Kidnapped at Birth? (4 page)

The boy’s mother was dragging him across the lobby.

“Come on!” she yelled.

The boy was crying.

“We’ll be rich,” said the mother.

“But I’m not Prince Robert!” the boy cried.

“Shut up, Arnold!” said his mother. “Someone might hear you.” She pulled him into the elevator.

Marvin and the Redposts got into the elevator too.

The woman looked at Marvin. “Who do you think
you
are?” she asked in a nasty voice.

Marvin was too afraid to answer.

“You are speaking to Prince Robert,” said Mrs. Redpost, sticking up for him.

Marvin smiled at his former mother. Mrs. Redpost patted his head.

“I’m not that stupid prince,” said the other boy. “I don’t even have red hair. My mother made me dye it.”

“Shut up, Arnold,” said the nasty woman.

They got off the elevator and walked to
the suite at the end of the hall. The door was open.

Linzy laughed. “They’re all exactly like you, Marvin!”

Marvin entered the room. He had never seen so many red-haired boys in all his life.

A man in a white coat stepped out from behind a door. “Number seven sixty-seven,” he called.

A red-haired boy followed him
back through the door.

“You sure you’ll be okay?” asked Mrs. Redpost.

Marvin nodded.

“Okay. Well be back in about an hour.” She kissed Marvin.

Marvin watched the Redposts leave. They were a nice family.

There was a line of red-haired boys going up to a desk. Marvin got on the end of the line.

“We were here first!” said the nasty woman from the elevator. She cut in line in front of Marvin, dragging her son with her.

Marvin let them in. It didn’t matter who was first. There was only one Prince Robert.

The man in the white coat came back out. “Seven sixty-eight,” he called.

Another red-haired boy followed him through the door.

“When you’re Prince Robert, you can do anything!” the nasty woman told her son. “Just sit on your throne all day, eat candy, and boss people around.”

The man in the white coat came out several more times.

“Seven sixty-nine.”

“Seven seventy.”

“Seven seventy-one.”

Each time another red-haired boy followed him through the door.

Marvin was almost to the front of the line.

The woman behind the desk was wearing big gold earrings. As Marvin got closer he noticed that one earring was shaped like a dog. The other was a cat.

“Next,” said the lady with the earrings.

The nasty woman and Arnold stepped to the front of the line.

“Your name?” muttered the earring lady. She seemed tired and bored.

“Arnold Miller,” answered the nasty woman.

“Eight eleven,” said the earring lady. She handed Arnold a slip of paper. “Next.”

“Your name?”

“Marvin Redpost.”

The earring lady looked up, and her face turned bright. “Oh, hi, Marvin!”

Marvin looked at her. “Hi,” he said, unsure.

“I’m Jennifer,” said the earring lady.

“Oh, hi!” said Marvin. “I mean—I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Lady Jennifer, Duchess of Bathwater.” He bowed.

Jennifer laughed.

It was that same musical laugh he heard over the telephone.

“I’m not really a duchess,” she said. “I just made that up. This is a part-time job.”

“Oh,” said Marvin.

“I wouldn’t want to be a duchess anyway,” said Jennifer. “It sounds so
stuffy
and
boring
. All that—” She stopped, then said, “I guess you want to be a prince, and that’s okay. But it’s not for me.”

She wrinkled her nose.

Marvin shrugged. “I like your earrings,” he said.

Jennifer laughed. “Thank you, Marvin. Well, good luck.”

She gave him number 812.

He thanked her.

“You’re welcome,” said Jennifer. “You know what I like about you, Marvin?” she asked.
“You’re polite. No one else has said
thank you
to me all day.”

“What happens when they call your number?” he asked her.

“You just go back for a blood test. To find out your blood type. The King and Queen have blood type
O negative
. So that means Prince Robert has to have blood type
O negative
too. It’s pretty rare. Most people are type
A
or
B
. And almost everyone is positive, not negative.”

“So then what happens?” asked Marvin.

“Well, if you’re
A
or
B
, you’re sent home. If you’re
O negative
, you do a second blood test. It’s called an HLA test. It’s a lot more complicated. But it will tell for certain if you’re Prince Robert.”

“So they haven’t found Prince Robert yet?” asked Marvin.

“No.” She shrugged. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be here. I don’t think they’ll ever find him. The odds are one in a million.”

Marvin found it all a little confusing.

“Just hope your blood type is
O negative,”
said Jennifer. “That’s the first step.”

Marvin waited with all the other red-haired boys. He thought about what Linzy had said. “They’re all exactly like you, Marvin!”

He knew that wasn’t true. He was different. Special. He was the
one and only Prince Robert.

He looked at his slip of paper.

812

He noticed one of the other boys had a yellow number. Everyone else’s was black, like his.

“Eight eleven,” called the man in the white coat.

Marvin watched the nasty woman drag Arnold through the door.

“I don’t want to get a shot!” Arnold screamed.

A short while later the man returned. “Eight twelve.”

Marvin stood up. Jennifer smiled and waved to him.

He walked through the door.

Marvin watched the man unwrap a new needle. Then he looked away.

If he didn’t watch, it didn’t hurt.

The man stuck the needle into Marvin’s arm.

Once it was in, it was okay to look. Marvin watched his blood flow out of his arm and slowly fill the tube. It felt weird watching his own blood.

“Thank you,” Marvin said when the man was through.

“What?” asked the man. “Oh. You’re welcome.”

Marvin took his tube of blood through another door to the lab. He saw his number, 812, typed on the outside of the tube.

He gave the tube to a woman with glasses, then waited while she examined his blood.

She returned a short time later and handed him a new slip of paper. On it was written:

812
               O negative

Royal blood!

“You’ll have to take another blood test,” said the woman with glasses. “You’ll need to give a lot more
blood this time.”

“Why didn’t they just take more blood the first time?” asked Marvin.

“It’s a lot easier this way,” the woman explained. “We see about a thousand kids a day. Fewer than fifty are
O negative
. So this way we only have to do about fifty HLA tests instead of a thousand.”

She told Marvin to go back to the front
desk and get a new number. A yellow number, this time.

He walked back out to the main room. It was still full of red-haired boys.
They’re all exactly like you, Marvin!
Linzy had said.

Now, more than ever, he knew that wasn’t true. The proof was in his hand.

He got on line to get a new number from Jennifer. A yellow number.

“Eight thirty-nine,” called the man in the white coat.

The nasty woman was leaving with her son.

“Can’t you ever do anything right!” she shouted.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” said Arnold. “I told you I wasn’t a prince.”

“Shut up and get in the elevator,” said the nasty woman.

Marvin thought about Mrs. Redpost. He
was glad she wasn’t like that woman.

He remembered the time she tried to teach him to ice-skate. She was worse than he was. They both kept falling down. It was funny. But they both learned to ice-skate—sort of.

Marvin smiled as he remembered. They had hot chocolate afterward.