Arrival of the Gator
Today was turning out to be quite the unusual day.
This was one of his "on-call" days, where he sat in the parking lot at work and waited for callers to phone in and request a taxi. It was a fairly boring job until the "party hour" started, as most people just hailed a taxi from wherever they were. Even in this day and age when people should know better than to drive drunk, they still couldn’t be bothered to call a taxi. Such was life, but it made for a very boring day job. Jasper had not been expecting any calls to come that morning, as it seemed like your average day in Snoresville. He had his seat back, feet on the steering wheel, when the phone on his dashboard rang. The young man nearly jumped out of his skin, but managed to compose himself and leaned forward to answer it.
"Hello? ... Yeah, this is Jasper Dawson, Taxi number three. What can I do for you? Yeah... yeah I can go there. You want me to what? Okay... and take her where? Home... with me? Wait, what?"
Jasper stared at the phone when the caller on the other end disconnected, a frown forming on his face. Since when did people call a taxi company to come pick up a girl and take her home with them? That sounded really fishy. Still, it was a job, and he supposed he should check it out. If they were selling prostitutes or something he could just take the girl home and let her have a nap or something. Sounded safe. He didn't want to get in trouble from his boss for picking up random girls. That last taxi driver who unknowingly (yeah right) took a prostitute home with him was never seen again. Jasper secretly believed that the boss had eaten him, though he would never have said that out loud. You never insulted a slug lord to his face or to his back. They had notoriously good hearing. With that thought in mind, Jasper started up the taxi and headed out to find this mysterious "D-Corp" place.
Finding it proved to be a little more difficult than he'd expected – seeing as it was so far from the main streets – but he managed it. Having multiple eyes on the look out for the street he needed to turn down had been a big help. As he pulled up in front of the large building, he was surprised to find a small, green girl sitting on the curb. Was she was one he was picking up? She was a lot younger than he had expected. Was this going to look even worse than taking a prostitute home? Jasper frowned a little as he turned off the engine and got out of the car. He couldn't imagine why he had been asked to pick her up and take her home with him. The man had made it sound like he was keeping her for good. Did she not have a home or something? Jasper hid his confusion as he made his way over to the girl.
"Hey there kid, are you waiting for someone?" He tried, and was surprised to receive a glare from the girl sitting on the curb. What exactly was he getting himself into? Jasper tried to be optimistic as he sat down beside her. "I got called her to pick up a girl they said would be waiting for me. I'm Jasper Dawson. Were you waiting for me?" The question was met with silence once again, however this time the girl was eyeing him critically. After a moment, she said. "You're Jathper? You're thupothed to be my new daddy, but I don't want one."
Oooh dear, this was a little bit more complicated than he had expected. By the looks of things he had been called in to adopt a kid from this D-Corp place. For some reason they had got his contact information and expected him to actually keep her. What made matters even more complex was the fact that she had already been through one guardian. This was not going to go over well. Jasper had heard all sorts of stories about adopted children. It was fairly common place on Gaia, but that didn’t make it any better. People adopted children without even the slightest idea about how to raise them, and they turned into street-destroying hellions. Or, at least, that was what his sister had told him. Jasper eyed the girl in front of him critically. She didn’t really look all that dangerous. Would it really be that bad to take her home?
"You don't want another daddy?" He asked, and the girl nodded. "Well... what if I was just your really big brother instead? I don't really have to be your new daddy.” Or want to, he added internally. What exactly was he supposed to do with a kid? “You only get one of those. Would that be better?" The girl seemed to consider this, and she finally gave a nod. "Kay. You're my new brother, Jathper. 'm Yeetha. Thith ith for you." She handed him a letter in a very official looking envelope. He took the letter and pocketed it, making a mental note to read it at home. The taxi driver had lots of questions about Yeesha that he hoped the letter would answer. But, more importantly, it looked like he was keeping this girl for now. She was kind of cute, he had to admit. Perhaps a trial run was in order. If things went horribly then he could always call his sister.
"So... you wanna throw your stuff in my car and I'll take you home?" Yeesha nodded, and Jasper helped her up from the curb. He wasn't sure how the rest of his family would take their new visitor, but he was sure they would survive. This little alligator girl was his now, at least for the moment. What he didn’t know was that she was going to be his for much longer than that.
