James Starling, Angel Child - III

Still there.

The boy was still there.

Ian was coming home and noticed the boy was still sitting, waiting.

And the more he thought about it, the more the boy seemed to look like Jacob.

Jacob Starling.

An old friend who had died seven years ago with his wife in a terrible fire.

Who was long gone but never forgotten.

But...

If the kid really was his son...

No.

It couldn't be.

Jacob and his wife had died a whole two or even three years before he would have been born.

But he really looked like him...

One might even say he was a spitting image...

But could it really be...?

Ian walked up to the boy and knelt down.

The boy seemed to be afraid, curling up into a little ball at his approach.

Ian held out his hand.

"It's alright," he whispered. "I won't hurt you."

No reaction.

"Who are you waiting for?"

The boy stared at him blankly.

"Do you have parents?"

He shook his head.

"Would you like to come home with me?"

The boy looked into Ian's eyes, carefully sizing him up.

Ian repeated the question and suddenly the boy's eyes lit up like stars in the night sky.

Ian smiled.

ns216.73.217.1da2