Pretended, Adopted

The road home from Mankato felt intolerably long in the extreme heat. Charles tried running his horses faster, but could only make them go so fast without overheating them. His son sitting next to him on the rig was quiet, probably regretting his decision to accompany Charles on this delivery run for the Mercantile.

"Don't worry, Albert." Charles spoke. "We'll be out of this heat in no time."

Albert glanced up at his father. "Yea."

"You're not feeling sick, are you? You seem quiet."

The boy, now fourteen years old, shook his head. "No. Just thinking."

"About what?"

Charles did not mean to pry. He only wanted to get his own mind off of the sunlight that was burning his arms by talking to his son.

"Nothing important." Albert stared off into the distance. "Not anymore."

"Well, it must have some importance if it's all you can think about."

Albert sighed. He had been debating on telling his father this secret for months now. How much could it honestly change if his pa knew what really happened?

"I guess I could tell you. It's been long enough and there's no way it can undo anything now."

Now Charles became curious. "What are you talking about?"

"Well...remember when we went to that judge so you could adopt me." Albert began his story with a recollection of the past.

"Of course."

"And how my real father came, claiming his custody over me."

"Yea."

"Well, I knew that all he wanted me for was to be his farmhand. And I was not about to let that happen. I didn't wanna leave you. So when we were alone together upstairs in that courthouse, I did something that I hoped would make my real father think I won't be a good worker."

Charles was now confused. He knew how manipulative and clever Albert could be when he wanted to. "What on earth did you do?"

"I pretended to be blind." Albert finally confessed, a bit of guilt finally being lifted from him.

"You pretended to be blind?" Charles repeated, thinking back to his last conversation with Albert's real father, Quinn.

"Yea. I went into the courtroom, looked straight ahead, walked into a couple things and hoped he'd buy it. And he did. Mr. Quinn looked at me and said I'd be much happier with the Ingalls. Then he left."

Of course Albert left out some emotional details.

Charles shook his head in amazement. He had tried to teach Albert that tricking people in the ways that he did was wrong. But all this time, it was Albert's manipulative abilities that solidified him as part of the Ingalls family. "I never could quite understand why Quinn changed his mind in letting you stay with us. It all makes sense now."

"Sometimes I wonder if I didn't fake being blind and went with him, then maybe he would be alive right now." Albert said, thinking back to the white cross with 'J. Quinn' engraved on it.

"Come on, Albert. There's no way you could possibly know that."

"I know."

The father and son finally made it home as Albert's story had concluded. Charles did not know how to feel: shocked, angry, lucky. But that really did not matter. They legally adopted Albert, Quinn had passed away and nothing could break the bond that one lonely street kid made with the Ingalls family.