Chapter 94: What Are You Playing At?
Mistakes. This wasn’t the first time Riley had made a mistake—or so his adoptive mother liked to call, an ’Uh Oh’ moment.
Of course, unlike most kids, Riley had far fewer Uh Ohs in his young life. He was... completely different from other children, after all. There were the occasional and typical Boo Boos, as one would expect from a child, but for the most part, he behaved.
He was what you would call an independent child.
But once in a blue moon, he makes an Uh Oh—and it would be huge.
One time, when he was seven or perhaps eight years old, he went outside their penthouse completely naked. He told Diana he did this because he suddenly felt uncomfortable inside the house, and wanted to get rid of the feeling by dipping into the public pool of the building.
And he did. He jumped into the pool without a care in the world at all, and he kept himself under the water until he drowned and had to be resuscitated.
There was also one that happened when he was only three years old, and had only been in the Ross family for less than a year. But that was enough time for them to know just how different Riley truly was.
He was already able to walk even before they adopted him, and at three years old, he was able to recite the ABCs and even have proper, albeit slurred and sometimes nonsensical, conversation with them.
He wasn’t able to do math or think at a level higher than his age, but he could communicate extremely well... and sometimes, it was to the point of absurdity as he tried to talk to even inanimate objects.
But lately, he had the habit of talking with even the smallest type of animal he could—ants.
And so, the family had the bright idea of taking him and Hannah to a zoo.
And somehow, Riley freed himself from his stroller and managed to jump into a gorilla enclosure.