wanted to treat her like a grand father would given the chance.

The American General knew a lot more about the situation than I thought he would and when we talked on the phone the General  treated me like a Dutch Uncle would. He educated me and he was sympathetic to what I wanted to do. As a lawyer here in Streetsboro, Ohio I have deposed hundreds of clients and defendants but I still remembered what one of my professors had told us back in Law School. Ask the first question and shut up. That's what I did and the conversation went where I wanted it to go.

The General told me about the facts of life thousands of miles from the United States and he told me how I could help one girl to have a better life if I wanted to. The General also ask me a couple of philosophical questions that have distressed me. I am struggling now to decide if I want to sign an affidavit saying Aara may be my Grand daughter and by doing so have the US government and military take an interest in her well being far away in Pakistan on my behalf.
end part 5