I Had a Plan

"I know that it must be quite a shock for you, but Gordon is your son. I was pregnant when we divorced and I did not tell you. Instead, I quietly married Hugo and brought Gordon up as if he was his." Rita said.

I had just come to know that I had a 25 year old son and there was a good chance that I would never be able to talk to him. Why? - Because he is dying. The only reason that Rita came to me was for a kidney. Gordon was in a car accident and lost one of his. The other kidney was not functioning properly and he needed a new one, before it was too late. I was their last chance and here they were: my ex-wife and the bastard who cuckolded me so blatantly.

"I wish I could help you, but I am not in a position to so at this time. I do hope that you get a kidney for him but it won't be from me." I said, as I poured them a cup of coffee.

"How can you say that? He is your son too. You cannot sit aside and let him die!" Rita jumped and Hugo held her back. She started sobbing. "I will give you anything if you help my baby. I can't bear to see him die."

"Look here, Mark, I know that you do not like Rita or me, and I don't blame you, but little Gordy has done nothing to you. His only crime is that he is sired by you and not me. I would have given him my kidney in a heartbeat, if I was in your position." Hugo spoke up. I looked at him with contempt and said nothing.

"Why would you want to kill Gordon? What has he done to you? You are a monster." Rita shouted.

"I tried to take the high road, but you won't let me, will you? Okay, settle down. I will tell you a story and then you can decide if I should give him my kidney. After the story is over, if you still think that I should give him the kidney, I will." I took a sip of the coffee.

"Okay." They said in unison.

"Do you remember our divorce? You blamed me for mental and physical cruelty and planted kiddie porn in my garage tool box. You took me for everything that I had. I was ready to give you a divorce, but you wanted the house and all our assets. So, you got them. Once the story broke about me being into kiddie porn, I was fired from my job. After all, not many parents wanted a teacher around who was a pedophile." I stopped and looked at her. She was looking at the floor and not speaking a word.

"So, I lost my job to the rumor and my house and all my assets to you. You had already cleaned out all of our savings, and the settlement that I got barely covered the lawyer's fee. It was one week after the divorce, that I found myself penniless and homeless. I went and stayed at a church in the seedy side of the town. Slowly,over time, I started to teach children there. At first the priests only allowed me to teach them under strict supervision. Later, when they realized that I was not the monster that I was made out to be, I was allowed to teach without supervision." I got up and started pacing around.

"I met a nice young girl there. She was around 3 or 4 at that time, the most precious little thing that I had ever seen. She was an orphan, who the church had kinda adopted. She used to hang around and make our lives a little brighter each moment. One day we found out that she had a hole in her heart. The church was barely able to keep its doors open with the funds that they had. We tried everything to come up with the money for her operation. All the priests, children, and volunteers went door to door, asking for donations. A dollar at a time, we collected the money to have the operation done, but we were still short by a few thousand. I was not worried, because I had a plan." I walked towards the wall and pointed to the photo of an attractive young lady on the wall. "This is Amanda, my daughter. I adopted her as soon as she got better and I got a job." I sat down quietly and sipped on my coffee.

"How does this have any bearing on your giving a kidney to your son?" Rita asked, rather agitated.

"I made up for the lack of money by selling my kidney." I saw her last hope dashed of saving her child. "I am not sure if I am allowed to donate my only remaining kidney, legally."