3. The Programme

The ride was long. After thirty minutes I had my eyes cast down to my lap. Mr. Carter sat next to me and said a couple of times it would be okay. Only I didn't respond to that. Nothing would be fine without my brother.

All of a sudden the car stopped. I looked up and saw a big, grey gate being opened. The car moved again and I saw a huge building appearing through the car windows. It had many floors and it looked very dull with big walls made of concrete. Not to mention the big fence made out of stone around the institution. I saw multiple guards outside but no signs of teenagers. It felt more like a prison than an organization that helped children. It also didn't help that the weather was rather gloomy. 

The car stopped, only I stayed seated. The car was my no-man's-land. It could take me home or it could leave me here. Leaving this car meant that the situation I was in right now, was indeed real, not just some nightmare. Eventually, Mr. Carter opened my door and waited for me to step out. With much resistance, I exited the car by myself.

Mr. Carter closed the door and turned to me. He had put his hand on my shoulder, "You know, I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, but try to look it this way. If your parents would willingly give you up, they aren't good enough to be your parents and maybe you are better of with another family." His friendly face tried to convince me to believe him, but I didn't. I knew for sure I could make my parents proud. I need just needed more time.

Mr. Carter made a gesture to follow him and I did. "Mr. Carter, what will happen to me now?" I asked while entering the big and dull building. He turned around and put a smile on his face. "Please call me Jim and to answer your question I will take you to our newcomer's area." I nodded my head and followed him further into the building.

The interior was a bit better. The walls were white with some artwork here and there hanging against it. The plants in the foyer made the place a bit homier. The people who walked around looked also a bit friendlier than the guards outside.

We stopped in front of an opened door. The room behind it looked like a classroom. Inside I saw a couple of more children, some were younger than me some around my age. "This is where I will leave you. But do not worry as I said earlier I'm your legal guardian now, which means I'm responsible for you until you're adopted. So I will visit you multiple times to check up on you, oke?" I nodded my head and entered the classroom.

I sat somewhere away from everybody. I didn't want to interact with others right now, as I needed to process everything that is happening to me right now.

After me, two other had entered the room, one of them being a boy and the other a girl. Then a man walked in and closed the door behind him. He looked like he was in his fifties with his greying hair and visible wrinkles on his face. He had a white doctor's coat on with a badge attached to it. Probably for opening doors around here.

Opening doors.

I urge to flee this building, to run away, grew stronger and stronger. The security, however, would make it impossible for me. I had seen how many were only in the front yard of this building. I didn't even know how many they had stationed around the fence and in this building self. With this, I tried to push the thought of running away back in my mind.

The man cleared his voice to catch the attention of the teenagers in the room. "If I could have all your attention please, boys and girls." Heads went up and eyes looked forward. "Thank you. First I would like to introduce myself. My name is Chris and I'm one of the doctors working for the Rehabilitation of Children Programme. I understand that many of you are confused, sad, or even afraid. I will start my talk by assuring all of you that we mean no harm. We only want the best for you and therefore we ask you to try and trust us. Let your worries go and we will take care of you." 

He paused and looked around in the classroom to be met by anxious faces. "What I am about to tell you, might be shocking but I need you to be patient and wait until the end for questions, oke?" He asked us with a friendly smile, the very same Mr. Carter had given me today.

"We told you, we will place you in a new family as your last one wasn't sustainable for you to live in. But you will not be placed into new families as teenagers." When he had said that voices were heard and questions were asked. Chris put both his hand up, to try to calm us down. "Calm down everyone, calm down. Please be patient and let me finish my talk." Everybody went quiet and the doctor continued.

"As I said you will not enter your new families as teenagers. Here, in this institution, we are able with the help of technology to turn you into toddlers or even infants. Not only physically but also mentally. Of course the first days in your 'new' body you will be aware of what happened and have the mindset of your current age. But we know through research that your mindset will change in a couple of days to the age your body is set in." Nobody moved, nobody talked, everybody was hanging at the doctor's lips for information. For what is about to happen to us.

"Before we can do this procedure, we need to know some things from you and your bodies must be prepared for what is about to come. So in the next two weeks, a couple of tests will be performed on you. After those two weeks, one by one will undergo the procedure. When everything went successful you still need to be here for a couple of days and then you will be sent off to your families which we have chosen. There you will grow up again and, hopefully, you will have there a better life than in your old families."

First, there was only silence and then the poor man was bombarded with questions. I didn't pay any attention to them. He was crystal clear with his talk. We would be babies again to grow up in better families. At least that was the plan.