The Children Shall be Blameless

Some men seem to have all the luck. Others dream of only finding a little. Richard Smith’s world was the orphanage. It was the only one he knew. All of the other worlds for children, of mothers and fathers and a place called home, he learned from the tears of those who had lost theirs only to wind up in his. From the way they grieved, he knew it must have been something pretty great. Once he had two sisters, they said. One had died and the other went to a place called Iowa with an uncle. He was left behind. He grew up to put most of it behind him and in his search for a family of his own, thought that he had. But an electrical shock opened some door to his early childhood he couldn’t seem to get closed again. Each discovery posed more questions until finally there was only one other person he needed to see. It would be a three-day road trip, or so he thought…